A change in business focus has helped spur the rebrand of Eco Plastics Recycling to Evolve Polymers.
The firm, based in Hemswell, Lincolnshire, changed its procurement strategy and restructured its operations following its buyout by investment company Aurelius in December 2014.
Since the acquisition, the business has changed from focusing on the recycling of mixed plastics to procurement of high quality pre-sorted PET bales and production of high grade PET pellets.
Customer services manager Natalie Fontaine told PRW: “We are now focussed on producing high quality PET pellet and flake. We have shifted our business from recycling to manufacturing.”
Evolve Polymers manufactures washed PET, PP and PE flakes and is also producing 50,000 tonnes per year of high quality PET flake and food grade pellet from post-consumer PET bottles.
Eco Plastics underwent a pre-pack administration in late 2014, a move which saw waste charity Wrap, one of its creditors, undertake a debt-for-equity swap on an subordinated loan of £1.65m.
The recycler had posted losses of nearly £5m in 2013 on turnover of around £39m. Jonathan Short, who founded Eco plastics and was its deputy chairman, left the business in April last year, founding a new company, Plastics Reclamation Limited, the following month.
Before its 2014 buyout, the company's principal focus had been on the sorting and treatment of mixed plastic bottles for industrial applications and most recently for direct food contact, including a joint venture deal with Coca-Cola Enterprises, which was taken on by Aurelius as part of the buyout deal.
The firm's chief executive Chris Brown, said: “The new name is a further positive change for the business, and more accurately reflects our position as a supplier of recycled polymers.”