Evesham-based mushroom growers, Walsh Mushrooms will invest in operations and new jobs after singing a five-year supply deal with Aldi.
The company said it will develop its factory to enable it to fulfil increased demand from Aldi, with the mushroom category enjoying a successful past year, growing by 3.5 per cent.
Since Walsh Mushrooms partnered Aldi over a decade ago, they have created 100 new jobs as well as implement sustainability measures to its farms acorss the UK and Ireland, including woodchip boilers and efficient cooling systems.
These have meant saving over 600 tonnes of CO2, and over 500 tonnes of carbon each year. The Evesham site also benefits from solar panels and LED lighting, reducing electricity demand and saving over 150 tonnes of CO2per year. The measures led to the business being awarded the Wychavon Intelligently Green Award in 2016, recognising its commitment to sustainability.
Paul Parmenter, senior commercial manager at Walsh Mushrooms, said: “Aldi are a really important part of our business and the relationship has allowed us to continually invest to improve efficiencies and produce high quality mushrooms.In today’s very competitive market, maintaining some stability in production is key and this will allow longer term investment and provide security to our staff.”
Aldi managing director of buying Julie Ashfield, said the deal reflects their commitment to supporting local growers, with 100 per cent of their core mushroom lines sourced from Britain.
“Our approach when working with suppliers is to build a genuine partnership based on trust and fairness. We support British farmers up and down the country, and the relationship we have with Walsh Mushrooms is a good example of this in practice. We look forward to working with them for many more years to come.”
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