Member Article

ISO Awards lead to contract wins and record year for Recycled UK

A double accreditation triumph has paved the way for £250,000 of new business for a leading Black Country recycling specialist.

Recycled UK, which employs 28 people at its facility in Coseley, took just six months to work towards and successfully secure ISO:9001 and ISO:14001, covering quality and environmental respectively.

It is the first time in the company’s eight year history that it has held these best practice systems and already appears to be paying dividends with reduced energy usage, greater productivity on the shopfloor and a more streamlined ordering process in place.

Two new contracts with automotive customers have already been secured as a direct result of holding the two accreditations and more than £1m of opportunities are in the pipeline.

Paul Green, Managing Director, explained: “We had a lot of the quality and environmental systems already in place, but needed to formalise them in order to be eligible for new tenders – an increasing number of customers are making them a pre-requisite.

“Working with Andy Wheeler from Tritec Solutions, we took a step back from our day-to-day business and looked at areas where we could improve. We made it an entire team effort so everyone contributed and I’m sure that helped us secure the ISO accreditations as quickly as we did.”

He continued: “All of the staff are qualified to NQV Level 2 by the Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board (WAMITAB) and we are now training two members of staff to become quality specialists.

“We see continuous improvement as a key driver in our business; it helps us reduce costs, save money and win new orders.”

Recycled UK, which offers a total plastic waste management service, is on course to secure a record turnover in 2014.

The latest £250,000 haul of contracts will take the firm past the £3m mark and will mean more than 200 tonnes of plastic, cardboard and metals will be going through its dedicated recycling plant every week.

Running parallel with this side of the business is growth in the company’s secure x-ray destruction services.

“We have developed bespoke vision imaging software to extract and dispose of time expired x-ray documentation, ideal for working with the medical sector,” continued Paul, who is joined at the helm by fellow Director Paul Cotton.

“It also takes a digital image of the label, including patient ID, so the NHS Trusts not only receive an electronic record but one that can also be searched for in EXEL to help with recovery of information.

“A substantial 35% of sales is now focused on this specialist capability, an impressive amount considering it counted for nothing two yeas ago.”

Recycled UK has recently been re-accredited by FACT and, by the end of the year, plans to invest more than £100,000 into new recycling equipment.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .