Leading wood recycling firm Plevin has announced plans to open the UK’s largest waste wood recycling centre.

The family-run company plan to install a new £5 million facility on a 50 acre site in Hazlehead, South Yorkshire, which will create 20 jobs and process up to 150,000 tonnes of waste wood a year.

The new facility will primarily manufacture recycled wood chips for energy giant E.ON’s £120m renewable energy plant at Blackburn Meadows near Sheffield, with Plevin the exclusive suppliers of fuel for the biomass-fired facility. 

Jamie Plevin, managing director of Plevin, said: “The Hazlehead facility will be a fantastic development for us, and with the E.ON contract we are making significant strides towards our growth targets.

“As well as helping us expand our operations by giving us further capacity for new contracts, Hazlehead will also help us to offer increased manufacturing volumes to existing customers. The addition of the Hazlehead facility to our portfolio brings our total waste wood and recycled woodchip manufacturing capacity to 350,000 tonnes per year.

“The project will allow us to have an open gate policy for contracted suppliers on all grades of waste wood. Once completed, we will be able to offer guaranteed recycling of a large volume of high and low grade waste wood.

“The development has been timed to coincide with the start of our contract with E.ON, with work due for completion in Spring 2014.”

As well as manufacturing biomass fuel, Plevin manufactures a range of market-leading wood-based products, including materials for the panel board industry and animal bedding for livestock, equestrian and small animals.

The sourcing of the additional 150,000 tonnes of wood waste for the Hazlehead development will be overseen by business development manager Andrew McFadzean, who has recently been recruited by Plevin as part of its ongoing recruitment drive.

Andrew has more than 15 years’ experience within the waste wood recycling industry, having been a founding member of Tracey Timber Recycling before becoming the materials manager at AW Jenkinson Forest Products.

His new role will include responsibility for sourcing and procuring waste wood for all Plevin sites, as well as supporting with logistic and processing operations.

Andrew said: “I’m delighted to be here, everything I’ve been doing so far in my career has come together in this role.”

“Hazlehead is an excellent site, no other wood recycling company has ever had a facility like it, and on the back of it we have a fabulous contract with E.ON, which is particularly impressive considering there are tough times elsewhere in the sector. 

“It really is an exciting time for everyone here at Plevin.”