19 June 2024
South East Business Insider Summer 2024 - You only have to glance at our SME 300 table to see that the South East economy comprises a diverse range of businesses from manufacturers, logistics firms and retail stars, to games innovators and renewables leaders. The last 12 months have been tough for many with high inflation and interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty and economic gloom. But for three regional businesses, it has still been a time for investment, expansion and growth. What lessons and strategies can they share?
"I didn't just want us to be a biogas business. It is not a straightforward sector and can be lumpy in terms of business development." ~ Phil Earl
The 30-year-old Chipping Norton-based group has built up a strong reputation offering renewable energy services and solutions. It specialises in the design, build and operation of biogas producing anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities in the UK and internationally treating food waste, agricultural waste and energy crops.
It has made two major strategic moves over the last 12 months. The first came last October when, in a move to expand into other forms of renewable energy and widen its customer base, it bought Buckinghamshire-based rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage solutions firm Chiltern Solar. This now enables the group to install and maintain solar PV for commercial, agricultural and domestic clients in the UK.
The second came this March when it formed a joint venture named Beacon with renewables independent power producer Low Carbon to develop, build and operate biogas and biomethane projects across Europe.
According to Agrivert, biomethane is attractive because it is viewed as a key technology to help support the EU's 2050 decarbonisation targets and is part of the EU Taxonomy and Renewable Energy Directive.
The feedstock for the Beacon portfolio will predominantly be manure, food waste and agricultural residues. The biogas produced will be refined into biomethane and used in gas form or converted into electricity.
"Both moves we believe will help take the business forward over the next few years," says Phil Earl, chief executive of Agrivert. "We have been working in the biogas sector for the last 15 years and it is still absolutely central to the ongoing development of the business. "But I didn't just want us to be a biogas business. It is not a straightforward sector to work in and can be lumpy in terms of
business development. "They are big-value projects and can often take a long time to develop. So, we looked at other areas of renewable energy to make an impact in." Rooftop solar was attractive, he adds, because of its huge growth potential, particularly on the commercial side. "In the domestic area it is currently served by very small businesses and there is a good opportunity for a middle-sized business to bring a different angle to it namely serving larger commercial units and companies with multi-sites," he says. "We're also looking at developing a long-term operations and remote support platform for customers."
On Beacon, Earl says the UK market for biogas is very mature with a challenging subsidy market.
"There is still a lot of opportunity in the UK but huge opportunity in Europe where the EU has set very stretching targets for nations to be producing vast amounts of biomethane and adding it to their gas networks over the next 25 years," he says. "We want to be part of that. We've an aspiration to build 40-50 plants in five countries over the next few years in the EU."
Earl says the group's success over the years has been down to being capable in both engineering and operations which gives it an edge in the market. "We are technology agnostic," he says.
''We don't own technology like a lot of providers do which means we can go and find the exact technology to meet our customers' needs."