Four English mushroom companies are to unite under a single umbrella.

The Southern Mushroom Company will be launched this autumn.

It will bring together Fiddleford Mushrooms, Pond Chase Nurseries, Shacklesford Mushrooms and Snowcap Mushrooms.

The firm already exists to supply Tesco, but other than that each member has its own customers.

Founder member Adrian de Candole said: 'We have set up the company for marketing purposes more than anything. We aim to meet supermarkets' needs by providing fewer points of contact.

'About £400,000 goes out of the company at present and about £250,000 of that is through Tesco.

'We are aiming for about £600,000 - that would be about 10 per cent of the UK market.' De Candole set out the criteria for those wishing to join the consortium.

He said: 'We only deal with owner-managers, not bigger companies and the most important thing is that the company balance of customer service, new product development and technical support is not disturbed.'

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