A fast-growing recycling firm is expanding in Middlesbrough and creating new jobs, after securing £7.5m in growth capital.
J&B Recycling has been awarded the funding by Business Growth Fund (BGF).
Hartlepool-based J&B, which already employs 175 at sites including Middlesbrough, will use the capital to develop a new facility for treating commercial waste and expanding existing facilities in a move that’s set to create another 25 jobs.
Operating from two recycling facilities in Hartlepool and a waste transfer station in Middlesbrough, J&B provides waste collection, recovery and recycling services to public and private sector organisations throughout the North-east.
It also delivers and processes large tonnages at its Hartlepool facility, due to a string of successful national contract wins.
Customers include local authorities, housing authorities, commercial and industrial businesses and other waste companies who use J&B’s facilities to recycle their customers’ wastes.
It aims to divert waste away from landfill by increasing the volumes and types of rubbish that can be recycled and reducing waste removal costs for customers. The company was the first in the Tees Valley to set up a plastic bottle bank scheme and among the first to offer co-mingled recyclable collections for commercial customers.
Managing director Vikki Jackson-Smith established the recycling business in 2000 to diversify from the solid fuel business that her father Alan Jackson had originally established in the 1970s. Since then, J&B has grown to a yearly turnover of £10m.
Vikki said the company had always viewed itself as an innovator within the industry, from its early days of recycling glass bottles to the development of its state-of-the-art materials recycling facility.
She said: “This investment will further enhance our reputation as we look to collect, recover and recycle more and more waste to put to new uses.
“Together with our advisers, Cavu Corporate Finance, we reviewed the UK development capital market for investment and I was delighted with the substantial interest that our plans created amongst the funding community.
“We believe BGF will be the ideal partner for us – they take a long term view, are experienced investors in family businesses and the chemistry felt right from the very first meeting.
“We are now looking forward to working with BGF to take our investment plans forward and make J&B a very significant national player in the waste recycling sector.”
Independent company BGF was set up to ‘help Britain’s growing businesses’ according to bosses. The deal with J&B is the company’s first investment on Teesside and follows an £8m investment previously made into Durham-based community pubs estate, Wear Inns.
BGF investment director, Richard Taylor, said: “J&B has developed from a small business into a reputable, established ethical recycling and waste management company, with an extremely strong family management team. Vikki is an excellent role model for aspiring female entrepreneurs, as she has built a business with longevity and the prospects for excellent future growth.
“We are also pleased to extend our portfolio into Teesside, increasing our investment momentum in the North-east and offering much needed additional infrastructure into the local community. The creation of jobs will help the areas of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, and we are looking forward to helping the company to develop further in the coming months.”
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