Waste boosts Straight sales

RECYCLING group Straight today said it saw a 6% rise in turnover to £25m last year boosted by local authority orders for its new food waste containers.

The Leeds-based group, which specialises in recycling products ranging from waste bins to water butts, said that sales at its trade arm were up 30% to £11m in the six months to December 31 but its loss-making retail business continued to struggle.

In a trading statement ahead of its year-end results on March 26, Straight said that sales of the food waste container range had been helped by a Government waste strategy calling for separate food waste collections by local authorities.

It said that sales in its retail business were down 31% to £0.9m in the last six months of the year but following a strategic review there have been some redundancies and unprofitable operations have been discontinued while a new distribution system has cut unit delivery costs by up to 75%.

“As a result, the board believes this division is now well placed to handle sales at the levels anticipated for 2009,” the company said in a statement.

Straight has been developing sales overseas and now produces and sells water butts in Australia and has begun selling some products in North America, helped by the weakness of the pound against the dollar.

It said it had cash balances of £1.6m at the year-end with a strong order book and 40% of the 2009 order book for its trade business already booked.