Mushrooms are the fruits of a certain type of mould that is not present naturally. Originally, growers made the substrate on which the mushrooms grow themselves. This is a complex operation but is crucial to the quantity and quality of the mushrooms produced.

Walkro's Blitterswijck site in the Netherlands has around 60 employees who currently produce 5.500 tons of fresh substrate and 2.700 tons of concentrated high quality substrate each week.

Since October 2002, Walkro have worked together with M&C Energy Group to streamline their expenditure in the areas of Electricity, Gas, Water and Energy Efficiency costs.

To date, M&C Energy Group have assisted in achieving savings in 6 main areas for Walkro:

Purchasing - M&C Energy Group reduced purchasing costs on behalf of Walkro, resulting in a yearly saving of € 30.876 over 2004/2005

Invoice checking - M&C Energy Group's analysis of Walkro's bills identified an error in the classification of the electricity

distribution fee being charged from April '05 onwards.

Refund - Correction of the Electricity Distribution Fee classification was implemented historically for the period between August 2004 and March 2005, resulting in a total saving of € 52.162,81.

Refund - Amendment of the Electricity Distribution kWh Transport costs for 2004 resulted in a saving of € 44.350.

Optimisation of Contracted Transport Power (electricity) for 2001 there were total savings of € 14.442.

Energy Services - M&C Energy Group identified potential for reduction of Energy Tax for Walkro, resulting in a total saving € 20.991 over 3 years (for 2005/2006/2007). This same saving implemented on a historical basis has achieved a saving of € 12.579,79.

Manager of Walkro Blitterswijck, Thed Vestjens commented, "M&C Energy Group have many years of experience in the utilities and energy efficiency markets, we have found their services to be invaluable in terms of making savings on our behalf as well as ensuring that our bills are accurate and all charges are being levied correctly against us."