There’s been “a real increase in demand from customers wanting to grow mushrooms outdoors in their gardens” with over 20% growth in that category, said North Spore’s president.
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Growing website and store sales are driving plans by North Spore — a Portland business that sells mushroom-growing kits, spawn and guides — to increase its production capacity.
“Due to increased demand we are seeing from customers on our website as well as from retailers eager to carry our products, we are making upgrades to our facility in Portland to be able to produce more product and fulfill more orders,” Eliah Thanhauser, the company’s co-founder and president, told Mainebiz.
More space
Earlier this year, the company was selected to receive a $758,220 loan from the latest round of the Maine Technology Institute’s Maine Technology Asset Fund.
Announced earlier this year, the money is part of $25 million in awards, funded by a voter-approved research and development bond, to 23 Maine businesses and research organizations to drive growth in Maine’s innovation economy. The interest-free loans come with the potential for partial loan forgiveness.
North Spore wants to expand production capacity at its Portland facility, at 921 Riverside St., to meet rapidly growing demand for its mushroom cultivation products. The project includes constructing a second-story mezzanine and elevator system to double incubation and cold storage space and upgrading pasteurization equipment to increase efficiency and output.
It’s expected that the improvements will support the company’s expansion into national retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement and spur job growth.
Home use
North Spore was launched in 2014 by three college friends with a love for mushroom foraging and cultivation, according to the company. Thanhauser ran a small organic farm in the Downeast region before founding North Spore.
Products for cultivation include grow kits pre-packaged for home use, cultivation supplies, medicinal mushroom products and mushroom seed for grow-out.
The kits, for all skill levels, include step-by-step instructions and a sawdust block colonized with mushroom mycelium.
Maine Technology Institute said it has supported the company in a number of ways, including a seed funding program grant that supported its first hardwood pellet processing equipment; a grant funding an improved HEPA-filtered laboratory, vacuum-type autoclave and custom ribbon blenders for enhanced processing; funding to help build the marketing team; and funding that helped to defray losses from pandemic disruptions with the renovation and build-out of North Spore’s processing facility in Portland.
Beyond monetary grants, MTI has provided mentorship to North Spore’s leadership team.
Equipment upgrades
The latest loan will help North Spore significantly expand its colonization space, which is the area where products sit while the mycelium colonizes the substrate, said Thanhauser.
“That process takes anywhere from 10 to 40 days, depending on the species and so it's a large component of our space needs,” he said.
Also on tap are upgrades to sterilization equipment, which is one of the first steps in the process of making the products.
“The upgrades will allow us greater control over the quality of the product as well as allow for significantly expanded throughput as a result of shorter cook cycles,” he said.
While he couldn’t go into detail about the specific technology, Thanhauser said the company has been working with its suppliers and manufacturers “on some really cool pieces of automation that will be industry-leading within the mushroom category.”
Big-box expansion
The latest production and distribution trends show “a real increase in demand from customers wanting to grow mushrooms outdoors in their gardens,” he said.
He continued, “We love seeing that demand, but these products are also the most labor-intensive for us to make. We've seen over 20% growth in that category and we are rushing to meet the demand.”
Along with that demand from customers, North Spore has seen a number of home improvement retailers interested in carrying mushroom-growing supplies to help their customers incorporate mushrooms into their existing gardens.
That includes 300 Home Depots across the U.S., which recently took on three of North Spore’s garden-growing kits — plant-and-grow, spray-and-grow and log. Similar to seedlings, starter blocks are buried in the garden.
The total expansion and upgrade cost is expected to be between $1.5 million and $2 million. A combination of financing sources is led by the Maine Technology Asset Fund loan from MTI, “which has been transformational for this project,” he added.
The company is still finalizing a general contractor and architect for the project.
“We're hoping to implement the project in two phases, in order to minimize disruptions to our production schedule,” he said. “We will be upgrading our sterilization equipment and adding colonization space in the summer of 2026, with further automation coming in the first half of 2027.”
