And, speaking to letsrecycle.com, Mr Wakelin highlighted the positive performance of the business’s industrial and commercial division “which makes up 60% of revenues and 50% of profits.”
The chief executive emphasised that recent growth and momentum is not new to the company “We have had good momentum in the business for a long time. We’ve been providing services for 112 years and it’s what we are good at.”
Acquisitions
Acquisitions are playing an important in Biffa’s development and recent ones have been “pretty diverse and made around the UK although not in Scotland”, he remarked.
These include five between 1 April 2017 and today, including O’Brien Waste & Recycling, trade and assets of G&S Waste Management and more recently Amber Engineering in South Wales, trade and assets of HWS Waste in Harrow, London and trade and assets of the food waste business Eco Food Recycling of Ringwood, Hampshire.
In Biffa’s half yearly results today, the company noted: “Looking ahead, we see attractive growth opportunities, including a healthy pipeline of acquisitions, of a range of sizes. We also have scope to continue to develop our infrastructure and services, taking advantage of the significant amount of waste we control. We look forward to reporting on the progress made in our EfW feasibility assessments when we announce our full year results.”
Municipal
The municipal market makes up only 10% of Biffa’s activities noted Mr Wakelin. He confirmed that it was proving to be a “competitive market. But, to be fair it always has been. This is not really linked to recyclate, they are demanding better pricing and margins are lower.”
And, he noted that in terms of underlying operating profit, less than 10% comes from the municipal side. Today’s figures put this at £5.2m for the six months to September 22nd – I&C was £21.3m.
In terms of quality from materials recycling facilities, and investment at Edmonton and the development of a new MRF on Teesside, he said: “We are delivering to the new Chinese standards.”
As for local authority recycling, Mr Wakelin said he did not expect there to be a “rapid growth in recycling and that if you did the comparison with other European countries on the same basis we are doing quite well”.
Health and Safety
The Biffa chief executive also emphasised the importance of health and safety to the business. “This week we are receiving a Sword of Honour from the British Safety Council in recognition that we’ve had a really strong performance on health and safety.”
And, he noted that the award “is good for the waste management industry as a whole.”
This remains an area of high importance for Biffa with the company “trying to improve every day”, added Mr Wakelin.
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