A DECLINE in the amount of waste being generated by households since the beginning of the recession has pushed down profits in some of Ireland’s largest private waste management companies.
The latest reports filed to the Companies Registration Office for Greenstar and Panda show a downturn in 2010-2011.
Greenstar increased its revenue to €126.2 million in the year ending March 31st, 2011, but made a loss of €64.1 million. (Excluding an impairment charge of €49.9 million, the company’s losses stood at €14.2 million.)
In the accounts filed with the office, the company put its increased losses down to the reduction in commercial and landfill prices and the “continued reduction in waste volumes due to the recession”.
Adnap Holdings, the waste management business that includes Panda Waste, had a turnover of almost €50 million up to the end of 2010 and post-tax profits of €974,384 in the same year. However this was down almost €1 million on the previous year.
Difficult trading conditions in the sector were underlined last October when Mr Binman, a waste collection and recycling service in Munster and Galway, went into receivership. The Limerick-based company had a turnover in 2010 of €34 million, according to figures which were revealed in court.
The company has unlimited status since 2008. The group, which has its registered offices at Grange, Kilmallock, Co Limerick, employs 331 people, about 10 independent contract staff and claimed that another 200 people were indirectly dependent on it for their livelihoods. It has almost 57,000 domestic customers and 5,500 commercial customers.
More positive results have been posted by Thornton’s Recycling, which trades under Pádraig Thornton Waste Disposal Ltd. It had a turnover of €27.7 million in 2010 and experienced a retained profit of €832,454. This compared to a €12.2 million loss in the previous financial year.
The Environmental Protection Agency noted in its most recent report that the amount of household waste being generated fell by 5 per cent in 2010, despite a growth in population as people have less disposable income and are therefore buying less and disposing of less.
Greyhound, the company which has generated much news in recent months after taking over Dublin City Council’s waste collection service, does not file accounts in Ireland, having reorganised its corporate structures in December 2010.
Group owners Michael and Brian Buckley transferred their shares in the companies to limited liability companies in the Isle of Man, where such companies do not have to publish accounts.
The last accounts available for Greyhound Recycling Recovery Ltd, which has since become an unlimited company, deal with the period to the end of March 2009, when it reported a post-tax loss of €63,341, although it did carry forward a retained profit of over €8.4 million.
Oxigen is also exempt from disclosing its accounts having undertaken unlimited status in 2009. In its last filed accounts as a limited company in 2008, the last year for which financial records are available, Oxigen Environmental Ltd, the arm of the group which deals with the collection, recycling and disposal of waste, had a turnover of almost €81 million, when it recorded a profit of €13.3 million.
PANDA
(Adnap Holdings Ltd)
Accounting period:Year ended December 31st, 2010
Turnover:€49,770,879
Post-tax profit:€974,384
Employees: 245
Established in 1973 and owned by Eamon Waters since 1990, Panda operates in two of the four Dublin authority areas (Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal), Louth and Meath.
According to its website, Panda operates a fleet of 120 vehicles and five waste management facilities. It handles more than 500,000 tonnes of waste annually and serves more than 150,000 domestic and 6,000 commercial customers.
OXIGEN
Environmental Ltd
Accounting period:Year ended March 31st, 2008
Turnover:€80,931,968
Post-tax profit:€13,299,740
Employees: 508
First established as Wheel Bin Services by Seán Doyle back in 1987, the Oxigen Group became an unlimited company in 2009. According to its website, the group, of which Oxigen Environmental Ltd is an arm, handles the waste of 100,000 domestic, commercial and industrial customers in Kildare, Waterford, Cavan, Westmeath, Meath, Drogheda and Dublin.
GREYHOUND
Recycling Recovery Ltd
Accounting period:Year ended March 31st, 2009
Turnover:not stated
Post-tax loss: €63,341 (retained profit carried forward €8,456,919)
Employees: not stated
Greyhound Recycling Recovery was at the centre of a media storm earlier this year when it took over the waste collection service of Dublin City Council, which had 140,000 customers on its books.
The company previously took over South Dublin County Council’s waste collection service and has been operating the city’s green bin service for the past three years. According to its website, it also provides waste services to 3,500 companies throughout Ireland.
THORNTONS
Recycling (Pádraig Thornton Waste Disposal Ltd)
Accounting period:Year ended December 31st, 2010
Turnover:€27,708,749
Post-tax profit:€832,454
Employees: 214
Established in 1979 by Pádraig and Carmel Thornton, the company operates a fleet of more than 100 trucks servicing some 35,000 residential and commercial customers in Dublin, Kildare and Meath.
In 2009, it invested €2 million in solid recovered fuel technology and also operates a compost sector at Kilmainhamwood, Co Meath.
In Dublin it has a mixed dry recyclables recovery facility, an end-of-life vehicle plant, confidential shredding, a WEEE recycling depot, a wood- chipping operation and other facilities.
GREENSTAR
(Greenstar Holdings Limited)
Accounting period:Year ended March 31st, 2011
Turnover:€126,235,000
Post-tax loss:€64,097,000 (inc €49.9m impairment charge)
Employees: More than 670
Greenstar, according to its website, provides household waste and recycling services to more than 70,000 household customers in Cork, Dublin, Waterford city, Wexford, Wicklow, Sligo, Donegal, Kilkenny, Galway, Meath and Kildare. It also provides commercial waste management services to more than 25,000 business customers and owns and operates four landfill sites.