BGF exits J&B Recycling as high-growth business attracts Spanish buyer

BGF has announced a successful exit from J&B Recycling, generating a 2.4x return on its investment. The company is at the forefront of waste management and recycling in the UK, providing an end-to-end service for commercial and local authority customers across the North and England and Scotland.

Urbaser Ltd – the UK subsidiary of the third largest environmental services provider in Europe – has acquired the business as the Madrid-headquartered group aims to continue to grow its UK footprint.

Our growth is a result of our continued investment in our people, capacity and plant, which has allowed us to deliver genuinely industry-leading processing. Driven by a goal to send less waste to landfill and play our role in 100% waste-free future, BGF’s support offered us the perfect combination of patient long term capital, insight and support. With BGF’s backing and the support of our longstanding team across our four processing sites, we have been able to achieve what we set out to do and hit our growth targets. Crucially, we are also able to recycle almost all of the waste we manage and produce the highest quality recycled materials.

Vikki Jackson-Smith, Chief executive

“When it came to looking for a partner that could support the business in our next chapter, Urbaser Ltd ticked all of the boxes. This deal will allow us to continue our growth within an organisation with shared values and goals. It will also provide the enhanced support for our team and customers that comes with being part of a company of Urbaser’s scale and calibre.”

J&B Recycling will continue to operate under its own name while collaborating closely with businesses across the group. J&B Recycling’s team and customers can expect business as usual with no interruption to services.

Chris Boyes, investor at BGF in Yorkshire and the North East who led the transaction, said: “J&B’s success is testament to impressive leadership from a formidable team in Vikki, operations director Matt Tyrie and an experienced chair, Ross Smith. J&B’s ongoing innovation is helping its growing list of business and Local Authority customers deal with waste more sustainably by providing best-in-class recycling services, which are among the most efficient available. We have worked with Vikki and the team for seven years, and whilst we would have been happy to continue our partnership, this is an excellent transaction for everyone involved with the deal and we look forward to seeing what the business goes on to achieve next.”

Javier Peiro, Managing Director for Urbaser Ltd added: ““The acquisition of such an experienced and well-established operation within the North East represents a significant step in our ambition for growth within the UK marketplace. We are excited to welcome nearly 200 new employees to the Urbaser Ltd family. We look forward to building on the success of J&B Recycling within the region and continuing to deliver exemplary levels of service to the significant network of local authority and commercial and industrial customers. We have a strong history in the collection and processing of recyclable and municipal waste across the UK and internationally, and we are very pleased to build on our existing presence in the North of England.”