Member Article

Property market boom gives Barnsley industrial cleaning firm a major boost

Barnsley company, MEL Ltd, which cleans up contaminants, is growing and relaunching, thanks in part to the recovery of the housing market.

MEL Limited has cleaned up sites including an old chemical factory in Huddersfield, a former MOD base in London and land at Glasgow Airport. It also works with all the major petroleum companies and with insurers to sort out oil spills and leaks.

The company, based at Carlton, is re-launching and has been backed by Enterprising Barnsley, run by Barnsley Council.

Nearly 20 years ago MEL started carrying out remediation of contaminated land, but the recession meant there was less work cleaning up development land.

The company diversifiedinto cleaning up domestic oil spills and is used by almost all the major insurance companies and loss adjustors.

Now, with the revival of the property market, developers and house builders need more sites decontaminated and that side of the business has recently started to pick up.

Director Paul Theile said: “About five years ago we moved in to cleaning up domestic oil spills to take up the slack in the business due to the decrease in workload in the development sector. We started with just three people in the oil spill division and now have 20 people working across the UK and Ireland.

“The development sector is now recovering; so we are seeing growth across both sides of the business.”

MEL has been given free support by Enterprising Barnsley in areas ranging from marketing and branding to IT and gaining accreditation. The company employs a total of 28 staff across both divisions and has seen turnover increase year on year.

Shaun Higginbottom, of Enterprising Barnsley, said: “The work MEL do is fascinating and extremely important. They work all over Britain and Ireland, so it’s great that they have their headquarters here in Barnsley.

Enterprising Barnsley is supported financially by the European Union and has attracted £2,259,511 investment from the European Regional Development Fund as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development, through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .