The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, yesterday officially opened the mushroom packhouse facility for Walsh Mushrooms in Athlone, Co Westmeath. The minister also presented the company with the ISO 9000 certification for the new 14,000 sq ft facility, which is one of three packhouses run by Walsh Mushrooms in Ireland. At full capacity, the plant will be capable of handling over 200,000lbs per week. It exports to Britain, where its customers include Safeway and Tesco.

The company has an annual turnover of around £30 million (€38.09 million), and employs 190 people.