The UK-based waste management subsidiary of NTR has been re-branded as Greenstar UK, and has announced a brace of acquisitions finalised earlier this month.
The UK business, known as Materials Recovery Ltd (MRL), was formed in late 2001. NTR took a majority shareholding in the company in 2003. Since then it has expanded significantly, with turnover increasing from £1 million in 2002 to an annualised figure of £45 million (€65.7 million) in 2006. It now recycles 112,000 tonnes of waste per year.
Greenstar UK will continue to be managed independently of the Irish business. According to Ian Wakelin, chief executive of Greenstar UK, part of the rationale for the rebranding is to allow the smaller UK company to leverage the reputation Greenstar has built up in Ireland. The combined turnover of Greenstar operations in Ireland and the UK is £130 million.
The first of Greenstar UK's acquisitions this month was of Wastelink Services Ltd, for an undisclosed sum. Wastelink is the UK's largest independent provider of waste management and recycling services. It operates in the commercial and industrial sector, providing waste collection, recycling and disposal services using subcontractors.
The second business bought this month by Greenstar UK is RU Recycling, a company operating in the domestic market, servicing 185,000 households and working with 19 local authorities across the UK.
Speaking in London yesterday at the announcement of the acquisitions, Mr Wakelin noted that developing and extending Greenstar's presence in the domestic market was important to the company's aim of developing new large-scale materials recycling facilities (MRFs).
"New large-scale MRFs require domestic recycling if they're going to work. That's where the volume comes from," he said. Greenstar UK already operates an MRF in Lincolnshire. It inherits from RU Recycling a 50,000 tonnes-per-year MRF in Lancashire, as well as plans for two further facilities. Mr Wakelin said one of these new facilities, near Birmingham, will be among UK's largest. He suggested further expansion could be expected as a number of major UK cities have no large-scale MRFs.
Jim Barry, chief executive of NTR said Greenstar UK's strategy clearly reflects NTR's new corporate strategy. NTR has developed an international presence in its new core sectors with its three subsidiaries Greenstar, Bioverda (bioenergy), and Airtricity (wind energy). Its road and broadband businesses operate in Ireland only.
