Low-Resolution Version of the Christiaens Bulltin 3 Brochure

The bulletin, what first started for the day of the opendoor and the exhibition is now a yearly returning issue.With these publications we try to give you an impressionof projects worldwide constructed by the ChristiaensGroup.In 2005 we revised our website (see www.christiaens-group.com), to the one which is now running. The web-site is adjusted to the new lay-out which is the same asour folders and our advertisements.Looking at the situation in the mushroom industry wesee that there is still a lot of investments going on. Fromentirely new projects to renovations.THE POWER OF COMBINED EXPERIENCEchristiaens groupb u l l e t i nc h r i s t i a e n s g r o u p3bulletinchristiaens groupindex:Tvedemose champignon page 2Bio-Fungi Kft. page 2Smits-Derks champignons BV page 3Champignonkwekerij Jacobs BV page 3Highveld mushrooms page 4Eurokompost Beograd page 5Head-end filling machines page 6Elf Farm supplies PTY limited page 6Mercajucar s.c. page 7Mts.Van Dooren page 7Projects in progress page 8Mushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 1Jens and Kirsten started with this project in April 2003.The first roomwas filled in November 2003. The total building time was 6 months ofwhich 9 weeks were needed to complete the part of the ChristiaensGroup.The rest was done by Danish building companies.The reason that we have built a new growing facility are the new labourrules in Denmark and high labour cost (€20/hour for one picker). Thebiggest advantages on this farm is better quality of mushrooms, higheryields, better logistic system and the preparation for the expansion.Thedaily logistic on the farm had a big influence on the design of the growingrooms. Because of better working conditions we wanted to work withhydraulic lorries.We have adjusted the size of the room for working withthese lorries.The growing surface is 6 rooms of 360m2, with the possibility for expan-sion to 12 rooms.The reason for choosing Christiaens Group is that theycan do the total project and that we always have had a good service.christiaens group I projects I page 2bio-fungi kft.Budapest, HungaryBio-Fungi was producing Phase II compost in bags out of 3 tunnels ofeach 180 tons of Phase I compost, together with 3 small open airbunkers and an aerated floor. According the latest technology andregarding environmental requires Arpad Mutsy emphasized his expan-sion plans. Covering the complete prewet area and aerated floor build-ing 3 indoor tunnels of 750 tons of Phase I compost a new state of artbiofilter and biowasher (built with support of a Life Program)expanding the phase II/III facility. The investment program startedSeptember 2003 and most of the developments have been finished inDecember 2004.We started producing more compost since the middleof last year and increase our production slowly. From October 2004 weproduce Phase III compost as well. The investments of the biowasherand biofilter are still going and the trail period will start June 2005.At this moment the market needs partly Phase II and partly Phase IIIcompost. Basically we produce 900-1000 tons of Phase I compostweekly. We have a personal relationship with the Christiaens KeyManagement.We choose the Christiaens Group because we have beenvery satisfied with our first investments with them and we have a goodworking experience with their Technical team. The advantages of thenew project can be summarised: updated newest and most modernfacility modern environmental execution new investment fulfil all therequirements of such as call BAT-technology (Best Available Technology)tvedemose champignonLundbey, DenmarkMushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 2page 3smits-derks champignons bvHorst, NetherlandsIn 1979 Smits-Derks started a mushroom growery. Since the year 2000they have made an enormous change in the expansion. In 4 years they havebuild a new mushroom growing facility of 17 growing rooms with a totalweekly capacity of 70.000 kg of mushrooms.The product is a small sizedmushrooms which is harvested mechanically.The reason for spreading out the expansion over 4 years was that onlythis way the production could increase with the same number of people.The level of mechanisation was upgraded to increase together with thegrowery.Building with the Christiaens Group had a triple choice. First ChristiaensConstruction BV had the best quality of sandwich panel buildings at thatmoment. Second was that Smits-Derks wanted to work with the Fancomcontroller, which could be supplied by the Christiaens Group.Third wasthe possibility of a turnkey project.The new building has a lot of advan-tages.A larger working space in the whole growery, central processing ofthe mushrooms and a covered compost hall provided better working con-ditions. Labour cost could be reduced by a higher level of mechanisation.Building with sandwich panels is giving another advantage because of thehigher insulations value of sandwich panels in comparison with the existing building.champignonkwekerijjacobs bvKessel, NetherlandsIn June 2004 John Jacobs finished the expansion of his mushroom farm.The expansion consist out of expanding the growing surface of the roomsfrom 770m2 to 1.075m2.The bed width changed from 1,34mtr to 1,60mtrand he went from 6 beds high to 7 beds high. The Christiaens Groupdelivered the shelving, the technical installation and the machinery. Thetotal time needed for this expansion was 10 weeks.Each week they rebuild one room. At this moment we have a weeklycapacity of 80-95 tons of mushroom. This is depending on the growingschedule.The advantages of this expansion was the more efficient way ofworking, in the past he had 2 farms, and a higher quality and production.The reason for choosing for he Christiaens Group were the goodcooperation which we had in the past.Another advantage is building withone partner, if there are any troubles you have only one person toapproach. Also the three companies have an efficient way of workingtogether.Mushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 3christiaens group I projects I page 4highveld mushrooms ltd Bryanston, South AfricaThe latest Christiaens project that has been completed at HighveldMushrooms (Pty) Ltd, is the building and commissioning of 6 x 200 tonPhase II and III tunnels.This facility was built in order to complement our4 Christiaens Bunkers with overhead filling which we had been using fora few years. Chris Richardson told that the old Phase II tunnels needed tobe replaced and the move to the modern Phase III approach lured himinto the investment.The complex was commissioned in September 2004 and took around 18months to build. The long building time was a result of many of the heavycomponents being supplied locally and our no rush implementationapproach.The move from conventional spawn running to continuous bulkPhase III is planned to take several months as not to rush the process andto learn at our own pace.The capacity of the complex is 350 tons phase II compost per week andwe are spawning a minimum of 180 tons phase III per week.We have managed to reduce Phase II filling time from 12 hours to 3 hoursper week, reduce spawning times from 8hrs to 2 hrs per week. The complex has also allowed us to extend the incubation time, reduce mois-ture loss and control temperatures properly.We are now also able to sup-ply our satellite farm, Meadow Mushrooms with phase III from our facili-ty. This gives us better control and less variability with having a remotesite. Our choice to use Christiaens equipment was that our previousinvestments had been with them and we had found that their equipmentdelivered as promised. Our relationship with their staff and their commit-ment to us over time helped in our decision.Mushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 4page 5eurokompost beogradBelgrade, SerbiaEurokompost is the most modern compost production facility in BalkanPeninsula, located in Serbia close to the capital city Belgrade. Eurokompostprovides quality compost to mushroom producers in the whole area.The strategic goal of Eurokompost was/is and will be permanence forquality. In Christiaens Group we recognize a partner with the samemission. The monthly production capacity is 1.000 tons of Phase II, whichis pressed in blocks. The total building time for this facility was nearly 2years, which can be divided in circa 18 months construction work and 6months for the equipment.The advantage is the possibility to control allkey production processes with Christiaens Control equipment. Anotheradvantage is the maximal subordination of the management team to thecompost quality.Mushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 5christiaens group I projects I page 6head-end filling machineself farm supplies pty limitedSydney, AustraliaEspecially for the mushroom cultivation industry we manufactureadvanced filling equipment.The last couple of years Christiaens has builtover a few hundred head-end filling machines all over the world. Last yearwe developed a head-end filling machine, especially for contract workersand farms with mechanical harvesting, which is able to weigh the exactamount of compost, which goes into the growing bed.Since 2001 we have built up a complete new Phase I and Phase II/III-facil-ity. Rob Tolson started operating the Phase I facility in 2003, following bythe start up of the Phase II/III facility in April 2004. From April 2005 wehave increased the production of the Phase II/III facility to a total produc-tion of 420 tonnes of Phase III each week.The facility will help us to pro-duce a product which is more consistent and of high quality becauseeverything is now indoors.When we have completed our learning on howto compost indoor, we are very confident that the results will beimproved compared to that of outdoor composting with the influence ofthe weather removed.The farms currently look like they will be able tomaintain a production average over 38 kg per square metre for fresh mar-ket sales. The Christiaens Group has worked with us for many years toplan and execute the building of an indoor facility and we felt that theywere the best place to supply all the different components that we need-ed.That is, the full package with prices negotiated on all items to keep thetotal cost within budget limits.Mushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 6page 7mercajucar s.c.Albacete, Spainmts. van doorenLiessel, NetherlandsThe Mercajucar s.c. mushroom farm is part of a cooperation of approxi-mately 50 mushroom growers in the Albacete area. In April 2004 we start-ed to built a farm consisting out of 2 units of 12 growing rooms.The total-growing surface is 10.1302.The Christiaens Group delivered the machin-ery for filling and emptying and the air handling system and computer con-trols for the complete farm. Also the Christiaens Group did the engi-neering for the technical installation of the farm.The new growery has 4 growing rooms of 360m2 and a working corridorin front of these rooms. Building a new growing facility has given Arie vanDooren some advantages. The new rooms are wider so this is easierworking and giving higher picking results.At this moment we can also bet-ter control the climate in the rooms.The new rooms are giving us betterpurchasing prices at our suppliers because a higher quantity is needed.Visiting some other projects made by the Christiaens Group we noticedthat the finishing touch is good. The other main issues for choosing theChristiaens Group were their way of thinking on future investments andprice wise the Christiaens Group was given us a better deal.Mushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 7Christiaens GroupWitveldweg 104 - 106 -1085961 ND Horst - The Netherlandsinfo@christiaensgroup.comwww.christiaensgroup.comtel. +31 (0)77 399 95 00t h e p o w e r o f c o m b i n e d e x p e r i e n c e© ArtLine | KesselCGB30506projects in progress worldwide 2005Champinter, Spain 5 Phase I bunkers / 14 Phase II/III tunnelsGlobal Progres a.s., Slowakia Expansion Phase I and II facilityHooijmans Compost BV, Netherlands Phase I facilityForest Fresh Mushrooms, South Africa Phase I/II facilitySterckx NV, Belgium Expansion Phase II/III facilityChampignonkwekerij Smits-Derks BV, Netherlands Expansion Growing surfaceTjaereborg Champignon A/s, Denmark Phase I/II facility and growing roomsVan Nieuwenhoven-Steijvers, Netherlands Expansion 3 growing roomsSahar, Iran 4 Phase I bunkers/6 Phase II tunnelsMehrchin/Arya, Iran 3 Phase I bunkers/4 Phase II tunnelsFunghi D’Oro, Italy 12 Growing roomsFunghi di Quero Societa Agricola SS, Italy 12 Growing roomsMts.Thielen-Peeters, Netherlands Renovation tunnel facilityBaltic, Lithuania Machinery Phase II/IIIFungis, Poland Machinery Phase II/IIIKompostpal, Poland Blocking-pressMarina, Israel 7 Growing roomsMarina, Israel 3 Phase 1 bunkers / 5 Phase II/III tunnelsEng Chiau Bio-Technology,Taiwan Mushroom farmMushroom.qxd 28-11-2008 11:19 Pagina 8