Biffa reverses losses as it pushes price rises onto customers
Bin company Biffa has reversed its losses and grown its revenue by nearly a quarter in the past six months after increasing its prices.
Group revenue is up 23 per cent to £825.6m, which the London-listed company put down to cost hikes being passed down to customers amid rising inflation in the UK.
Despite inflation ramping up the cost of fuel and labour, the waste management heavyweight has turned a loss of £16.7m in the first half of 2021 to around £50m in the first half of this year.
During this time, Biffa acquired the trade and assets of waste collection business DJB Recycling for £1.9 million.
“Driver shortages together with other inflationary and supply chain issues have largely been mitigated, albeit the price increases lag cost inflation, which is impacting near-term profit margins. Customer churn levels remain at all time low levels demonstrating Biffa’s resilience,” chief executive Michael Topham said in a statement.
“We anticipate that the second half of the year has the potential to be more challenging as we face into the onset of a likely recession. However, the business is well placed to trade through this environment, and we expect to see opportunities arising that we are well placed to capitalise on.”