Waste management company RiverRidge Recycling has secured a major equity investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), which provides growth capital to SMEs.
Paddy Graham from BGF and Brett Ross, founder and chief executive of RiverRidge at RiverRidge Recycling’s facility at Duncrue Road in Belfast.
RiverRidge Recycling describes itself as “the largest independent waste management operator in Northern Ireland”, treating over 400,000 tonnes of waste each year on behalf of local authorities, commercial businesses and individual households.
The £10m investment will be used to support RiverRidge’s growth strategy as well as to further develop the group’s existing treatment and operations infrastructure.
The company currently employs over 200 people and operates out of a number of sites located in Belfast, Coleraine, Derry-Londonderry and Portadown.
RiverRidge Recycling is also the lead partner in a consortium which is developing Northern Ireland’s first large scale waste to energy facility, which is nearing completion. The £107m facility in Belfast was co-financed by Green Investment Bank, Equitix and P3P Partners.
RiverRidge also confirmed it has secured a new funding package from Bank of Ireland to further support growth.
BGF
Brett Ross, managing director of RiverRidge, commented: “As a company we have worked tremendously hard over the past five years to allow us to become the market leader in Northern Ireland. It is therefore a significant endorsement of this effort to be able to announce the investment by BGF into our Group.
“We are looking forward to further growing the RiverRidge Group in the coming years and believe we have found partners, in both BGF and Bank of Ireland, who not only are best placed to support this progression, but also understand the strategy thoroughly.”
“As a company we have worked tremendously hard over the past five years”
Brett Ross, managing director
RiverRidge Recycling
Investment
Following the deal, Jim Meredith, chairman of specialist hazardous waste management businesses Augean Plc, has co-invested alongside BGF and has been appointed by RiverRidge as non-executive chairman. Paddy Graham, an investor at BGF, will also join the board of the company.
Mr Graham from BGF said: “This is BGF’s second significant deal in Northern Ireland following the investment made in Derry-based housebuilder Braidwater in 2015. We are delighted to be providing a funding package alongside Bank of Ireland that will help Brett and his team at RiverRidge to confidently move forward with their company.
“Many businesses have ambitions to grow but lack access to funding, or cannot fully achieve their aims using only bank lending. BGF offers an alternative to this. We now have a proven model and an established infrastructure.
“We’re focused on finding strong management teams with deep knowledge of their sector, and we are keen to meet ambitious entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland.”
BGF is an investment company for small and medium-sized businesses. It was set up in 2011 in London to provide a funding option for SMEs, offering an alternative source of money to bank debt. Backed by five of the UK’s main banking groups – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered – BGF is an independent company with up to £2.5bn with which to make long-term equity investments.
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Source: letsrecycle.com General
