Pictured above: Paul Green (Recycled UK), Tim Baldwin
(Advantage West Midlands) and Paul Cotton (Recycled
UK)
A Black Country recycling specialist has fought back from the
downturn in the plastics industry to double its turnover and
complete its move into a new 30,000 sq ft processing facility in
Coseley.
Recycled UK, which specialises in recycling post industrial
waste, has managed to offset declining material prices by
increasing its client base and introducing new services and is now
predicting to turnover £1m by the end of 2010.
This marks a major period of growth for the firm and also comes
as welcome news to the local manufacturing scene, with five new
jobs created as a result of the expansion.
Paul Green, Founder and Managing Director, picked up the
story:
"At the beginning of 2009 we were faced with major reductions in
the value of plastic which left us with two options; the first was
to stand still and probably go out of business and the second was
to become more proactive, look at ways of doing things differently
and actually attack the marketplace."
He continued: "As anyone who knows us will tell you it was
always going to be the latter and we sat down and looked at where
new opportunities existed and what we needed to do to make the most
of them.
"We couldn't just sit back and wait for work to come to us so we
went out and targeted new customers and the results were emphatic.
From working predominantly with automotive, body repair and
domestic products we quickly picked up contracts with local
authorities, lighting manufacturers, high street retailers and even
the people behind the big PVC David Beckham posters you see on
motorway billboards.
"These new business wins have seen our turnover grow to nearly
£600,000 and the only way we could continue to provide the
level of service our customers expected was to move to a new
site."
Backed by this new approach, the company recently moved into the
facility on Cannon Business Park, immediately doubling floorspace
and giving them adjoining modern offices to base the administrative
function in.
Recycled UK has also invested more than £110,000 into new
shredding and granulating machines and a state-of-the-art picking
line, which will see it diversify even further into recycling
unsold CDs produced by recording artists.
"The investment in capital equipment has been made possible
thanks to a £55,000 WRAP/AWM grant, which has helped us speed
up growth by more than a year," explained Paul, who intends to
create a further five new green jobs over the next twelve
months.
"With the new machines up and running we will be processing more
than 80 tonnes of plastic every week and the good news is we will
be selling it back into UK manufacturing and UK products."
Recycled UK provides a complete service from full site surveys
and production audits through to collection and safe removal of all
plastic waste.
It pays higher than normal industry rates for sorted at source
plastic before shredding then granulating it to be sold back into
industry.
Blended plastic is 75% cheaper for manufacturers to buy and,
whilst not suitable for high-end aesthetic products, there are
hundreds of applications it can be used in, making it a valuable
commodity for companies looking to reduce costs.
"The last twelve months have been a rollercoaster of emotion,
but the downturn has certainly revolutionised the way we do
business. We now provide stillages and waste boxes on customer
sites and even have a team out following a local council picking up
damaged wheelie bins ready for recycling," said Paul.
Advantage West Midlands' Tim Baldwin concluded: "This is
excellent news all round with new green jobs being created locally
and a specialist in recycling expanding to ensure more businesses
have the option to divert plastic waste from landfill.
"The WRAP grant has turned an exciting concept into reality and
the economic benefits are there for all to see."