Product & Distribution
Mushroom Production
Ireland has long had an enviable reputation for using its natural elements of unpolluted air, soil, water together with generations of horticultural expertise and dedication to produce good, healthy food in abundance.
Since 1979, Walsh Mushrooms have harnassed these same skills through a group of the finest growers in Ireland, to state-of-the-art advances in compost and mushroom production. To this day we still produce much of our mushroom volume through our long-standing grower base in Ireland.
Expanding our Supply
Since 2004, we have supplemented our Irish production through a similar operation in Poland, working in partnership with a small group of selected growers trained to meet the exacting standards of UK retailers and manufactureres. This mix enables us to maintain competitive offers to our ever expanding client base.
We also work closely with some high quality growers in Holland, providing niche products and enabling us to offer a full range of prepared products to our manufacturing customers.
Opened in 2010, we have our own mushrom farm near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk producing over 50 tonnes of high quality English mushrooms weekly for leading retailers. With product delivered within 24 hours of harvesting, this site provides the ultimate in freshness to those customers seeking regionally-produced mushrooms.
Attention to detail
Our entire supply base is carefully monitored by our own Technical Advisors and is audited constantly by our Technical Manager and his team who are based in our UK headquarters at Evesham, Worcestershire. All are subject to regular third party audits, both technical and ethical and all have Global-gap and Sedex accreditation. Every site works to codes of practice set down by Walsh Mushrooms in conjunction with our customers. We provide full traceability, from harvester to customer on all our products.
Carefully managed, often under the watchful eye of an owner-manager, we produce the highest quality product on all of our growing sites.
Product & Distribution
Harvested mushrooms are quickly and carefuly shipped under cold chain conditions to our centrally-located and temperature-controlled facility at Evesham, Worcestershire. To minimise handling, all mushrooms are harvested straight into the appropriate punnet or tray.
At Evesham, after batch-coding on arrival, every tray is inspected, graded and allocated to a specific customer order. Once transferred to the appropriate packing or preparation line they are wrapped, labelled and lidded or, for manufacturing customers, prepared as sliced, diced or quartered mushrooms.
Just a few hours after arrival at our Vale Park facility our mushrooms are on their way. Dedicated, liveried truckers make deliveries throughout the country to our customers' RDC's and factories. Selected high quality, third party hauliers provide similarly speedy groupage deliveries for smaller consignments. Hauliers' vehicles and systems are subject to regular audit by our Technical Manager and his team.
From our Suffolk Mushroom farm, product packed on site will be delivered direct to customers' East of England depots within hours of harvesting.
Our quality of service in meeting deadlines without incident has to match the quality of product we achieve on our farms and in our packhouses. At Walsh Mushrooms it does - Every time.
Packing & Distribution
Our Vale Park, Evesham facility houses our state-of-the-art packhouse and mushroom preparation plant.
High speed wrapping and labelling lines working at up to 100 packs per minutes in temperature-controlled conditions, bring tens of thousands of prepacks of all shapes and sizes to the finished product stage every single day.
Capable of applying promotional or price mark flashed alongside customers' general product labels, the lines have been enhanced recently by a significant investment in the automated handling of outer trays, further ensuring our growing order book is fulfilled and delivered on time.
Bulk containers of loose mushrooms are fed down inspection lines prior to lidding and labelling as required, enabling individual weight and quality checks to be completed during the process.
A Cut Above
We know how to make the most of mushrooms. Our very modern mushroom preparation facility, also housed in Vale Park, produces a wide variety of options for our major food manufacturing clients. Ranging from sliced and diced product to quartered mushrooms, halved or segmented or even just simply washed, our new preparation line, specifically designed for mushrooms, is a further recent example of our policy of investment in improving technologies for the benefit of our customers.
After packing into 5kg food grade crates and passing through a metal detector, product is submitted for final positive release, before shipping to its final destination in cold chain conditions. Our prepared mushrooms are to be found in ready meals in every supermarket chain in the country.
On-site packing at our Suffolk Mushrooms farm is of the same high standard, providing high speed wrapping facilities prior to delivery to local RDC's.
Our Technical Manager and his team ensure we comply with all EC legislation and customer codes of practice. They carry out all necessary micro testing through accredited laboratories, thus ensuring our clients are guaranteed problem-free supplies all year round.