With partners including Hermès and General Motors, MycoWorks’ progression into commercial-scale manufacturing is a sign of maturation for the biomaterials industry that the company continues its leadership in materials science. As per MycoWorks’ market sizing, there are serious challenges facing the $164 billion leather market and $28 billion luxury leather market such as supply chain constraints and inferior product alternatives, MycoWorks said in a press release.
MycoWorks has launched a groundbreaking manufacturing facility in Union, South Carolina.
The facility will produce Reishi, a leather alternative made with proprietary Fine Mycelium technology.
The company has partnerships with Hermès and General Motors and aims to solve challenges in the $164 billion leather market, such as supply chain issues.
Since 2010, demand for luxury leather increased 251 per cent, while high-end hide production declined by 22 per cent due to falling beef and dairy consumption. MycoWorks, and its hallmark material Reishi, are answering these challenges with the world’s first full-scale alternative leather factory, a revolution in the production of high-quality natural materials for the luxury industry.
The opening of the 136,000 sq ft factory also marks the world’s largest mycelium material operation, a major step for the use of mycelium, the ‘root structure’ of mushrooms. Starting first with leather, MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium technology can later be expanded into other applications. The plant was made possible through a $125 million Series C funding round in 2021 from Prime Movers Lab, SK Networks, Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation Fund, DCVC Bio, Novo Holdings, and several strategic customers and investors. With construction beginning in 2022, the project was delivered on-time and on-budget, running the same tray-based mycelium growth system successfully piloted in its California plant yet scaled to 100x the volume.
“As MycoWorks continues to lead in biomaterial innovation, we are thrilled to open this first-of-its-kind facility in South Carolina. This reality is thanks to our team of experienced manufacturing leaders and engineers from the consumer goods, automotive, food, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries who have adapted robotic equipment and systems to handle our unique tray-based biomaterials process. In turn, they have enabled the first high-quality mycelium material product at scale, a feat which has never been accomplished until now. We thank the city and citizens of Union for welcoming MycoWorks into its community,” said Doug Hardesty, MycoWorks chief operating officer.
MycoWorks’ facility uses state-of-the-art robotics, digital analytics, and AI resources to achieve high-calibre quality and supply chain systems for the company’s customers in an entirely new manufacturing process. Using automated guided robots (AGRs), the company has automated 80 per cent of its process, enabling MycoWorks to reduce handling costs but maintain expert interactions where they are critical for quality assurance, achieving both high quality and low-cost production.
For the leather industry, MycoWorks’ Union, South Carolina, facility is a breakthrough in supply chain management, providing full predictability, transparency, and provenance of high-quality natural materials while also reducing waste. Grown-to-spec, Fine Mycelium can be customised for thickness, weight, and mechanical properties, allowing for an unprecedented level of control of a natural material, previously impossible via traditional agriculture.
Luxury fashion and automotive brands have eagerly awaited this opening to move collection design from prototyping and capsules to full-scale adoption. To date, Fine Mycelium has already been applied with great success to product categories from luxury handbags and footwear to vehicle interiors and home furnishings.
For Union, South Carolina—population 30,000— MycoWorks’ investment is reshoring production from an industry that primarily sources from Europe. Union has had a long history in textile manufacturing, and as the region is already home to leading automotive manufacturers, Fine Mycelium will allow other industries in the area and globally to closely collaborate on development. This centralisation of biotechnology and manufacturing has long been a goal of South Carolina governor Henry McMaster, a dedicated supporter of bringing cutting-edge science and technology to the state.
“We are thrilled to welcome MycoWorks to Union and have been eagerly awaiting the start of production. We are already seeing the growth that this opening is bringing to the immediate and greater communities in the area, including more jobs, housing, storefronts, and overall investments. MycoWorks is a fantastic addition to our portfolio of energy-efficient plants, and we look forward to their long-term impact in South Carolina,” said governor McMaster.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)
