‘Green’ firm slides into the red

ENVIRONMENTAL construction services firm UK Capital Ventures has slipped into the red amid tough trading conditions and bureaucracy.

But the Bury-based holding company is anticipating future growth on the back of investments made in schemes including its waste to energy plants over the past year.

UK Capital Ventures had a turnover of £54.4m to March 31, 2009, down from £65.7m the previous year.

Over the same period, it made an operating loss of £1.1m compared with an operating profit of £2.1m the previous year.

UK Capital Ventures consists of: Ascot Environmental, which is an environmental engineering company; environmental consultancy Planet Advantage; and Scotgen (Dumfries) which operates a waste to energy site in Scotland which uses a cutting edge technique called ‘gasification’.

In the year to the end of March 2009, it invested £9.2m on its waste to energy plants which have won plaudits for their green credentials.

The majority share holder in the holding company is managing director Jim Henessey.

The directors’ statement in the annual report states: “The directors consider that the overall group is integrating as planned and that development works and sales enquiries should come to fruition as planned during 2009 and reflect our position in the year end 2010 results.

“The group continues to face challenges imposed by current and future legislation.

“We feel that risks are being managed and the relevant companies have gained ISO 90001, ISO 140001 and ISO 180001 which enables procedures to be put in place to manage these risks and ensure our insurers are confident of good working practices.”