Former teacher Ronnie Wilson has steered the company from a start-up launched in the 1980s to an international supplier of mushrooms to key retailers, including Asda and Tesco.
Although its HQ is in Ireland, Monaghan has a UK arm plus operations inCanada and the Netherlands, employs over 3,500 people, but is still a family-run business with Wilson at the helm. The company’s most recent figures show that it increased turnover by £11 million from £69m in 2011 to £80.2m in 2012. In the last two years, although figures are yet to be published, the company says it has gained further sales, and has 56 per cent of the retail market.
Monaghan has achieved its success by innovating in what could be a staid category. Recently it developed a new technology that gives mushrooms 100 per cent of the recommended allowance of Vitamin D with just one portion.
“We launched this range earlier in the autumn and sales figures are very encouraging,” a spokesperson adds.
The firm believes there are major opportunities for growth, and has been building market insight to support its strategy. “Of the 26 million households that buy mushrooms, 20 per cent are heavy buyers, and 50 per cent are light buyers,” the spokesperson continues. “We see the future opportunity to increase frequency of purchase among the 13m light buyers by communicating the taste, convenience and health benefits of mushrooms.”
