Member Article

Grant Thornton leads strategic sale of waste management group

A Corporate Finance team from Grant Thornton UK LLP has led the strategic sale of a market-leading and innovative waste management company to an acquisitive Scandinavian group, who will use the acquisition as a springboard to further UK growth.

Family-owned O’Donovan Waste Disposal Ltd, which is headquartered in London, was founded in 1959 by Joe O’Donovan, and had been led for more than 30 years by his daughter, Jacqueline.

The business, which specialises in processing construction waste, has won multiple awards for its investment and innovation in the sector. It has a state-of the-art facility at Alperton near Wembley. Operating 24/7 O’Donovan’s materials recycling facilities are among the most sustainable in the industry. The company now has around 150 employees.

O’Donovan Waste Disposal has been acquired by Sortera, a leading Nordic-based group which was founded in 2006 and has now made 17 acquisitions. The purchase of O’Donovan is its first in the UK.

Sebastian Wessman, CEO of Sortera.said: We are very happy to now join forces with O´Donovan. For a long time, they have carried out impressive work, to become one of the leading and most prominent construction recyclers in London. O´Donovan has a strong customer focus and their systematic work with environment and health and safety has resulted in several prestigious awards, as well as a strong reputation among both customers and employees. I am proud to grow Sortera with a company who share our values of strong customer focus and a sustainable approach to business. We wish all employees at O’Donovan a warm welcome to the Sortera family“

Jacqueline O’Donovan, Managing Director of O’Donovan. said: I look forward to continuing to develop our business in the UK with Sortera as a strong owner who understands and appreciates our work with sustainability, quality and health and safety. Sortera will give us the right preconditions to continue our successful development path and to enable new investments and development initiatives“.

Mike Hughes, Corporate Finance Director at Grant Thornton said: “The growth of O’Donovan is an inspiring story, and I am delighted to have worked with Jacqui and her team on this transaction.

“Jacqui has become a leading light in the waste recycling sector and created a marketleading business with sustainability at its heart. I am confident it will go from strength to strength under Sortera’s ownership.

“It’s great to see that the M&A market remains robust, especially for high quality businesses.”

The Grant Thornton team included Tom Grant, Nicole Wong, Christopher Humberston, Hazel Platt, Kevin Gale and David Pedley.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Robson .