Tyregenics sale plans “unaffected” by huge fire

And, Begbies Traynor revealed that they had been contacted by more than 20 parties interested in buying the £4 million plant since the firm went into administration in January 2009 due to sudden contraction in the output markets for the rubber crumb it produces (see letsrecycle.com story).

A spokesman for the company explained: “The process of marketing the business, which was placed into administration on 15th January 2009 is unaffected and more than 20 parties have contacted administrators with an interest in purchasing the business.

“Discussions are ongoing with a number of potential buyers, and the administrators are confident that a buyer will be found for Tyregenics in the near future,” he added.

Last week's fire broke out on Thursday (March 26) at 6.30pm at an outdoor storage facility that Tyregenics leased from a local haulage firm, around half a mile from the company's main recycling plant.

While, at the peak of the incident, eleven fire appliances were in attendance, with some remaining at the scene until 6am the next day, there were no injuries from the blaze.

Crumb

However, the administrator's spokesman confirmed that around 2,500 one tonne bags of the recycled rubber crumb produced by the Tyregenics process appeared to have been lost in the fire.

“The Tyregenics plant itself is several hundred yards from the fire on Baglan Way, and was completely unaffected by the events, although thousands of bags of crumb stock worth hundreds of thousands of pounds have been lost,” he explained.

South Wales Police confirmed that they were working with the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service to establish just what the cause of the fire was, and appealed for anyone with information or who had seen any activity at the site prior to the incident to come forward.

And, the spokesman for Begbies Traynor said: “The rubber crumb is not highly flammable and we are therefore very keen to hear the findings of investigations by the police and fire service.

Exemplar

When the plant originally opened in July 2007 as Europe's only tyre recycling plant using cryogenics – freezing – technology, it was hailed as “an exemplar” by Defra-funded business support body the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (see letsrecycle.com story).

It was expected to process around a tenth of the waste tyres arising in the UK each year, equal to 30,000 tonnes per annum, and the project – a joint venture between North-East-based tyre recycler Credential Environmental, BOC Gases, sports surface firm FieldTurf and technology specialists RTI Cryogenics – had received £1.4 million in funding from the Welsh European Office to get it off-the-ground.

However, the plant was hit by a “sudden contraction” in the key market for the rubber crumb which was produced by the cyrogenics process – artificial sports surfaces – which prompted the decision to call in the administrators.