Mr Feeney, a former Tesco and Dixons executive, joined Environcom in 2010 and is to remain a director of the Grantham-based firm until the end of 2015.
He is to be replaced by Cris Stephenson, who joins the company as managing director, having previously worked for TNT Group and logistics firm Pall-Ex. His most recent posting was a short-term role at car repair firm Autosparks until March 2014, overseeing the acquisition and integration of a competitor into the business.
The transition comes during what is a turbulent time for the WEEE reprocessing sector, with falling scrap metal and commodity prices leading to a squeeze on revenues for many treatment facility operators. Plus, the sector is seeing changes in the relationship between evidence notes for recycling and compliance schemes.
One of Mr Stephenson’s first challenges is expected to be to try and steer Environcom back to profitability, with the company’s 2014 accounts, published last month, revealing a £6.1 million loss for the year before tax, with its turnover also falling to £7.2 million, from £10.6 million in 2013.
Environcom said that some of the loss had been because the firm had to pay more for scrap fridges as it was facing competition from illegal scrap collectors who would just take the fridges apart to get the scrap metal and had lower costs. This has been a sector wide problem which Mr Feeney has highlighted in the past.
The company also noted that there had been ‘significant downward movement’ in commodity markets during the fourth quarter of 2014, including in trading of copper, steel and plastics.
Feeney
Mr Feeney’s departure comes after five years at the helm of the WEEE recycling and reuse firm, having come on board to steer the company out of danger having suffered a fire which ‘devastated’ the Grantham site in 2007.
His tenure has not been without its share of challenges, having seen the site suffer two more, albeit much less damaging fires in the space of six months in 2014, and a health and safety prosecution in 2015.
His five years in charge of Environcom have seen the company establish closer ties to the retail sector securing contracts with some of the UK’s leading retailers including John Lewis, Argos and Dixons, while he also oversaw the development of a WEEE plant specialising in reuse at a site in Enfield, North London.
Profile
Mr Feeney has been one of the fiercest champions of the WEEE reprocessing sector during his time at Environcom, publicly arguing for responsible trading across the supply chain.
Mr Feeney said: “Environcom has undertaken an impressive turnaround since I joined and is now a sustainable growing business. The continued expansion across our four sites and the opportunities in the UK and globally requires an additional level of expertise. Cris brings a wealth of logistics and manufacturing experience and he will be of strong advantage to our UK business. ”
Finance
According to Environcom’s accounts the ultimate controlling party is Aloe Environment Fund II, a French investment fund, part of Aloe Private Equity.
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