Countrystyle strengthens its waste business in Kent

Countrystyle Group has strengthened its trade waste business in Kent with the acquisition of Any Waste Solution Limited, based in Snodland.

The Maidstone-based waste and recycling company yesterday (October 3) bought the firm from Irish recycling company One51 ES Recycling UK (South) Limited for an undisclosed sum.

Any Waste offers skip hire and waste and recycling services to businesses. It operates from a transfer station employing 25 staff and runs a fleet of 22 vehicles. Countrystyle said that the acquisition of the firm, with its focus on work in the Maidstone and Medway Towns, consolidated Countrystyle Groups position as the largest independent waste management operator in Kent.

Trevor Heathcote, chairman of Countrystyle Group, said: We are delighted with the acquisition of the former Any Waste Solution business which strengthens Countrystyles existing operation within Kent and enables us to integrate the customers and vehicles into our existing network of Kent depots and services.

“The acquisition is in line with our strategy of expanding our activities within the waste and recycling sector and assists further in achieving our goal of becoming the waste management and recycling company of choice in the South East.

A Countrstyle spokeswoman added: We do a lot of work in Maidstone so it made sense and will fit into our trade waste round quite seamlessly.

Group

Countrystyle already operates a network of its own waste transfer stations and materials recovery facilities. The Groups facilities also include both in-vessel and open windrow composting facilities where waste is recycled into compost alongside specialist recycling facilities for plasterboard and waste wood. The company also has planning permission for two anaerobic digestion facilities at Halstead in Essex and near Folkestone in Kent.

Countrystyle currently has 205 staff and has a turnover of around 35 million. It has grown substantially over the past few years through a number of acquisitions. Most recently, in August 2011 the company and Material Change bought up and shared the assets of County Mulch Ltd (see letsrecycle.com story).

The company also recently hit the headlines for composting food packaging waste from the London 2012 Olympics (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the possibility of more acquisitions in future, the Countrystyle spokeswoman said: We are an organically growing company and when an opportunity comes up it is something we will look into.