Member Article

Sussex horticultural firm goes even greener thanks to £650k funding

Sussex-based Cobbins has acquired a biomass boiler which is the largest in the region to be installed with financial support from Lombard - the asset finance arm of NatWest.

The Ferring horticultural business has installed the new biomass boiler at its nine-acre site, where the company grows flowering pot plants and house plants for supply to garden centres.

The new biomass boiler – which replaces ageing coal and oil powered versions - will bring a number of benefits to the business including a minimum annual fuel saving of £70k.

Lombard provided funding of £650k for the installation of the boiler, which is part of a wider project to increase production capacity at the site. This will see new glasshouses built, with additional funding support from NatWest.

Cobbins will also benefit from the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, which provides payments for heat generation from renewable sources and which will represent a six-figure income each year.

Cobbins’ managing director, George Lisher, said: “We initially went to NatWest with a proposal to build more glasshouses to enable us to increase capacity. We then realised that we could also take advantage of the RHI as part of that, so we added the biomass boiler to our requirements.

“Both Lombard and NatWest have been supportive and good to work with throughout the project. The biomass boiler is now operating and work is underway on demolishing existing glasshouses and replacing them with new ones, which is scheduled for completion in May.

“We’ve been at maximum capacity for four or five years and so hopefully from May we’ll be able to enjoy 18 per cent more growing capacity. That will enable us to service more customers, with the longer-term plan being to replace more glasshouses and further increase our volumes.”

Jade Childs, relationship manager at Lombard, said: “Cobbins is a well established business which was looking to increase both efficiency and capacity. We have been happy to play our part in achieving this, with the biomass boiler bringing significant benefits and enabling the company to expand into the future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .