Viridor Waste’s figures are in line with The Pennon Group’s results whose turnover was down 7% to 435 million. Group operating profits were down 23% to 128 million and profit before tax was down 37% to 76 million.
Viridor Waste’s operating profits were down from 15.2 million last year to 13.1 million. But turnover at Viridor Waste rose by 5.5 million to 106.1 million which includes turnover from landfill tax of 31.9 million up from 29.7 million in 1999/2000.
Reporting on Viridor Waste, Pennon Group chairman, Ken Harvey said: “The business has experienced difficult trading conditions in some areas and an unprecedented level of leachate from the wet weather has caused operating costs to rise.”
Viridor’s total landfill volumes stayed the same at three million tonnes and overall, the price per tonne rose by 4%. Viridor’s energy from waste capacity rose by 3.5MW to 28.0MW over the year.
The Pennon Groups said this morning that Viridor “continues to be well placed to take advantage of the projected shortage of landfill capacity in key parts of the UK, having 71 million cubic metres of consented void space and 53 million cubic metres of unconsented void”.
Looking ahead Mr Harvey added: “Prospects are encouraging as a result of enhanced marketing, new contract wins and continued focus on margins. As a result of the strategic review undertaken by the Board, it has been decided that Viridor will concentrate on creating value from its waste management business.”
But, Mr Harvey said nothing in the statement about whether or not Pennon Group might look to sell its waste business. Within its Viridor operation, Pennon sold Viridor Construction last December and is also looking to sell Viridor Instrumentation.
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