RPC bpi acquires leading UK rigid plastic recycler
23 Aug 2018 --- The recycling division of RPC has moved to acquire PLASgran – a leading UK rigid plastics recycler – in a strategic step towards creating a fully circular model in which all packaging is reusable or recyclable. The deal was signed on 13 August 2018. RPC had acquired British Polythene Industries PLC (BPI) to form the RPC bpi recycling division in August 2016.
PLASgran recycles nearly 50,000 tons of rigid plastics, and a series of strategic investments in recent years has positioned the company based in Wimblington, Cambridgeshire as a best-in-class recycler. PLASgran was launched in 1999 and is run by a management team led by Mark Roberts.
RPC bpi Recycled Products is the largest polythene film recycler in Europe, with the scope and expertise to recycle up to 70,000 tons of used plastic a year. As a leading reprocessor the company, with bases in Dumfries, Derbyshire, Gwent and Stroud, recycles polythene from commercial, industrial, packaging and agricultural sources. Together, both companies will endeavor to spearhead the UK’s efforts to meet the surge in demand for packaging made from recycled plastics.
The expanded RPC bpi recycling business will serve the UK and Mainland European markets with recycling capabilities now in excess of 120,000 tons. The merging of two of the UK’s leading names in recycling will give added momentum to creating market-leading sustainable solutions for customers. With the aim to be the leading recycling solutions provider, RPC bpi recycled products has made customer service and environmental stewardship central to its strategy.
Gerry McGarry, Managing Director of RPC bpi Recycled Products explains: “With PLASgran joining our RPC bpi Recycled Products Group, we are now clearly the largest plastics recycler in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. This is great news not just for both our business and our customers, but for the wider society. We are now in a unique new position to help the UK step up its efforts to meet ever more pressing sustainability goals and to help the environment.”
“There is a huge demand for an increase in the UK and European plastics recycling for both environmental and commercial reasons. Many major brands and retailers, for example, are quite rightly demanding their packaging is produced and manufactured from genuine recycled used plastics. With our technology, expertise and newly enlarged business, we can offer our customers a true ‘closed loop’ solution for the supply and recycling of their packaging.”
Commenting further Mark Roberts, MD of PLASgran adds: “We are both respected and well-established recyclers in our markets: RPC bpi recycled products focus on plastic films, whilst we have developed a major presence in the recycling of rigid plastics. Our combined businesses have state-of-the-art recycling equipment, while both teams have an understanding of the issues facing users of plastic packaging who want to see their packaging recycled and remanufactured into new products.”
Roberts, who will continue to run the PLASgran business and will join the RPC bpi recycled products Business Unit Executive Team, continues: “This acquisition provides a major growth opportunity for both our businesses through an extended service offering for our clients. As both organizations accelerate their activities on their environmental stewardship, we will be best positioned to support them on that journey and twin sustainability drives with best business practice.”
Pim Vervaat, CEO of RPC Group, says PLASgran shared RPC’s values in achieving the highest standards in health and safety, environmental performance and quality of output. The management team, led by Mark Roberts, was highly experienced and will bring strong technical capabilities into the group. “PLASgran offers an exciting opportunity for RPC to strengthen and expand its service offering in recycling solutions,” explains Pim. “With the experience of rigid recycling, the acquisition of PLASgran supports RPC’s strategy to be able to have the complete offer of sustainable design and engineering solutions and meet the market requirements.”
Expanding on the 2016 BPI acquisition
RPC acquired British Polythene Industries PLC (BPI) to form the RPC bpi recycling division in August 2016. PLASgran will integrate into this division.
RPC targeted BPI – one of Europe’s largest recyclers of waste polythene films – because of its proven reputation for new product development. Sectors, where BPI had enjoyed market leadership and since benefited RPC, include silage stretch films and sheet, form fill seal films and industrial and consumer packaging.
RPC and BPI synchronized on innovation and complementary knowledge and expertise of key end markets. Like RPC, BPI’s broad portfolio of customers across a wide range of market sectors and geographical regions enabled it to service both large global blue-chip companies and smaller local players.
“The arrival of BPI is an important step in the implementation of our Vision 2020 strategy and allows RPC to enter the European polythene films market through an established platform. BPI will further broaden RPC's range of polymer conversion technologies in line with global peers, establish a new growth platform,” the 2016 press statement read.
“We are delighted to welcome BPI into the RPC Group,” commented RPC Chief Executive Pim Vervaat. “The additional technologies that we can now offer customers confirm our position as one of the world’s leading plastics design and engineering companies with the widest range of products to meet the specific needs of a large number of end markets.”
RPC bpi had an estimated turnover in excess of £2.5 billion (US$3.22 billion) in 2016 with over 20,000 employees, operating from over 140 sites in 29 countries. BPI formed a separate, sixth, division within the company in 2016 called RPC bpi which has now moved to acquire PLASgran this month.
Edited by Joshua Poole
