Yorkshire-based family firm Brocklesby is sold to global energy giant St1 Nordic

Energy company St1 Nordic Oy has acquired 100% of Brocklesby, which is one of the UK's leading refiners in the field of used cooking oil and fatty food waste.

Brocklesby, which is based in North Cave and has 80 staff, has forged strong partnerships with a large number of restaurants, retailers and food manufacturers in the UK. The collection volumes produce over 46.000 tonnes of output annually.

Jim Whittaker, Corporate Finance Director at Grant Thornton, who provided advice in connection with the deal. said: “The Brocklesby story is a brilliant example of an entrepreneurial family creating a high growth, market-leading business with great sustainability credentials.

"This made the company attractive to international energy companies who are increasingly looking to transition away from fossil fuels towards renewables sources.

“The Brocklesby team have developed a state-of-the-art refinery which has underpinned the company’s growth. We are confident that under the ownership of St1, Brocklesby is well-placed to continue its expansion.”

The shareholders of Brocklesby were advised by Grant Thornton (Jim Whittaker, Simon Keppie, James Boreman) and Gosschalks (Nigel Beckwith, Andrew Tarbutt, Emma Orriss, Charlotte Chilcott).

St1 Nordic was advised by Bird & Bird (Nick O’Donnell, Remy Browning).

In a statement, St1 Nordic said: "The acquisition of Brocklesby will strengthen St1’s value chain further upstream towards feedstock collection. It will provide feedstocks for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production. A new biorefinery is under construction on the St1 refinery site in Gothenburg.

"The biorefinery will have an annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes of renewable fuels production and is expected to commence its operations in 2023. It is designed to optimize production of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. St1 already produces advanced ethanol and biogas from waste."

Henrikki Talvitie, CEO of St1 Nordic Oy. said: "“By investing in renewable energy and in the transition of the energy sector while ensuring the necessary cash flow, we are solving global energy challenges for our part, step by step.

"Entering the sustainable feedstock business in the UK is a concrete step in consistent and long-term implementation of our growth strategy. At the same time, it strengthens our feedstock sourcing for our own growing renewable fuels production and enables development of future growth in a new business area. Acquiring Brocklesby is a significant reinforcement of our value chain and results in more and more sustainable feedstocks for our premium energy products that we will serve our customers with."