Organic waste management firm Keenan Recycling is extending its reach across Scotland after a £2.2million investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF).
Keenan, based at New Deer, Aberdeenshire, opened a base at Linlithgow in August and has also invested £700,000 in a fleet of six lorries to roll out its award-winning service to customers in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The BGF cash boost will trigger further expansion in the central belt, where the firm is already collecting food waste from more than 600 clients and is on track to reach 1,000 businesses within the next month.
Family-owned Keenan launched its commercial food waste collection service in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire in 2010 and now processes more than 60,000 tonnes of waste each year, transforming it into British Standards Institute-accredited compost.
The company has won awards for recycling food, garden and other organic waste into compost for agricultural and horticultural use, reducing the need to use chemical fertilisers.
Managing director Grant Keenan said: “We’ve seen our number of clients more than triple from 600 to in excess of 2,000 since the Scottish Government introduced its waste regulations in January 2014, which means that all local councils have to collect food waste and all businesses that produce more than 50kg a week can’t send their leftover food to landfill sites.
“More than 1million people already benefit from our services, and so we’re excited to be able to bring the same opportunities to clients in the central belt too.
“This investment from BGF will allow us to speed up our expansion … and help even more customers to reduce the cost of dealing with their waste.”
BGF, the independent company providing growth capital for small and mid-sized businesses, is taking a minority equity stake in the firm and also a seat on the board.
Serial entrepreneur Jim Clark, the founder of Inverurie and Invergordon-based oil and gas waste management company MSIS, joins the top team as chairman.
BGF investor Richard Pugh said: “We have tracked Keenan Recycling for several years and been impressed by how they have built a highly successful business, with consistent growth of more than 30% per annum.
“The market backdrop continues to be supportive, with the Scottish Government committed to the tightest recycling targets in the UK.
“Now is the right time to invest as the business is expanding rapidly to meet demand in the central belt, and to prepare for further tightening of regulations in January 2016.”