AN Evesham company has spent more than £500,000 building a new chilled distribution centre to keep up with the demand for its mushrooms.

Walsh Mushrooms supplies almost a 1,000,000lbs of fresh mushrooms to major supermarkets every week.

This figure is set to grow for the Vale Park company as demand increases from customers such as Tesco, Safeway and Somerfield.

"Due to our continuing to build our share of the UK mushroom market, we require additional space to pack and consolidate supplies from our farms and depots in England, Ireland and Holland," said Brian Cartwright, sales and marketing director at Walsh Mushrooms.

"Our throughput, currently averaging more than 750,000lbs each week, is set to reach the 1,000,000lbs mark before the end of the year."

Walsh Mushrooms employs around 50 people at its Evesham site, which houses the head office facility, chilled distribution centre and separate section where mushrooms are washed, sliced and cut up for ready meals for customers such as Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's.

Including growers in England and Ireland, the company employs around 1,000 people. It has also been at the forefront of compost technology.

Three production sites have been built in the past two years in joint partnership agreements with landowners in the Marches region of Herefordshire.

The company also runs a fleet of 30 vehicles which deliver the growers' mushrooms to Vale Park overnight and go back out with supermarket supplies first thing in the morning. Local hauliers Townley Transport and Christian Salvesen, both based on Vale Park, are also used.

Project manager for the £600,000 contract to build the new chilled distribution extension was Harris Lamb Commercial Chartered Surveyors, of St Mary's Street, Worcester.

"The contract for the new centre has gone to plan, even with the difficulties of organising construction work on site, taking into account the need to meet strict health and safety regulations," said Gavin Stephens, of Harris Lamb.