Viridor posts £29m loss for polymers division

This follows a £13m loss the previous year (see letsrecycle.com story).

The loss for 2022/23 was “primarily” put down to the fact that its Avonmouth facility, which it opened in March 2022, “has continued to ramp up its operations but is not yet fully operational”.

However, the company’s energy portfolio remains in good health with Viridor Energy, a holding company for its energy portfolio which also manages some residual waste contracts, posting a £30.8 million profit.

The two sets of results for the subsidiaries were published on Companies House on 12 December and come on the back of the entire group posting a £167.2 million profit for 2022/23 earlier this year. 

Viridor has been approached for comment.

Polymers

Viridor Polymers has around 200 employees and operates sites in Avonmouth and Rochester. In closed its Skelmersdale site earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story).

In a more positive note, the company’s revenues grew from £10.1 million in 2021/22 to £40.2 million in 2022/23, as Avonmouth ramped up operations.

The company also said it is “continuing to invest in modern technologies to enhance efficiency and product quality, which provides the company with a competitive advantage in its markets”.

Avonmouth

The Avonmouth plastics reprocessing facility has the capacity to reprocess over 80,000 tonnes of plastic every year – more than 1.6 billion bottles, tubs, and trays – creating recycled raw material to return to the economy.    

The £317m facility, was opened by Resources and Waste Minister Jo Churchill MP in March 2022. Viridor has been trying to ramp up the site since then. 

Sale

Viridor was acquired by KKR in 2020 for £4.2 billion (see letsrecycle.comstory). Private equity companies traditionally keep hold of firms for around three to six years before a sale is completed.

This has led to some in the sector considering that KKR could opt to sell Viridor in the next couple of years, with the company’s energy production capacity likely to prove popular.

There would be an element of uncertainty around the plastics operation at Avonmouth as this is relatively new but it could prove attractive in light of a desire to see more plastics recycled although the financing of the process is currently less certain than that for energy sales.