Giant Hargreaves Services powers on

Dec 18 2009 by Christopher Knox, The Journal

ENERGY, waste and minerals giant Hargreaves Services is looking to create hundreds of jobs in the North East after winning work including the contract to build six power stations.

The group, based in Esh Winning, County Durham, outlined the plans as they revealed that trading in the six months to November 30, 2009, had been better than expected.

Its new power stations, which will cost between £2m and £4m to build, are the first major project for the firm’s renewable energy business Rocpower, and will be made up of a number of heavy oil engines that have been adapted to run off a wide range of renewable fuels.

The group plans to start work on five more sites over the next five years and is already producing electricity for the National Grid from the first site in Wakefield, where it expects to have five bio-fuel powered turbine engines up and running by early next year.

Each plant will be able to produce enough energy to heat 15,000 homes and reduces Hargreaves’ own carbon footprint, saving 41,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking 90 trucks off the road.

Although the group now plans to build five more sites between Yorkshire and Lancashire, it said that only a handful of new jobs would be created as a direct result as the plants would be remotely operated.

However, the investment has meant increased work in other areas of the business, which has resulted in the firm increasing its workforce by 300 to 2,500 this year, with half of those jobs based in the North East.

The AIM-listed firm, which has a turnover of around £500m, has also added 50 tankers to its 200-strong fleet to provide fuel to the new power stations and said that it hoped to create 300 again next year, including many in the North East, once two of its power plants are fully operational.

In September the company revealed plans to buy up to 10 companies worth up to £20m each and posted a 46.5% rise in pre-tax profits to £26.2m for the year to the end of May and a 24.3% jump in revenue to £503.1m.

Analysts now believe the project has the potential to help the group catapult its profits from £26.2m to £38.5m at the end of its next financial year to May 2011.