Sterecycle heads for expansion after £5.1m equity injection from four investors

The investment will fund the next expansion phase of Sterecycle’s Rotherham plant, which will increase capacity from 100,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 175,000 tpa by the third quarter of 2012.

New investor Finance Yorkshire led the round, investing £1.25m. A second new investor, German businessman Lars Windhorst, and existing investors including Aston Hill Financial from Canada contributed the remaining £3.85m.

Tom Shields, Sterecycle’s chief executive, said: “We’re very pleased to have two new backers on board and for the ongoing support of our existing investors. This funding means we’ll be able to install the first of our new waste-processing autoclaves and take the capacity of the plant up to 175,000 tonnes of waste per annum.

“This added capacity will take us to around break-even for the group as a whole and increase landfill diversion.

“Following that we’ll focus on securing finance for a second new autoclave and finishing the expansion works at Rotherham. We hope to do this in early 2013 – we’ll then be able to process more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per annum. Our contracts with five of the local authorities in the South Yorkshire region together with commercial and trade waste sources will supply us with enough waste to fill this capacity.

“We’re planning for a public listing next year so that we can raise additional funds to grow the business further and develop more sites across the UK.”

Sterecycle uses patented autoclave technology to steam process black bag household and industrial waste.