Animal waste specialist doubles profits
ANIMAL rendering group Prosper De Mulder has more than doubled its profits after a successful year which saw it make a key acquisition.
Doncaster-based Prosper de Mulder is Britain's largest processor and supplier of petfood raw materials. The group announced profits of £7.26m compared to the previous year's figure of £3.5m.
Operating profit stood at £11.5m – while turnover was more than £183m.
Last December the company acquired the entire issued share capital of Canterbury Mills for an undisclosed sum.
Following the acquisition Prosper de Mulder will be undertaking a long-term investment plan at the Canterbury Mills plant in Kent to improve the site's environmental performance and to add new recycling systems.
The group is aiming to capitalise on the demand for food by-products to be dealt with outside of landfill.
The company extracts fat and meat-and-bone from animal waste – the fat is then used to make soap and chemical products, while meat-and-bone meal is an ingredient in pet food and animal feed.
Prosper De Mulder is continually at risk from outbreaks of animal diseases but the group said that it was managing its risk stratedgy through “process and product diversification, and by having spare capacity available to process meat and livestock diverted from the food chain.”
Founded more than 80 years ago, the group has an extensive range of operations taking in food processing and distribution, pet food ingredient manufacture, animal by-product processing, renewable energy and bio-fuel production.
The family-owned group of companies employs more than 1,100 people at 18 sites across the UK.
