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The CIWM Journal

February 2010

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Wastes Fast
Following on from their article on the waste industrys top 20 companies, Mark Wilson and Robert Pearce of Catalyst Corporate Finance turn their attention to the 50 fastest growing companies in the waste industry, as introduced by Ben Wood
he phrase in the current economic climate has become a staple of our vocabulary in the last 12 months, but I make no apologies for using it again here when I say that when I was offered the opportunity to run an article on the fastest 50 growing businesses in the waste industry, my response was: Some positive stories on business growth? In the current economic climate? Yes please! Our colleagues at Catalyst Corporate Finance, the company behind our successful Top 20 series of articles carried out the research and have provided us with an impressive list of 50 waste-based businesses that are beating the recession to return some very impressive figures as the table opposite shows. However, in the tradition of all good chart countdowns, youll have to turn the page to uncover those from 10 to two, with our winner profiled on page 22. What I can tell you now, without giving the game away, was that the company that tops the list really was a run-away winner. A compound annual growth rate of more than 170 percent saw it more than double that of even the second-placed business. Of course, posting any positive growth rate should be considered a major success, and those businesses such as Glasdon, Ramshorn and Biffa, placed at 48, 49 and 50 in the list, have themselves delivered a fantastic performance, which brings us nicely onto a breakdown of the primary sectors of the Waste Fast 50. Waste management businesses accounted for 34 percent of the top 50, with some of the industrys most 18

recognised names the aforementioned Biffa, along with Grundon, Cory, Hills Waste Solutions and Bywaters making further strides forward, but it is some newer names that have burst into the top 10. Equipment suppliers and manufacturers accounted for eight of the top 50, while organics, plastics, aggregates, electricals, paper, glass, clinical waste, landfill and mobile phones were all represented, showing that recyclers across the board were capable of achieving growth. Catalyst also noted that more than 20 percent of the companies listed were backed by a private equity firm, including our number one and two placed businesses. Outside of the top 10, these also included Enviroco, AWS Eco Plastics, OSS Environmental, MRS Environmental, PHS All Clear, Agrivert, Cory Environmental and Biffa. Catalyst also looked at the size of the businesses listed, noting that the majority have annual sales of less than 50m (84 percent), with just eight of the top 50 achieving sales of more than 50m. The majority of businesses listed have also been in existence for a number of years typically more than a decade. Despite that statistic, the top two businesses are both relatively young

our second placed business starting operation in only 2006! Organic growth has also been a prominent feature of the top 50 but, once again, our second placed business proves the exception to the rule having completed three bolt-on acquisitions. The waste industrys Fast 50 makes fascinating reading because there is so much movement in candidates that qualify as private groups, said Mark Wilson. We expect other new entrants in next years review as larger players dispose of their non-core subsidiaries and they enter private or financial ownership. Verdant and Shore Recycling would have both been included in the 50, had they not been acquired, according to Catalysts criteria (fully explained on page 22), while Wilson added: The full effects of commodity price volatility and reduced commercial and industrial waste levels have not yet been reflected in the reported figures, so we can expect the 2011 Waste Fast 50 to look a little different. Congratulations to our top 10, and especially to our outstanding winner, and we hope you find the data makes interesting reading and heres to further industry growth in 2011. CIWM

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Company 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Enviroco Limited AWS ECO Plastics Limited Futur Limited Stirling Fibre Limited G.B.N. Services Limited OSS Environmental Holdings Ltd Ascot Environmental Limited T J Transport Limited ECO Sustainable Solutions Limited Centrol Recycling Group Limited Avondale Environmental Limited Roydon Holdings Limited Environmental Waste Controls Ltd Blue Machinery (Spares) Limited WasteCare
2 1

Primary Business Hazardous / Oils Plastic Equipment Paper Skips Hazardous / Oils Equipment Aggregates Organic Regional WM Landfill Plastic Regional WM Equipment Electrical Organic Regional WM Regional WM Regional WM Skips Regional WM Regional WM Aggregates Regional WM Organic Clinical Regional WM Glass Regional WM Equipment Regional WM Regional WM Skips Equipment Hazardous / Oils Regional WM National WM National WM Equipment Equipment

LFY 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2009 2008 2009 2008 2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2008 2009 2008 2009 2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008

CAGR 38 32 29 28 27 25 25 25 24 23 23 19 19 18 17 16 16 16 15 15 14 13 13 12 12 12 11 11 11 10 9 8 8 8 8 8 7 4 4 3

Turnover 28,197 10,193 16,308 20,856 7,902 24,964 65,731 14,393 5,634 19,537 22,963 17,875 23,526 6,083 18,449 8,448 25,808 82,321 44,367 11,928 52,936 6,841 12,166 13,488 7,940 12,081 53,916 30,129 5,226 9,986 16,652 25,567 12,040 24,650 11,392 11,137 201,518 776,500 17,640 32,274

Website cutwastecosts.com jayplas.co.uk futurwaste.co.uk stirlingfibre.co.uk gbnservices.co.uk ossgroupltd.com planetgroup.co.uk tj-waste.co.uk thisiseco.co.uk centrolgroup.co.uk avondalelandfill.co.uk roydon.com ewc.eu.com bluemachinerycentral.com wastecare.co.uk eharper.co.uk

Harpers Environmental Limited MRS Environmental Services Limited Grundon Waste Management Ltd Cleansing Service Group Limited ODonovan (Waste Disposal) Limited PHS All Clear Limited Silent Valley Waste Services Limited H. Sivyer Transport Limited Cumbria Waste Management Ltd Agrivert Limited Cliniserve Limited Hills Waste Solutions Limited Reuse Collections Limited Premier Waste (UK) Holdings PLC ACM Waste Management PLC Devon Waste Management Limited Bywaters (Leyton) Limited Taurus Waste Recycling (Holdings) Ltd Whale Tankers Limited Castle Environmental Limited Chambers Waste Management PLC Cory Environmental Holdings Ltd Biffa Limited Ramshorn Limited Glasdon Group Limited

grundon.com csgwasteman.co.uk odonovan.co.uk phs.co.uk

hsivyer.com cumbriawaste.co.uk agrivert.co.uk cliniserve.co.uk hills-group.co.uk berryman-uk.co.uk premierwasteuk.com acmplc.com devonwaste.co.uk bywaters.co.uk taurus-waste.com whale.co.uk castle-environmental.co.uk chambers-group.co.uk coryenvironmental.co.uk biffa.co.uk skipunits.co.uk glasdon.com

Table 1: the Waste Fast 50 companies as ranked from 50 to 11 1 Ascot Environmental Limited is the primary trading entity within UK Capital Venture (Holdings) Limited 2 WasteCare is the trading name of Silver Lining (Holdings) Limited LFY refers to the latest financial year for which data was available CAGR refers to the companys compound annual growth rate Turnover is measured in thousands GBP for the last available year

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Riverdale Paper PLC Primary Business: Paper LFY: 2008 CAGR: 39% Turnover: 7 281 Web: www.riverdalepaper.plc.uk GSS Support Services Limited Primary Business: Regional WM LFY: 2009 CAGR: 50% Turnover: 7 442 Web: www.gdd-supportservices.co.uk

THE RIVERDAlE Paper Group started life as Riverdale Recycling, offering services for the recovery and recycling of all types of paper and board. The organisation has grown through the addition of other business services and now consists of three separate, specialist divisions of security shredding, paper recycling and waste recovery. Riverdale Security Shredding now provides a comprehensive data destruction service, encompassing the secure disposal of all types of digital media and equipment, whilst the Groups recycling services have broadened to include all types of waste recovery and disposal with the establishment of Riverdale Waste.

GSS, AS its name suggests, is a multi-service support organisation, providing a range of specialist services in areas that are non-core activities for its clients, including waste management, recycling and cleaning services, hence its inclusion in the Waste Fast 50. With access to UK, European and worldwide recycling markets, GSS waste management services include fully managing its clients waste streams and generating revenues, while it has also developed an expertise in managing WEEE, but its primary goal remains waste minimization. It strives, where possible, to return recycled materials to its clients to make a truly closed loop system.

Celtic Recycling Limited Primary Business: Electrical LFY: 2008 CAGR: 39% Turnover: 7 838 Web: www.celtic-recycling.co.uk

Enpure Holdings Limited Primary Business: Equipment LFY: 2009 CAGR: 51% Turnover: 81 417 Web: www.enpure.co.uk

CElTIC RECYClInG describes itself as a specialist in the recovery and recycling of end of life heavy electrical equipment, as well as hazardous waste treatment and disposal, and it has used the skills developed in response to the electricity industry demands to grow its business in other sectors with plant or equipment disposal needs, such as rail network operators and major power users. Based in Bridgend since 1993, the company has made notable strides, with 2010 seeing it set to look at making innovative use of bar code technology to track movements of hazardous and non-hazardous waste consignments for enhanced auditing and monitoring purposes.

EnPURE IS a process engineering business offering services from design through to construction for the environmental and industrial sectors. Operating in the UK and overseas, the company turned its attention to the solid waste market early in 2000 and is one of three businesses in the top 10 to be backed by a private equity firm Spirit & Maven. It is a design-led business supported by effective project delivery. It offers services from concept and feasibility studies, through design and build, to operational support services. Enpure offers both its own key technologies and those of others, including autoclaving, aerobic and anaerobic MBT, materials recover and fuel preparation.

Choice Waste Management Limited Primary Business: Exporter LFY: 2008 CAGR: 39% Turnover: 16 329 Web: www.choicewastemanagement.com

J&A Young (Holdings) Limited Primary Business: Plastic LFY: 2008 CAGR: 56% Turnover: 43 525 Web: www.jayplas.co.uk

CHOICE WASTE Management recycles plastic, paper and cardboard waste. The company was established by Rizwan Iqbal in 1997 after identifying opportunities throughout the world in waste recycling, and started by exporting plastic packaging waste. From its small origins the company has since grown into an organisation that is now an accredited exporter of packaging waste (being able to issue PERns), a registered waste carrier and also registered as an exporter of waste materials to China with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection & Quarantine of the P.R. of China (AQSIQ).

ESTABlISHED In 1975, J&A Young leads the plastics specialists in the Waste Fast 50 a strong category with three companies in the top 25. Its five sites, covering Birmingham, Loughborough, Derby and Manchester employ the latest technologies and the company currently collects and recycles post-consumer waste from several major retailers, which is used in the production of refuse sacks and builders film, to name just a couple of the recycled products on offer. Its sorting plant in Derby is the only plastic sorting facility in the UK capable of separating all polymers within a plastic bottle grade, by both type and colour.

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HW Martin Waste Limited Primary Business: Regional WM LFY: 2009 CAGR: 62% Turnover: 26 704 Web: www.hwmartin.com Reconomy (Holdings) Limited Primary Business: Regional WM LFY: 2008 CAGR: 84% Turnover: 74 527 Web: www.reconomy.com

THE MARTIn Group of companies has delivered public and private works contracts for over 30 years. The Groups key areas of activity are waste recycling and management; traffic management systems; commercial fencing and vegetation management; permanent and temporary road safety barriers; and plant and vehicle provision and maintenance. The waste recycling and management division, HW Martin Waste ltd, collects, separates, bales and provides re-processors with glass, plastics, paper, card, metals, concrete & rubble, wood and garden waste. Recycled materials go back into the manufacturing process to make new products including bottles, paper and aggregates. The green waste is composted and used in agriculture, horticulture and domestic gardens. The companies waste management services also include operating household waste recycling centres, Materials Recycling Facilities and managing transfer stations and collection contracts. HW Martin has a rolling programme of research into new outlets for recyclable materials. The company diverts over 300 000 tonnes of recyclable material each year and it says none of it goes to landfill.

Community Waste Ltd Primary Business: Regional WM LFY: 2009 CAGR: 68% Turnover: 14 519 Web: www.communitywaste.org

AT A time when many businesses are diversifying in order to grow, it is refreshing to read almost immediately on Community Wastes website that it considers itself a recycling company not a waste management business. Among the services it offers, however, is not only the handling of recyclable waste, but the design, construction and operation of materials recovery facilities (MRFs), the marketing of recyclable materials and a full audit trail. Working with paper, glass, plastics and metals, Community Waste currently handles 200 000 tonnes of recyclables per annum and it has its own environmental objective to achieve 100 percent diversion from landfill by finding new markets for all other materials that are part of its own dedicated Materials Expansion Research Program. The company has four MRFs, in West Oxfordshire, Doncaster, Sheffield and Milton Keynes (MK), with the 93 000 tonne per annum MK site standing as an example of Community Wastes expertise in design, construction and operation. In December 2009 it signed a 15-year, 150m contract to continue sorting dry recyclables on behalf of Milton Keynes Council the sort of development that has helped propel the company into the top three fastest growing waste businesses in the UK.

OF All the companies in the Fast 50 Reconomy was one of only a few to be formed less than 10 years ago and is one of only 20 percent of businesses to be PE backed. It was also recognised for adopting the buy and build strategy whereby a company initially invests in a business platform and then acquires smaller business to bolt on. Reconomy Holdings ltd was formed in July 2006 to develop a business in the UK recycling and waste management sector. To date, is has made 12 acquisitions and the business has annualised turnover of approximately 80m. The largest part of the group is currently Reconomy Solutions, the leading national outsourced waste services provider, which operates nationwide recycling focused waste management and compliance services. In addition, Reconomy has to date acquired a total of seven businesses, operating in the East Midlands and East Anglia regions, providing a broad range of recycling and waste management services to customers in the commercial and industrial sector. These businesses have been re-branded as Reconomy Oakley, Reconomy Alibone and Anglia Recycling. These brands are being developed through further investment in sorting and processing facilities in order to minimise the amount of waste going to landfill. Reconomy completed the acquisition of nutrafeed, a company specialising in recycling packaged food wastes, based in Wrexham. Mark Wilson, Catalyst Corporate Finance, said: Reconomy is a well known example of a private equity backed waste business pursuing a rapid buy-and-build strategy. I know that it is well known to many regional operators and there is a lot of interest throughout the industry as to how successful its growth model will ultimately turn out to be.

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Eazyfone Limited Primary Business: Mobile Phones LFY: 2009 CAGR: 172% Turnover: 36 246 Web: www.eazyfone.com

DESCRIBED BY the authors of this research as by far the fastest growing waste recycling business, Eazyfone registered a compound annual growth rate of 172 percent, more than double that of even the second placed Reconomy a truly outstanding performance and made all the more impressive by the fact that the mobile phone recycling sector was not the best represented in the top 50. In fact, its only representative in the top 50 was Eazyfone! Eazyfone is also one of the youngest companies in the top 50, being formed in the last decade (in 2001), but growing rapidly over the last three years in particular. Unlike many of the companies listed here, whose customers are local authorities and corporate clients, Eazyfones customer base is purely private consumers, and Catalyst expects to see even further growth from the business as it exports its business model to Europe and expands its service to other, associated products, such as MP3 players, digital cameras, laptops and satellite navigation systems in the near future. But what exactly does it do? Eazyfone Limited is comprised of five brands: FoneAid, Envirostudents, Fones4Schools, Envirocharities and its most prominent brand, Envirofone.com. Envirofone is a mobile phone recycling operation that collects and refurbished old handsets and either remarkets or recycles them, and is the most recognised and high profile of the Eazyfone stable/ The Envirofone brand was added to the Eazyfone range in 2005 and remains committed to supporting a greener environment and this is how. The company strives to re-use every phone it receives and grades them all accordingly, paying the sender an appropriate fee depending on the model and its quality. Those that can be used or easily refurbished go into stock for re-sale, while those that cannot be re-used are reprocessed, valuable components recovered and the remainder smelted for energy recovery. The handsets are recovered from individuals and charity

Reproduced with kind permission of CIWM and IWM Business Services

organisations, and Envirofone has paid out more than 30m to its customers to date. As part of its commitment to the environment it has provided funds to help save endangered rainforests, and under the Envirocharirities brand you will find such organisations as Barnados, Age Concern, Caudwell Childrens Recycles and Rainforest Concern. Managing director, nick Brown (pictured atop a pile of mobile phone handsets), has been with the business since June 2008 and he told CIWM: Eazyfone trading as Envirofone has enjoyed an exceptional years growth. The hard work and dedication of our team has really paid off, and our strategic business plan is reaping impressive dividends. Were thrilled to be listed in CIWMs Waste Fast 50 and look forward to continued success in 2010.

Waste Fast 50 Methodology

The Catalyst Corporate Finance Waste Fast 50 2010 ranks the fastest growing private waste services businesses in the UK by sales. Criteria for inclusion: the Waste Fast 50 assesses waste services businesses which are registered in the UK as private, independent and unquoted companies. This category includes private companies that are backed by private equity houses. All companies considered for inclusion in the Waste Fast 50 achieved a level of annual sales of 5m or above in at least one of the three financial years assessed. Exclusions: companies which have filed abbreviated accounts at Companies House without disclosing sales levels are excluded. Unaudited management accounts are not accepted due to the absence of any third party validation. Companies that have any shares or other financial instruments listed on a stock exchange, or where any of their shares are held by any UK or overseas quoted company, do not qualify for inclusion. Metal recyclers have been deliberately excluded as this represents a very distinct niche within the recycling industry. Data-collection methods: companies have been identified through several research methods including the analysis of information from Companies House, financial databases, press coverage and other research. Any firm which believes that it may not automatically be included in the 2011 Fast 50 due to the unavailability of public statutory accounts information but which believes it has a verifiable case for inclusion, is invited to contact Robert Pearce of Catalyst Corporate Finance at robertpearce@catalystcf.co.uk

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