Wood recycling firm R Plevin & Sons has announced major growth plans after securing an exclusive contract to supply waste timber for a £120m biomass-fired renewable energy plant.

The multi-million pound contract, awarded to Plevin by E.ON, is the most lucrative in the family-owned company’s 38-year history.

It will enable Plevin to create a raft of new jobs at its existing sites and embark on an ambitious expansion programme.

The biomass-fired facility, based at Blackburn Meadows near Sheffield, will generate up to 30MW – enough to power 40,000 homes – by converting recycled waste wood into electricity.

Construction work will begin at the end of November and the plant is expected to become operational in mid 2014.

Managing director Jamie Plevin said: “This contract marks an extremely significant milestone in the growth of our company, and we are naturally thrilled.

“In order to meet the demand, we will be creating new jobs at our existing sites as well as opening a number of new facilities at strategic locations.

“This geographical expansion will happen either through acquisitions, or through opening new sites ourselves.

“I would like to reassure our existing customers that this contract will not affect them, as we will be increasing capacity in order to meet the heightened demand.”

Luke Ellis, project manager at E.ON, said: “It was important to us to use UK-sourced recycled waste wood to power the Blackburn Meadows plant. We look forward to working with R Plevin & Sons.”

Plevin is one of the UK’s leading wood processing and recycling companies – collecting, processing and distributing 600,000 tonnes of wood a year. 

It employs 150 people across six sites – Mossley, Greater Manchester; Elkesley, Nottinghamshire; Boston, Lincolnshire; Newport, South Wales; King’s Lynn, Norfolk and Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.

Plevin manufactures a range of wood-based products from virgin and waste wood materials. It sources waste wood from council civic amenity sites, skip hire firms, pallet manufacturers and joinery workshops.