The company's parent – Pennon Group, which also owns South West Water – announced that its waste management business made a 29.8 million operating profit, up 31.3% on the previous year.
”Viridor Waste continues to deliver very strong performance based on both organic growth and successful acquisitions.“
– Ken Harvey, Pennon Group
The waste firm – which is among five companies short-listed for the UK largest-ever waste management contract, Manchester (see letsrecycle.com story) – raised its turnover by 35.6% to 248 million in 2004/05.
Acquisitions account for 40.2 million of the 65.2 million rise in Viridor's turnover – the company acquired Thames Waste from Germany's RWE for 30 million in April 2004 (see letsrecycle.com story). The rise in Landfill Tax accounted for 8.2 million of Viridor's turnover increase.
Pennon Group chairman Ken Harvey said the “excellent” results demonstrated further profitable growth and affirmed the company's management strategy. He said: “Viridor Waste continues to deliver very strong performance based on both organic growth and successful acquisitions.”
The company said Viridor's profits increase came on the back of good performance in landfill, landfill gas power generation and the “positive impact” of the 25-year, 450 million Private Finance Initiative recycling and materials handling contract with West Sussex county council.
Landfill
The amount of material sent to Viridor landfills rose by 10% – mostly through the Thames Waste acquisition, which handed the company a four million cubic metre capacity landfill site at Beddington, South London.
December 2004 saw Devon county council granting permission for a further three million cubic metres of landfill space – representing 10 years' usage – at the Heathfield site, near Kingsteignton. However, Viridor's consented landfill capacity overall has decreased from 83 million cubic metres to 80 million cubic metres. The company is filling its capacity at a rate of about five million cubic metres a year.
New technologies
The Devon planning permission is also allowing Viridor to develop a materials recycling facility (MRF) to sort 90,000 tonnes of household waste each year, as well as a MRF to process 75,000 tonnes of commercial/industrial waste and an in-vessel composting plant.
Viridor is also developing in-vessel composting plants at Lackford, Suffolk and Broadpath, Devon – and has already opened a facility at the Beddington site, where it has also gained permission to develop a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant.
Mr Harvey said new waste treatment technologies such as in-vessel composting and MBT “are likely to become increasingly important as councils strive to meet their European Landfill Directive targets requiring the diversion of an increasing proportion of municipal waste from landfill”.
The Pennon Group's overall results included a 9% increase in operating profits to 151 million. Turnover increased by 17% to 554.2 million, with Group debt at 1,118 million, up 44 million.
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