BGF provides £7.5m growth capital into J&B Recycling

J&B Recycling is a waste recycling company operating from two recycling facilities in Hartlepool and a waste transfer station in Middlesbrough. The company provides waste collection, recovery and recycling services to public and private sector organisations throughout the North East, including local authorities, housing authorities, commercial, industrial and also other waste companies who use J&B’s facilities to recycle their customers’ wastes.

The company is run by entrepreneur Vikki Jackson-Smith, who established the recycling business in 2000 to diversify from the solid fuels business that her father Alan Jackson had originally established in the 1970s. Since then, the business has grown to an annual turnover of around £10m and employs 175 people.

BGF provided J&B Recycling with £7.5m of growth capital in December 2014. The long-term funding is helping the business to develop an additional recycling facility in Middlesbrough for treating commercial waste, as well supporting further expansion at existing facilities where household waste is treated.

Following the investment, non-executive director Ross Smith took on the role of non-executive chairman. Ross was formerly CEO of 3i backed MDC Technology and chairman of CSL Dualcom.

J&B Recycling operates in a sector that is subject to strong regulatory growth drivers. Current EU and UK government policy aims to divert as much waste as possible away from costly and capacity-constrained landfill sites, into recycling and recovery.