OFT clears Viridor’s waste deal

THE Office of Fair Trading has cleared the acquisition of Atherton-based waste collection firm JWT Holdings by Viridor Waste Management.

Viridor, part of the listed Pennon Group, announced the £7.6m deal in July.

In a statement the OFT said the deal did not warrant an investigation because, “neither the UK turnover test nor the share of supply test of the [Enterprise] Act is met. A relevant merger situation has, therefore, not been created.”

JWT, which was previously owned by founder John William Thomasson, has 45 staff and handles around 70,000 tonnes of waste materials a year.

Pennon said previously the acquisition was in line with its strategy of expanding its waste management activities, particularly in the collection, recycling and energy recovery sectors.

JWT has a materials recycling facility and a fleet of 29 vehicles which will be integrated into Viridor’s northern region, complementing the commercial collection services based at Trafford Park.