Greenstar aims to double turnover over next four years

GREENSTAR, the waste management company owned by toll-road operator NTR, appointed Steve Cowman as its new chief executive yesterday.

Mr Cowman will replace Mike Wynne, who will take up the position of non-executive deputy chairman.

Greenstar, formerly known as Celtic Waste, plans to double its annual turnover to 150 million over the next four years. Mr Cowman said yesterday that the company would invest over €80 million in waste infrastructure next year and a further €100 million between 2005 and 2007.

Half of this money will be spent on materials recovery and recycling facilities throughout the country.

Mr Cowman said that Greenstar had been successful since it was set up in 1999, but that his main priority was to integrate the business after its programme of acquisitions.

He said Greenstar’s growth would not come from increasing use of landfills and that the company would aim to offer industrial customers a wide range of waste-related services, which would include recycling, biological treatment, consulting and waste auditing. The group now includes seven landfill, recycling and waste collection companies. Greenstar employs more than 300 people and has waste businesses in seven counties.

Greenstar also announced it was successful in getting planning permission and a waste licence for a landfill site in Knockharley, Co Meath, which it said would be operational in early 2005.

The group already operates a landfill site in Co Kildare and hopes to open others in Cork, Wicklow and Galway.

Greenstar’s materials recycling facility (MRF) has just opened in Sarsfield Court in Cork. The company plans to open a second MRF in the Cork area as well as two in Dublin.

It recently obtained planning permission to extend its MRF near Bray, Co Wicklow.

Mr Cowman is originally from Dublin and was previously managing director of Volex Europe, the electronic and fibre optic cable company.

He has also worked in Philips and General Electric. Greenstar made a pre-tax profit of €5.3 million for the first half of the year. Landfill accounts for one-third of its revenues.