The UK details came as the waste management and resources giant, headquartered in Paris, reported its global results for 2022 with organic revenue growth of 14.1% and a revenue of 42,885 million Euros. The company highlighted growth across its water, waste and energy businesses also noting its “strict pricing policy”.
Earnings before tax were 3,062 million Euros, an increase of 16%.
Veolia, which operates globally and has a strong presence in the UK, acquired much of its rival Suez last year and this deal contributed almost 10,000 million Euros to the revenue stream; Suez UK was not part of the acquisition.
Northern Europe
In the Northern Europe division, for which the company’s UK chief, Gavin Graveson, is senior executive vice-president, there was an increase in revenues of 4,900 million Euros, up 9.2% on 2021.
Veolia explained that this increase was mainly driven by the United Kingdom because of positive recycling prices, higher electricity prices and good PFI increases. The company has a number of long-term PFI – Private Finance Initiative – contracts largely involving energy from waste plant, residual waste work for local authorities as well as recycling.
In a statement Veolia said of the Northern Europe performance: “This increase was mainly driven by the United Kingdom, up 9.0% at constant scope and exchange rates due to the favourable effect of recycled material prices (paper and plastic), higher electricity prices, good tariff indexation in PFIs (+7% on average) and good performance of incinerators (95% availability rate of facilities).”
Exceptional year
Estelle Brachlianoff, chief executive of the Veolia Group and who ran the UK operation for six years, said: “In an exceptional year for Veolia, marked by the acquisition of Suez, I am particularly proud of the performance we have achieved, both in terms of activity and results. We have been able to adapt to the many geopolitical, economic and energy challenges of 2022, to deliver historic results for the group, while successfully bringing together the 40,000 Suez colleagues who have joined us. We are already seeing the first fruits of this, with synergies well ahead of our plan, and beyond that, we are putting our vision into action by building together the world champion of ecological transformation.”
Mrs Brachlianoff continued: “The pooling of our know-how and technologies, with a unique geographical coverage, allows us to invent and deploy the most relevant and efficient solutions to the challenges of decarbonation, depollution and regeneration of resources, which are at the heart of concerns all over the world. Thanks to Veolia’s activities, 14 million tons of CO2 were eliminated in 2022 for our clients, and 320 million cubic metres of water were saved per year versus 2019, the equivalent of the annual consumption of a six million inhabitant city”.
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