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Guest-Column

Growth and opp in the United Ki

The United Kingdom is now one of the most dynamic European markets in envi-ronmental services, specifcally, in waste management, resources and energy.

It offers great growth opportunities for an international group such as FCC, focused on the development of infrastructures, ser-vices, and renewable energy. This is despi-te the fact that a large part of the world is currently immersed in a complicated eco-nomic situation.

The British market is developing according to European Unión legislation which aims to considerably reduce the amount of organic waste that arrives at landfll sites. For many years, the United Kingdom has depended to a large extent on landfll sites and had to change its waste management policy drastically. In 2000, less than 10% of urban waste in England was recycled or conver-

ted into compost; nowadays, the percenta-ge is more than 40%.

Although this represents a major step, there is still much that has to be done. Accordin-gly, townships in the United Kingdom conti-nue to invest in new urban waste treatment infrastructures to avoid that this waste goes to landfll sites. This is where FCC has great opportunities.

The company entered the British market for the frst time in 1989 with the incorporation of Focsa Services (UK), Ltd, which offered townships a wide range of waste collec-tion and elimination services. In 2006, FCC acquired Waste Recycling Group, which enabled FCC to have a greater presence in the UK.

It seemed clear to me, when I joined WRG in 2009, that the WRG business was not synchronized with the British market and that it was still too focused on landflls while our competitors were prioritizing waste co-llection, recycling, and treatment of waste to seize the value of potential resources.

WRG and Focsa had a great potential, with truly valuable assets and an excellent work-

force. Both companies have increasingly cooperated in the past few years and now we have merged the IT, Human Resources, payroll management, and health and safety departments.

The following step will be to fnally merge the two businesses into one under the FCC brand. Perhaps you have noticed that du-ring the recent visit to London, the CEO and Chairman of FCC, Baldomero Falcones, announced that WRG and Focsa will be called FCC Environment in the future.

Mr. Falcones also mentioned in his speech that FCC was in the right place at the right time in terms of its development in the Uni-ted Kingdom. My teams involved in the two British companies are working hard to im-plement the brand change which is expec-ted to be completed by the end of the year.

Integration and the re-focusing of WRG and Focsa, however, do not imply merely chan-

Managing Director Waste Recycling Group

By Paul Taylor