The company's revenues for the period were 399.2 million, with the Group's landfill operations bringing in 181.2 million. The results include four months worth of revenues from the landfill operations formally owned by the Shanks Group, which were acquired by WRG at the end of August 2004.
WRG was itself acquired by equity firm Terra Firma in July 2003, making these the first full year of financial results since the major share of the company was transferred from water group Kelda.
WRG manages about 15 million tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste each year, with about half of this coming through local authority contracts. As well as its landfill revenues, WRG took in 38.7 million through its energy-from waste operations and 45.6 million through its recycling, composting, waste treatment and quarrying arm.
A massive 133.7 million from WRG's revenues were paid as Landfill Tax.
The company said earnings before tax and depreciation were 114.6 million and were “in line with directors' expectations”. Operating profit for the year was 22.8 million with net cash flow from operating activities at 106.6 million.
Contracts
The year in question saw WRG signing a 25-year waste disposal contract with Kent county council to construct and operate a 150 million energy-from-waste plant and recycling facility at Allington. The fluidised bed plant would have the capacity to process 565,000 tonnes of material each year, generating 35MW of electricity for sale to the national grid.
The company said the project “continues to make satisfactory progress with commissioning currently anticipated mid-2006”.
Within its municipal portfolio WRG has also commenced operations on a new 12-year contract to exclusively manage the municipal waste of Luton Borough Council, entailing the operation of three new and refurbished facilities and handling around 100,000 tonnes of waste each year.
WRG has also retained new disposal contracts with the authorities of Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Wakefield and West Berkshire and extended existing contracts with the authorities of Conwy, Denbighshire and Derbyshire.
Management
The company said it has decided to restructure its energy-from-waste management team “in recognition of the key role these activities will play in the future growth of the business”. The company hopes the move will allow it “to exploit new opportunities in generating electricity from waste derivatives and alternative fuels”.
The new Green Energy Plus division will seek to develop opportunities in electricity from landfill gas, Energy-from-Waste, energy from alternative fuels and other renewable sources.
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