MAJOR MUSHROOM GROWING FACILITY WIN FOR ASHRIDGE

Ashridge has recently won the multi-million pound contract for a new mushroom growing facility at the Monaghan Mushrooms Farm in Goole,Whitley. 

Monaghan Mushrooms was founded in 1981 by Ronnie Wilson when he saw an opportunity to process canned and jarred mushrooms for European markets. In 1986 the company entered the fresh mushroom market and is today one of the world's leading mushroom companies supplying a full range of top quality fresh mushrooms to leading national and international retailers throughout the UK and Ireland with annual sales of €150M and around 1500 employees across the group.

Works which commence on 28th June 2010 consist of the construction of:-
 
  Substructure and Superstructure for 18 x mushroom growing tunnels each 60m x 7m wide connected to a 10m wide x 87m long central arcade.
 
  Substructure and Superstructure, services, finishings, decoration and fit out of an office and amenity  building of approximately 550 m2 floor area and a packing building of approximately 330m2 of floor area.

  External work: comprising plant room,  attenuation tank, drainage and services, concrete paving, booster pumps, pumps and 8000m of MDPE pressure water pipework.

This contract further strengthens Ashridge's position as the leading civil engineering contractor to the UK mushroom industry and follows various contracts for Tunnel Tech, the UK's leading producer of specialised compost for commercial mushroom growing. Monaghan Mushrooms is the largest shareholder in TunnelTech.

Ashridge is currently working for Tunnel Tech at Leckford in Hampshire where we are building a state-of-the-art mushroom compost facility. In 2009 Ashridge completed over £4 million worth of work for Tunnel Tech at their new phase I compost production facility in Bawtry, Yorkshire with the construction of an initial four tunnels, 8 metres high and 50 metre long followed by Phase 2 works which consisted of 3 additional tunnels, external works, a mixing area and boundary walls. 

These bunkers provided a completely new compost production facility which has fundamentally changed the composting process, incorporating full enclosure of the materials in process. The new process allows the raw materials to be blended and then delivered into aerated tunnels that can be enclosed whilst the materials are being processed. Full aeration of the materials from the start of processing alters the odours being produced in the process.