Waste in the west brought in €35m for a Galway-based bin company
Barna Waste’s parent reported a million-euro profit for 2016.
THE BIGGEST WASTE company in the west of Ireland reported sales of more than €35 million last year, three years after it had been put into examinership.
According to accounts filed for Bruscar Bhearna Teoranta, which trades as Barna Waste, the Galway-based firm booked sales of just over €35.6 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2016, an increase of €1.2 million on the previous 12-month period.
However, the waste disposal and recycling company saw its profits for 2016 dip by more than a million euro to €1.1 million.
Headed up by Sean Curran, Barna Waste operates a domestic and commercial waste collection service for 60,000 customers in Connacht. It also provides compost and skip hire services.
It owns four waste disposal and recycling facilities across the province, located in Galway, Roscommon, Athlone and Leitrim.
Waste management policy
In the directors’ report, Barna Waste identified a change in the government’s waste management policy as the main competitive risk to its business.
Rubbish bins
“Regional waste collection may be controlled by local government resulting in waste operators tendering for domestic waste collection areas,” the directors’ report said.
“In the future, local authorities, rather than open competition between operators, may decide who services a particular customer.”
Examinership
The average number of people employed by Barna Waste increased last year from 287 workers to 306, with wages and salaries worth around €28,600 per person.
Three years ago, the company was put into examinership after it ran into difficulty caused by the economic downturn. At the time, it owed €9 million to Bank of Scotland and €780,000 to the Revenue Commissioners.
The company was saved after Cognito Asset Management bought it out of examinership as part of a multimillion-euro rescue plan.
As previously explained by Fora, examinership is a process that is unique to Ireland and that’s intended as a last roll of the dice to try and rescue a business from insolvency.
