Waste management firm Biffa has announced it will expand the capacity and scope of its new PET plastic bottle recycling facility in County Durham, increasing its total investment to £27.5m, which will take its combined plastics processing capacity to c120,000 tonnes p.a.
The announcement was made as the company published its final year results for the 52 weeks ended 29 March 2019 with the message that “strong performance” from Biffa’s I&C Division has been driven by both organic and acquisitive growth.
It announced that through the group’s HDPE food grade production plant, 85% of milk bottles in the UK now contain Biffa recycled material.
“We have made a solid start to the financial year and look forward with confidence.’’
Further progress in the development of the Biffa’s energy from waste plans has been made through its US joint venture partner Covanta.
CEO Michael Topham commented: “I am pleased to report another year of strong performance by Biffa. We have delivered a good set of financial results for the year while making further strides in the delivery of our strategy.
“We are making significant progress in positioning the business for future success in an era where how we manage our waste has never been more important and I would like to thank the entire Biffa team for their continued hard work and dedication.
“We have made a solid start to the financial year and look forward with confidence.’’
Biffa has also outlined its support for the ambition contained in the Government’s recently announced Resources and Waste strategy.
Biffa has worked closely with policy makers in the development of the strategy and recently made a call for ‘UK recycling confusion to be sorted’ highlighting in a report that inconsistency and confusion in labelling, sorting and collections are preventing UK households and businesses from turning waste into vital raw materials for our economy.
Biffa’s financial highlights
- Underlying Growth in Net Revenue of 4.4% to £1,030.8m
- Growth in underlying EBITDA to £150.7m (0.5%), and EBIT to £81.7m (0.6%)
- Underlying PBT up 7.4% to £64.0m
- EPS up 7.3% to 20.6p
- DPS up 7.5%