Prime Champ is a fully integrated grower of mushrooms, produces its own compost and supplies a range of predominantly European-based customers in the food retail and food service industry.

The Dutch company was recently declared bankrupt and Monaghan Mushrooms has confirmed that they have re-employed 678 of the 700 workers and will rename the Dutch company Monaghan Champ, while the German subsidiary will be renamed Monaghan Pilze.

Monaghan Mushrooms, headquartered in the town of Monaghan, was founded by Ronnie Wilson in 1981 and, prior to this take-over, employs 2,200 people, has an annual turnover of in excess of €200m and produces 75% of the 58,000 tonnes of mushrooms produced annually in Ireland.

Monaghan Mushrooms is jointly owned by Donegal Creameries plc (35%) and the Wilson family.

It supplies a full range of fresh mushrooms to leading national and international retailers in Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States, such as ASDA, ALDI, Supervalu, Tesco, Campells and Morrisons.

Monaghan Mushrooms currently supply almost 50% of the British market for mushrooms. They have, over the years, diversified into compost production, acquiring mushroom composting facilities in Britain in the 1990s, and last year it acquired the Netherlands-based company, Walkro, in association with Gimv.

Walkro is one of the largest producers of mushroom substrate in Europe. They also acquired Sussex Mushrooms last year.

Profits

While accounts for Monaghan Mushrooms are unavailable as it is an unlimited company, Donegal Creameries’ 2012 accounts reveal it contributed profits of €4.5m from its associates, the vast majority, if not all, of which came from Donegal’s 35% stake in Monaghan Mushroom.

Therefore, we can assume Monaghan Mushrooms generated profits of €12m during 2012, a significant rise (50%) on the estimated €8m it generated during 2011.