Coffin maker wins cash for European move

Jan 13 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE region’s biggest coffin maker has won funding to fuel a European expansion and buy a generator that makes power by burning offcuts of wood.

And as well as reducing its energy costs with a biomass generator meeting all the company’s power needs, Washington-based JC Atkinson & Son is to make money by selling surplus electricity to the national grid.

The project has been supported by a new £180,000 investment from Evolve Finance, the specialist debt and mezzanine finance division of regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers Ltd.

The company will also use some of this funding to look at new opportunities for expansion into mainland Europe, as well as to underpin UK growth plans.

Managing director Julian Atkinson said: “The business’s environmental policy has always been central to our continuing growth, and investing in the biomass generator system marks the next stage of our development in this area.

“Energy bills are a growing and significant part of our expenditure, and this move both controls what we’re paying now and gives us the opportunity to earn new revenue in the future through the sale of the excess electricity we generate back to the grid.

“Supplying a customer base all over the UK means we need to offset higher delivery costs than those of our competitors in the Midlands and South – being energy efficient and having the best environmental practice gives us a competitive edge which has helped secure a great deal of new business.

“We’ve grown steadily in recent years and want to keep this trend going, which we feel we can do by both maximising new and existing commercial opportunities within domestic markets, and expanding our business further into Ireland and continental Europe, where the weak pound has helped make us more competitive on price.”

JC Atkinson & Son, which last year turned over £4.5m and employs 75 staff, was named by the Sunday Times as the Best Green Company for 2008.

It is the only manufacturer in the UK to produce its coffin and casket range from Forest Stewardship Council certified timber, an accreditation guaranteeing the wood is derived from sustainable resources.

The biomass CHP generator works by burning woodchips, the heat generated drives a turbine system which generates about 100kwh of electricity and an additional 200kwh of heat.

Joanne Pratt, investment executive at Evolve Finance, said: “JC Atkinson has successfully differentiated itself from its competitors by adopting commercially and environmentally-innovative practices, and the positive impact on the bottom line is clear to see.”