Preston jobs lost at Recycling Lives as pre-pack deal splits group

Jobs have been lost in a shake out at Preston-headquartered Recycling Lives, the private equity backed social enterprise.

Administrators from EY have confirmed that two divisions of Recycling Lives went into administration before being purchased by a new owner.

Global Ardour Metal Ltd, part of the Singaporean-based Greta Group which also owns Global Metcorp, will take ownership of Recycling Lives Ltd and RLMW Realisations (formerly Recycling Lives Metal & Waste Ltd). 

This includes all of Recycling Lives’ end of life vehicle processing and metal recycling assets, as well as the waste business. 

EY were appointed as administrators last week. Recycling Lives, owned by private equity firm Three Hills, said the 17 processing sites and six domestic access sites would continue to trade under new ownership, resulting in the transfer of all of the employees to the purchaser, and “no redundancies have been made as a result of the Administrations”.

However, 19 redundancies were made last week at Recycling Lives’ waste process site at the Red Scar estate in Preston. 

EY said the trading subsidiaries, Recycling Lives (Environmental Services) Limited and Recycling Lives Compliance Services Limited, which form the Recycling Lives Services division, are not in administration, and were not part of the sale and continue to trade.

A statement on the Recycling Lives website said: “Recycling Lives Services will continue as a separate company and will provide all the services it has previously offered, focusing on compliance services, brokered environmental waste solutions and commodities.

“The deal with Global Ardour does not include the debt incurred by the two Recycling Lives businesses. These liabilities remain with the companies in administration, and outstanding amounts due will ‘rank as unsecured claims’.”

The company was founded in 1977 when Terry Jackson opened the first site at what is now the Leyland Academy.

In its current form, Recycling Lives as a social enterprise was founded in 2008 by brothers Steve and Danny Jackson with the rehabilitation of homeless people and work with the Justice system to support ex-offenders into full-time employment being a key focus. 

Almost 15 years on, this business model has evolved delivering commercially and on a social and environmental basis, achieving B Corp status, with Three Hills taking a stake in 2018.