Eco Plastics completes £6 million additional funding for recycling plant

Lincolnshire plastic bottle recycler Eco Plastics has completed raising £6 million to finance continued expansion over the coming year.

Existing shareholders Ludgate Environmental Fund and Robeco SAM Private Equity have both participated, providing capital which will be dedicated to short-term expansion opportunities.

The company’s existing debt provider, Close Brothers, has committed additional working capital facilities to support growing sales revenues.

It is the second funding round undertaken by Eco Plastics in the past 18 months following a £24 million financing in July 2011.

This was used to finance the Eco Plastics Continuum joint venture with Coca-Cola Enterprises. In February, the company also announced a £1.5 million loan from WRAP to expand its rigid sorting facilities.

Eco Plastics managing director Jonathan Short said: “Eco Plastics is now ready to tackle another period of rapid growth. We have made huge process over the last three years and this investment leaves us ideally positioned to continue to develop our state-of-the-art facilities and to take advantage of any other expansion opportunities that arise.

“The fact that we have been able to raise this money in what remain financially straightened times, is a testimony to our shareholders’ on-going confidence in the company and the management team’s strategy. We look forward to continuing to grow the business with them.”

Ludgate Environmental Fund chief investment officer Bill Weil said: “Ludgate Environmental Fund continues to support the impressive growth of Eco Plastics. The business meets key investment criteria for Ludgate – a prove technology with defensible, differentiable intellectual property, operating in a significant market with substantial growth potential and led by a management team that combines technical expertise with a track record of delivery.”