Annual report and accounts
Financial highlights
£1,443.2m
Statutory revenue
£1,363.9m
Net revenue
£144.6m
Cash generation from operations
2.9x
Leverage ratio
£595.8m
Group net debt
I am delighted with the progress we have made in the face of yet another eventful and challenging year.
Michael Topham
Biffa CEO
A sustainable business at the heart of the circular economy Strategic highlights
Reduce: To pioneer and operate the UK’s leading waste reduction and surplus produce redistribution services
Investment committed since CMD: £91.5m
We opened two new Company Shop outlets and two new Community Shop stores in the year and increased surplus redistribution from 28,000 to 35,000 tonnes, preventing 98 million products from going to waste. In addition to CSG, we made a seed investment in ‘Love Junk’, an online marketplace that connects upcyclers, refurbishers and reactive waste providers to people who need to dispose of waste or items they no longer need.
We opened two new Company Shop outlets and two new Community Shop stores in the year and increased surplus redistribution from 28,000 to 35,000 tonnes, preventing 98 million products from going to waste. In addition to CSG, we made a seed investment in ‘Love Junk’, an online marketplace that connects upcyclers, refurbishers and reactive waste providers to people who need to dispose of waste or items they no longer need.
Recycle: To develop recycling solutions which strengthen the UK circular economy.
Investment committed: £71.7m since CMD.
Biffa is a UK leader in closed-loop, food grade plastic recycling. Our Biffa Polymers business provides solution for the majority of post-consumer rigid plastic packaging, helping to reduce the UK's dependence on unreliable export markets whilst providing raw materials that are a substitute for virgin plastic packaging to UK plastic manufacturers. Demand for our solutions has grown significantly in recent years as consumers and regulators have demanded that plastic packaging become more sustainable.
Biffa is a UK leader in closed-loop, food grade plastic recycling. Our Biffa Polymers business provides solution for the majority of post-consumer rigid plastic packaging, helping to reduce the UK's dependence on unreliable export markets whilst providing raw materials that are a substitute for virgin plastic packaging to UK plastic manufacturers. Demand for our solutions has grown significantly in recent years as consumers and regulators have demanded that plastic packaging become more sustainable.
Recover: To invest in energy recovery infrastructure as a lower carbon alternative to landfill for our customers’ waste that can’t be recycled.
Investment committed: £75m since CMD
We continued to make progress in the construction of two energy recovery facilities - Newhurst in Leicestershire and Protos in Cheshire. Both facilities are on track for delivery in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
We continued to make progress in the construction of two energy recovery facilities - Newhurst in Leicestershire and Protos in Cheshire. Both facilities are on track for delivery in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Collect: To build the UK’s largest, most efficient, low carbon waste and recycling collections operation.
Investment committed: £180.8m since CMD
Our business waste collection platform is the UK’s largest and most efficient service. We offer our customers flexible solutions which helps them to maximise their recycling. Our industry-leading ‘route density’ also means we have the lowest emissions. Our goal is to continue to grow our business, both organically and through acquisition whilst continuing to focus on delivering an efficient, high-quality service, keeping costs firmly under control and delivering efficiencies through the increased use of technology.
Our business waste collection platform is the UK’s largest and most efficient service. We offer our customers flexible solutions which helps them to maximise their recycling. Our industry-leading ‘route density’ also means we have the lowest emissions. Our goal is to continue to grow our business, both organically and through acquisition whilst continuing to focus on delivering an efficient, high-quality service, keeping costs firmly under control and delivering efficiencies through the increased use of technology.
A team effort
Biffa’s success in the year could not have been achieved without the exceptional efforts of our team.
We were able to reconnect with our workforce on Health & Safety this year, through our Safer Together pact. As a result, we have now seen a reversal of the deterioration in our frequency rates for incidents that result in time off work, both of which are now in decline, which we believe is sustainable.
We were able to reconnect with our workforce on Health & Safety this year, through our Safer Together pact. As a result, we have now seen a reversal of the deterioration in our frequency rates for incidents that result in time off work, both of which are now in decline, which we believe is sustainable.
We were delighted to launch a new set of values in the year, which were co-created with our employee forum - the Biffa Involvement Group (BIG), to ensure that we captured the essence of Biffa and to that the language used was meaningful and understandable. And continued to demonstrate our zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery.
Whilst giving back to our communities, through our biodiversity programmes, our Biffa Award funding programme and our charity partnership with WasteAid. We also actively supported campaigns, such as the British Red Cross Ukraine Appeal, via employee fundraising.