The figures in the company’s preliminary results announced this morning show profits up to 37.5 million an increase of 9 million on the previous year.
Paul Rackham, executive chairman, highlighted four aspects of the business during 2000 as well as noting that in January 2001 WRG completed the acquisition of Hanson Waste Management for 185 million, funded by new bank facilities.
Mr Rackham singled out:
- November 2000 – a major contract to handle 200,000 tonnes of household and municipal waste for Wigan council for 10 years
- Several new facilities were opened including recycling centres at Haverhill and Norwich and composting operations at Gowy in Cheshire and Boston in Lincolnshire
- WRG opened the UK’s largest waste to energy power station fuelled by landfill gas at Arpley in Cheshire.
- WRG committed the maximum permissible credits of 10 million from landfill tax to WREN, an independent environmental body.
Looking ahead, Mr Rackham said that the group is already benefiting from the government’s statutory targets for local authorities to achieve recycling or composting rates of at least 25% in respect of household waste by 2005.
Recycling
“These targets are focusing local authority customers towards economic and sustainable recovery and composting which Waste Recycling provides through its network of recycling stations using proven processing methods. With over 50% of our revenue arising from local authority contracts the potential to add value is substantial.”
The executive chairman added that a key aspect for the company is to provide commercial solutions for its customers’ needs, in particular “to meet their recycling obligations”.
Giving more detail on the company’s activities in 2000, managing director John Huntington noted the growth in the group’s
green waste composting activities, in which we are now a UK leader. “Two important facilities opened during the year. At Gowy landfill site, near Chester, some 12,000 tonnes of green waste per year is processed, joining existing facilities which already handle 25,000 tonnes per year in Cheshire. The second major facility opened in 2000 was at our Boston landfill site in Lincolnshire where 12,000 tonnes of green and agricultural waste is processed each year.”
Mr Huntington also said that the new Haverhill recycling facility in Suffolk will serve the local business community and will allow recyclable materials such as cardboard and paper to be recovered from waste produced by shops, offices and factories. This centre has a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year, which may in the future include household waste from which recyclable materials can be recovered.
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