Lifetime Achievement Award

Ronnie Wilson, founder of Monaghan Mushrooms, wins Business & Tourism Award

The health benefits of mushrooms were not something that Monaghan Mushrooms’ founder Ronnie Wilson considered, or was even aware of, when he made the bold move to exit his career as an educator and become an agri-entrepreneur 46 years ago. Today however, Ronnie says Monaghan Mushrooms is capitalising on this new information and is “committed to educating consumers on the great health properties associated with mushrooms”.

The benefits of consuming mushrooms include improved gut health, a stronger immune system and a high intake of Vitamin D. To this end, Monaghan Mushrooms invests in innovation and research in these celebrated and magnificent health benefits, that are strongly contributing to a surge in mushroom sales worldwide.

Originally from Monaghan Town, Ronnie studied Geography in Trinity College Dublin before choosing a career in education. With a keen business acumen and a good hunch, in the late 1970s he completely changed direction when he heard of an opportunity to export mushrooms for the Dutch and German markets with high growth potential.

“I was 28 years old and I knew nothing about mushrooms,” Ronnie recounts. “But I got onto the plane to Dusseldorf and I learned about mushrooms.”

Soon afterwards, Ronnie resigned his job as a history and geography teacher in Monaghan Vocational School and started planning for the launch of Monaghan Mushrooms, which took place in June 1981. Production started in Tyholland, northwest of Monaghan Town, where the Monaghan Mushroom head office remains today. At first, production focused on the canned mushroom market before quickly expanding by producing substrate (compost for mushrooms made from straw) – a substance that nourishes growth for 80 local mushroom growers. As part of its business model, Monaghan Mushrooms would then buy the mushrooms back from the growers and process them, ready for export. By the end of 1983, Monaghan was processing 5,000 tonnes of mushrooms a year.

Today Monaghan Mushrooms grows and markets 1,600 tonnes of mushrooms per week and produces over 14,000 tonnes of substrate, or compost per week. “We still purchase mushrooms from local growers, some of whom have been with the company from the very beginning.”

“We are driven by a passion to provide consumers with a fresh and high-quality food,” with the company involved in all aspects of growing mushrooms. “Monaghan is a mature and established category leader with significant market share, a uniquely integrated business model and a significant asset base spread across the UK & Ireland.”

Dominating the market

Its market share in the UK is “steadfast”, Ronnie says, dominating circa 50% of the retail sector. “We have fully integrated cultivation from the production of compost through to growing, packing and logistics of mushrooms, operating out of nine sites and supplying about 60k tonnes per annum.”

Over the past 46 years, the company has grown from just three people working from a room in Ronnie’s house in the early days, to over 2,200 staff with farms, packhouses, substrate sites and offices across Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada.

Growth came in the Netherlands when it acquired a majority stake in Dutch company Walkro in 2012, becoming 100% owner in 2018. Walkro is a leading integrated compost producer in Europe and a market leader in the supply of substrate to the Dutch mushroom market. This acquisition cemented Monaghan as one of the largest mushroom compost manufacturers in the world.

If Ronnie was to pick his proudest moment in business, it would be making the giant move to just start the business all those years ago and also to rise to the challenge of continuing to supply customers during Covid, which was a hard feat.

And did he make any big mistakes along the way? “Lots. We made lots of mistakes, but we learned from them.”

Nowadays, while Ronnie is still very much involved in the business, as an avid reader, he likes nothing more than to escape it all by reading a good book. He likes to read Historical, Political, Biographical and Psychological offerings with his favourite book, Sapiens, written by historian Yuval Noah Harari, surveying the history of humankind from the Stone age to the 21st century.

Bio Connect

Looking to the future, his vision and hopes are “to continue to produce high quality food sustainably”. He also has great hope separately for Bio Connect located nearby in Monaghan Town, to engage food businesses and agricultural producers. “This is establishing a Centre of Excellence in the sciences attracting graduates back to Monaghan. They would not only have well paid and interesting jobs, but I would hope a number of them would set up their own businesses and provide the intellectual base and experience necessary to attract inward investment in the sciences.”

Today his sons are at the helm of Monaghan Mushrooms. Paul as Chief Executive is furthering his father’s vision and continuing his legacy alongside brothers Philip as Group Operations Director and Adam as Chief Commercial Officer.

Ronnie is very positive about the bright and brilliant future ahead for the mushroom business as it continues to capitalise on the increasing knowledge of the nutritious and health-boosting properties of the popular fungi.