Family business Mush Comb from Horst celebrates 25th anniversary

1 January 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the Horst-based company Mush Comb! What better time to shine the spotlight on this successful family-owned business!

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On New Year’s Day 1996, Jeu Holtermans started his own business - Mush Comb. In repairing and selling second-hand machines, he succeeded in identifying and filling a gap in the market for mushroom culture. In 2004, his 21-year-old son Bob joined the family business team, and in 2007 they decided to reinvent and refocus the business. Since then, the company has focused on producing new and innovative cutting-edge machines. The new business strategy demanded a major investment, but the benefits soon became apparent. The company’s revenues have quadrupled since 2007, and the family business has developed into a world leader in supplying innovative high-quality machines.

Please read their full article here.

We congratulate Mush Comb and wish them lots of succesful and innovating years to come!

Designer Nina Bruun shapes biotech firm Grown's mushroom-based material for the safe carriage of Astep lighting.

One of the key aims of Wallpaper* Re-Made is to re-think the way we consume, and packaging is a crucial link in this story. Last year, a chat with Alessandro Sarfatti led to a discussion about what he perceived to be an important problem. Coming from a family of lighting experts (he is the grandson of design legend Gino Sarfatti, of Arteluce, see W* 218 and son of Luceplan founder Riccardo Sarfatti), and founder of a lighting brand himself, he is well aware of the amount of plastic needed to transport lighting pieces.

Sarfatti, who used to be CEO of Luceplan, founded Astep in 2014, intent on creating lighting products with contemporary designs and innovative technologies to improve our domestic experience and quality of life.

Please read the full article here.

Photography: Mikkel Vigholt Petersen
Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Bright 5
Bright 5 was founded about a year ago. This unique collaboration between growers, companies, education and government represents five sectors with a strong base in the Southeast Netherlands: blueberries, strawberries, asparagus, mushrooms and arboriculture.
Bright 5 is a project in which five sectors initiate, implement and share cultivation-related innovation for five years by the entrepreneurs themselves. Centrally located in the region, from Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo, Bright 5 brings together more than 180 entrepreneurs and creates crossovers within the five sectors in the field of research and innovations in green crop protection, vital soil, big data, vital plant, residual flows and cultivation-related ingredients. The unique collaboration between growers, companies, education and government takes research & development to a higher level, strengthens the position of the five sectors and brings innovation back to the region.

Study Club Mushrooms
Partly due to the disappearance of the product boards and the Mushroom Cultivation Test Station, the mushroom sector is in need of collective research.
Thus, March 4, 2020, the Study Club Champignons has been formalized. This is a study group of 5 enthusiastic mushroom growers from Limburg and Brabant (Dennis Cox - Cox Champignons, Robbert Jacobs - Jacobs Champignons, John Jacobs - Champignonkwekerij Jacobs, Pieter van den Boomen - Champignonkwekerij Gemert and Thijs Claassen - Claassen Champignons), which serve as a sounding board to carry out practical, applied research in the mushroom sector.
Participant Dennis Cox of Cox Champignons explains: "Innovation is a precondition for a company to maintain its value."

Studies
The following 4 studies will be started in 2020:
- Alternative to formalin (vital soil)
- Biological control of mushroom fly and mosquito (green crop protection)
- Biological control moles (vital plant)
- Re-use champost (value residual flows)

Field trips
In addition, 4 excursions are organized at different companies on the Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo. Through these excursions, the study group is inspired and included in the objectives of the campus in the field of healthy food, future farming and bio-circular economy.