Wyvern prepares for sale with appointment of advisors

Environmental consultant Enviros was appointed to work with Wyvern and the council, along with financial consultant Deloitte and commercical lawyers Evershed.

Corporate director of resources at the county council, Chris Billsland, told letsrecycle.com that the council was looking for a new partner for a possible 25 year contract and said it made financial sense to move Wyvern, which operates as a LAWDC – local authority waste disposal company – into the private arena.

”we want to make way for new technologies and capital “
– Chris Billsland – Somerset county council

“Wyvern's main business has been in landfills, but we want to make way for new technologies and capital in order to help us facilitate Somerset's Municipal Waste Strategy,” he said.

Mr Billsland said that he expected “all of the big waste companies to be interested” to be interested in Wyver and that a decision on a partner would be made in about six months.

But for at least the next five years Mr Billsland emphasised that it would be business as usual while work continued at the 18 waste sites that Wyvern runs in Somerset.

The plan to sell Wyvern follows a flurry of waste company sales in the West County. At the end of last year Devon Waste Management was bought by Viridor Waste Management and County Environmental Services is up for sale as part of a Private Finance Initiative deal in Cornwall.

New facility

Wyvern has diversified into composting over the past couple of years and its new 500,000 composting facility, near Bridgewater, took its first 7 tonne load of compost today. The waste will be turned into a soil conditioner and sold in 40 litre bags to the public.

Chris Jonas Wyvern's general manager of contracts said that setting up the new operation will relieve the pressure on its composting facility at Priorswood in Taunton which is receiving an increasing amount of green waste each year.

The new facility at Wyvern's Walpole landfill is expected to take 15,000 tonnes of green waste a year. This is the third Wyvern composting site and will take the company’s green waste composting capacity up to 35,000 tonnes each year.