Veolia snaps up wood and RDF firm Boomeco

Veolia bought the Gloucestershire-based business on the same day that it was placed into administration last month (18 December 2015).

Boomeco Ltd of Stroud holds local authority contracts with Bristol city council and North Somerset council and had invested £3 million at its Avonmouth docks site in 2014 partly in order to eradicate a fly problem.

Simon Girling and Danny Dartnail of BDO LLP were appointed administrators of the company on 18 December 2015, and a BDO LLP spokesman confirmed today (5 January) that the firm was sold at the outset to waste management firm Veolia.

The sale follows the news last month that Veolia, which is French-owned, has also taken over the commercial trade waste collections of Hartlepool-based RDF company Niramax (see letsrecycle.com story).

The company invested £3 million at its Avonmouth site where it received and baled RDF for export

RDF in storage ready for export

Boomeco received large quantities of different wood grades for a number of end uses

The waste wood was processed and shredded on-site for use as particleboard or biomass woodchip

Oliver Latter, managing director of Boomeco, who founded the waste company in 2000

Boomeco was founded by director Oliver Latter in 2000 and has sites in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, and on Avonmouth docks near Bristol.

The company exports processed waste wood and RDF to countries such as Sweden from its Avonmouth site, with the latest Environment Agency figures showing that it exported around 48,500 tonnes of refuse derived fuel (RDF) from the UK during the first 11 months of 2015, including just shy of 6,000 tonnes in November alone.

Dockside

However, the company suffered problems in recent years at its Avonmouth dockside operations, where there have been complaints from local residents about flies, which led to an £18,000 fine from the Environment Agency for “failing to store waste in an environmentally safe manner” (see letsrecycle.com story).

In November 2014, the company said it had invested £3 million at its Avonmouth site in a bid to eradicate the problem by ensuring that all waste was securely contained on the premises.

Boomeco reached an agreement with North Somerset council in 2014 to process 7,000-10,000 tonnes of RDF for export to Sweden each year – a contract which Bristol city council later agreed to join last June, adding a maximum of 40,000 tonnes of RDF to the deal (see letsrecycle.com story).

Separately, the firm agreed a two-year extension in August 2014 to its contract to recycle 6,000 tonnes per year of waste wood from Bristol city council’s household waste recycling centres (see letsrecycle.com story).

Veolia

For Veolia, the expansion into the RDF sector marks a relatively new departure for its UK division which has previously focused on developing energy from waste facilities in the UK. However, involvement in the RDF sector is seen as a way to help boost its commercial waste activities in an increasingly competitive market. And, the Boomeco deal also strengthens its presence in the west of England where local authority opportunities are expected in coming years, including contracts for work in Bristol.