Aurelius Group acquires ECO Plastics

Aurelius Group, a midmarket Europe-focused investing firm headquartered in Germany, has acquired ECO Plastics, a reprocessor of scrap plastics.

Aurelius says it will supply its highly specialized operational improvement capabilities and financial support to the Hemswell, U.K., company’s current operations, with a core focus on the long-term strategic development of the business. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

ECO Plastics operates a plastics reprocessing plant that is capable of sorting 150,000 metric tons of mixed bottles per year, including 40,000 metric tons of bottle-grade recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) pellet. ECO Plastics says the tons of bottles it collects for recycling represents about 35 percent of all the plastic bottles collected in the U.K. every year.

ECO Plastics is able to produce 12 different streams of plastics, including food-contact-grade PET. Much of the sorting technology at ECO Plastics’ Helmswell facility was provided by the Norwegian company TITECH. The PET bottles segregated at the plant are granulated, dry washed and then sent within its facility for washing and extrusion into recycled PET pellet. Currently all other segregated streams are either shredded and washed or baled in their current form and supplied to one of ECO Plastics’ external reprocessing partners.

Tristan Nagler, managing director of Aurelius, says, “Aurelius is delighted to have acquired ECO Plastics, which has a strong position in the U.K. marketplace. For customers, suppliers and partners it will be business as usual, and we are committed to working with the company to deliver long term, sustainable growth. Aurelius has a strong track record in the industrials sector, providing both operational improvement as well as financial support to businesses. We are extremely excited about the future prospects of this business.”

Jonathan Short, ECO Plastics’ founder and deputy chairman, says, “This news is not just a vote of confidence in the future of ECO Plastics, but a vote of confidence in the promising future of the U.K.’s fast-growing recycling sector. Working with Aurelius will take the ECO Plastics story to the next level. This new owner will not only bring in new expertise and financial resources, but also a shared commitment to the development of a more sustainable, circular economy in the U.K.”

ECO Plastics’ CEO Chris Brown adds, “We are looking forward to working closely with Aurelius as we enter this new chapter of the ECO Plastics story. Their involvement will bring significant operational expertise and financial support that will move the world’s largest and most sophisticated plastics reprocessing plant to another level, building on its position at the forefront of the UK’s plastics recycling sector.”

The acquisition of ECO Plastics is not Aurelius’ first foray into the plastics recycling business. The firm at one time had an ownership stake in Wellman International, Europe’s largest recycler of PET bottles and a large producer of polyester staple fiber products. Aurelius sold its stake in that company in late 2011.

Eco Plastics had been struggling with difficult markets through most of this year and was in active discussion with various creditors to find a way to keep it solvent.

According to several reports, the company’s financial challenges accelerated after it opened a £15 million ($2.6 million) facility in May 2012 as part of its venture with Coca-Cola. The agreement was set to boost capacity at the group from 100,000 metric tons to 140,000 metric tons per year.