Canadian mushroom grower changes hands

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

by SUSAN MANN

All five locations of Canada’s largest mushroom producer, Highline Produce Limited are staying in business after the company was recently bought by a fresh produce company based in Dublin, Ireland.

Fyffes plc, a global leader, producer, shipper and marketer of bananas, melons, and pineapples, bought Highline for C$145 million from United States-based private equity firm, Peak Rock Capital.

All of Highline’s 1,150 employees along with its management team led by CEO Glenn Martin are keeping their jobs.

Highline has two growing facilities in Leamington, one in Kingsville and one in Wellington (Prince Edward County). The company also has a distribution centre in Montreal. Highline grows white, mini bella and portabella mushrooms that are sold throughout North America. The two Leamington facilities are certified organic and Highline is the world’s largest grower of organic mushrooms.

The company was founded in 1961 and markets about 58 million pounds (26.3 million kilograms) of mushrooms annually.

Martin says the deal was effective April 1. The purchase by Fyffes “offers some security and more of a global presence because Fyffes is international.”

However, the ownership change won’t result in “too much change for us because mushrooms are very perishable and we are in the fresh mushroom business,” Martin says.  “Most of our customer base is within a radius of four to eight hours delivery time. We do go farther but it’s not like we will be shipping mushrooms outside North America at this time.”

Martin describes the change as “business as usual and management as usual.”

Fyffes has been in business for more than 125 years. It has operations in Europe, the United States, Central and South America, a press release from Highline says. Fyffes is the largest importer of winter melons into the United States and is a major player in the banana and pineapple markets. BF