Veolias French recycling business hit by downturn

The French waste, water and energy giant – which owns the UK's largest waste management firm Veolia Environmental Services – has posted details of its consolidated revenue as of September 30, 2008.

The results show that, while the company's revenue rose 15.3% from the same point in 2007 – from €22,821million (£19,631m) to €26,316 million (£22,629m), operating cash flow was limited for its waste business in the third quarter by the “weaker economic and business environment”.

And, within France, the company reported that its sorting and recycling business was particularly affected – despite overall revenue rising 14.3%.

Discussing its French situation in particular, the company revealed: “Organic growth benefited from brisk business in the treatment of non-hazardous household and industrial waste (landfills and incineration) while the sorting-recycling and trading business waste affected by the economic slowdown in the third quarter.”

Despite these problems, however, the results show that Veolia's consolidated revenue for its waste business grew 15.5 % between September 2007 and September 2008 – from €6,678 million (£5,744m) to €7,712 million (£6,633m).

Veolia Environnement's UK business – Veolia Environmental Services – also achieved “strong growth” (up 10.3% compared to the same period the year before and boosted by exchange rates) until September 30 2008, with the company attributing this to the contribution of “new integrated contracts.”

And, the firm reported that the acquisition of container manufacturer Sulo in Germany, Bartin Recycling Group in France and VSA Tecnitalia (formerly TMT) in Italy had lead to 12.6% external growth.

Summing up the situation, the company said: “Operating cash flow and operating income were stable as compared with 2007. They benefited from the satisfactory contribution from operations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and were negatively impacted by the translation of foreign currency into euros, by the difficulties in Germany, as well as, in the third quarter, by the initial signs of the economic slowdown, particularly in France.”