Interview: Sikes Mushrooms

In this video mushroom grower, Gerard Sikes opens the doors of his production site to us. This mushroom grower greatly values innovation and constantly works on something new to improve or expand the growing site. In the video, Gerard tells you all about the sustainability developments that take place at his company and the way that Kekkilä-BVB manages to support him in these developments.

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Gerard Sikes is very proud of the transition their company went through over the past 25 years. They started as a family-owned business producing 5 tons of mushrooms a week. Over time, they evolved to produce 500 tons every week. He thinks it’s wonderful to see that they have been able to grow at a similar pace as their suppliers, who have also expanded over time. Now, these suppliers are really able to lead the change in the market, and Gerard thinks Sikes Champignons should be able to do the same for the mushroom industry.

Gerard certainly doesn’t have a lack of imagination and ambition, and this is something that is clearly reflected in his business. Sikes is worldwide for example the first mushroom grower to produce its mushrooms in a CO2-neutral way. He also aims to reduce his water use and heat use. The video also shows how Sikes Mushrooms deals with these other sustainability aspects.

A partnership driven by innovation

Years ago, Gerard was looking for new solutions to support one of his innovative ideas: re-using the casing soil that he uses at his mushroom farm. At that moment Sikes Mushrooms was already a customer of BVB Substrates casing soil, but they also had other suppliers. Eventually he turned to Kekkilä-BVB with his idea, and he liked the outcome so much, that he decided to from then on fully rely on Kekkilä-BVB as their sole casing soil supplier.

In his relationship with Kekkilä-BVB, and in particular the BVB Substrates product brand, Gerard highly values the ongoing search for improvement and innovation. Together we can search for new ways to produce even better mushrooms, in an even more innovative way. He also mentions that he is impressed by the R&D facilities Kekkilä-BVB uses to develop casing soil and other horticultural products and that he loves the reliability we provide.

We’re sure that we’ll be hearing more from Sikes Mushrooms and Gerard’s innovative ideas for the future in the coming years!