Plastics reprocessing company ECO Plastics has announced that it is looking for a buyer, following ‘operational challenges and unfavourable market conditions’.
Speaking today (9 December), Founder and Deputy Chairman of ECO Plastics Jonathan Short, said: "ECO Plastics recently initiated a sales process to provide a long-term platform for the future strategic development of the business. As part of this process, the board and existing shareholders have held talks with interested parties.
“The company has the support of its debtholders in achieving this goal. Further announcements will be made if and when appropriate.”
The announcement follows one made yesterday (8 December) by investment body the Ludgate Environmental Fund, which announced that there had been challenges facing the company since August of this year. Indeed, it stated that despite hopes that the situation would improve, the plastics company had ‘been working with creditors to find a solvent solution, [but] this is no longer expected to be achieved’.
As a result, the carrying value of ECO Plastics, approximately £2 million, has been written off.
ECO Plastics background
In 2012, the company opened the ‘world’s largest plastics processing facility’ in Lincolnshire, after building a £15-million extension to its existing PET bottle recycling facility in Hemswell.
The facility – now capable of processing 150,000 tonnes a year – marked the official beginning of Continuum Recycling, ECO Plastics’s joint venture with Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE), which more than doubled the amount of bottle-grade recycled PET (rPET) produced in Britain.
However, the company has been hit by falling prices for rPET, which has exacerbated the company’s financial standing.
Find out more about ECO Plastics.
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