Always look for opportunities

At a meeting with Aberdeen council in the early 2000s, Grant Keenan was surprised to learn the council’s garden waste was being put into landfill.

He saw an opportunity to provide a composting service. This soon developed into an organic waste business collecting food and other organic waste from restaurants, care homes, hospitals and cafes as well as from other waste managers, brokers and councils. Using anaerobic digestion, the company transformed the waste into biogas that could be used for electricity, heat or even biofuel for transport.

After expanding in the North East of Scotland, Keenan Recycling was ready to extend its reach into Scotland’s Central Belt. The business was approached by private equity firms to provide capital for the expansion.

“We liked the BGF guys,” says Grant. “They took the time to get to know us. I phoned everybody in Scotland they’d invested in and everyone said they’d had a good experience.”

BGF invested £2.2 million into Keenan Recycling in September 2015. With BGF’s support, the business has expanded to offer a commercial food waste collection service across the entire UK mainland. The award-winning company’s fleet of specialised collection vehicles operate seven days a week, serving customers including major hotel chains, supermarkets and high-street restaurant brands.