EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalists: Raymond and Leslie Codd, Codd Mushrooms

Having been brought up in a farming background, it's not altogether surprising that Raymond and Leslie Codd were both interested in working in the agricultural sector when they grew up.

The brothers opened a mushroom farm in Tullow, Co Carlow in 1989 and the business has gone from strength to strength ever since. The company now has sales in excess of €17 million and employs 225 people.

Leslie's role in the business is as managing director and his key roles include finance, customer relations, marketing and strategy. He is currently spending a few days a week setting up a new UK facility and is on the board of directors of a new compost manufacturing facility being constructed in Northern Ireland. Raymond's role is operations director for Codd Mushrooms and he is in charge of production and site development.

Describe your business model and what makes your business unique:

Codd Mushrooms grow, pack and market mushrooms. Most horticultural producers concentrate on either growing or marketing. We believe supermarkets prefer dealing with suppliers that control all stages of production through to delivery as they can offer better cost price, quality and freshness. We are also more reactive to the retailer requirements.

What is your greatest business achievement to date?

Our greatest business achievement is that we have captured more than half of Ireland’s mushroom sales and we have never lost a customer that was unhappy with our service or quality.

What was your biggest business mistake?

In 1997, we built a production facility in an industrial estate in Baltinglass. Within two years, we became landlocked on this site which impeded expansion. In hindsight, we should have taken an option on additional land for additional development.

What numbers do you look at every day in your business?

Debtors’ listing, crop yields, sales volumes and average price.

To what extent does your business trade internationally and what are your plans?

We have been supplying France since 2014 and commenced supplying the UK a year later. We are currently in negotiations to amalgamate with a UK-based mushroom company and are also involved in the construction of a compost production facility in Northern Ireland.

Describe your growth funding path:

All our expansions over the years were funded from an amalgamation of reinvested profits, grant aid, bank loans and Business Expansion Scheme (BES) funding.

Where would you like your business to be in three years?

By 2020, our plan is to have a production facility in the UK of a similar scale to our Irish operation. Our producer organisation – Northway will be producing compost for its members which will ease the current situation of under supply in Ireland. We would like to see our turnover grow to €40 million and a staff count of 500 between the Irish and UK operations.

What is the hardest thing you have ever done in business?

In 2008 when we decommissioned our two production units and merged them into one central production and packing facility. In this period, the company was growing at unprecedented levels. It was challenging to manage the growth along with the relocation while keeping our existing customers happy. Long hours were done by our dedicated staff and it all worked out in the end.

Based on your experience are the banks open for business?

We have never been refused bank finance for development of our business. In saying that, banks are certainly requiring more detail than they ever did previously before approving loans.

Have you started to feel the effects of the economic upturn within your sector/industry?

The Irish food industry never felt the full effects of the economic downturn. We are currently experiencing the biggest growth in the food service sector which shows that more people can afford to eat out in restaurants. This can also be due to more tourists travelling to Ireland. The retail sector is growing at low single digit levels year-on-year since 2010.

.