The announcement follows a formal review of the SITAs metals recycling division, launched in July 2013 after what the company had described as years of difficult trading conditions with no sign of improvement (see letsrecycle.com story).
Following the announcement of the review, SITA had ceased accepting metal at the gate, dealing only with consignments in customers premises.
Scrap sites in Boreham, Coventry, Lenwade, Norwich and Sheffield will now be operated by EMR, with around 100 SITA staff transferring EMR as a result of the deal.
SITA retains scrap recycling sites at Hayes in West London and North Tyneside as well as a dockside facility in Kings Lynn, although it is not clear if the company will continue operations at these locations in the long term.
Terms
The full financial terms of the sale have not been released, although it is thought to be significantly less than the £90 million SITA paid for the Easco metal business it bought in 2007 which subsequently formed a major part of the SITA UK Metals operations.
SITA UK went to the High Court in October 2010 questioning some of the data behind the Easco acquisition, but the case was eventually settled without disclosure of what was agreed.
The sale cements Warrington-based EMRs position as the largest metal recycler operating in the UK, with around 80 scrapyards nationwide. EMR currently employs over 3,500 staff, operating worldwide in countries including Germany, Switzerland, India, China and Thailand as well as the USA.
The companys core business is the recycling of scrap metal from a range of sources such as End-of-Life vehicles, consumer products, industry, construction and demolition. This results in sales of recycled commodities of around 10 million tonnes a year.
EMR would not comment further on the deal when contacted by letsrecycle.com.
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