TONER RECYCLER REVENUES SOAR
End-to-end toner recycling operation, Close the Loop Group, achieved soaring revenue in the 2023 financial year, on the back of strong organic growth, and its latest acquisitions.
Close the Loop is Australia's biggest recycler of used commercial dry toner and liquid toner recycling cartridges, reprocessing the cartridges, and a host of other products, at its Melbourne facility. It separates the residue toner from the container and recycles both.
Revenue for the year reached $135.9m, up by 52 per cent on the year. Its existing businesses saw what the company described as “substantial” growth, up by 19 per cent, with the annual figures boosted by its new US businesses, ISP Tek Services and Captive Trade Corp, which it bought for $99.7m in March.
Close the Loop EBITDA was 70 per cent higher than the previous year at $24.3m, and is forecast to do even better this year, with a forecast of $43m. Net profit before tax more than doubled, up by 113 per cent to $14.9m. The company now has $49.5m in cash, and a market capitalisation of $252.7m, up by 86 per cent on last year.
Joe Foster, CEO of the Group said, “We are delighted to be reporting strong performance across the CTL group. Our existing businesses demonstrated substantial growth. We have also continued to deliver on our inorganic global strategy, and achieve the goals we set at the time of our IPO.”
Some 55 per cent of revenue came from the company’s resource recovery operations, with 45 per cent from its packaging activity. In Australia, resource recovery achieved revenue of $25.1m, with $49.5m from packaging. In the US, all $43.2m came from resource recovery, as did the $6m from its European operations. In South Africa, all $12.1m came from packaging.
The group is predicting the US will overtake Australia as it’s biggest revenue generator in this financial year, forecasting the US will account for 52 per cent of revenue up from 32 per cent this year, and it says resource recovery will increase its share of the company’s business, rising to 62 per cent from 55 per cent this year.
The company says it is seeing strong growth in both packaging and resource recovery, and is seeing strong demand for recyclable ready packaging and recycled content for packaging.
Its $200m forecast for the current financial year does not assume the upside will be from additional synergies, nor does it factor in any expansion of contracts or product lines. Close the Loop says it will make the “necessary” investments into the infrastructure that is required to ensure a strong platform for future growth.
It says its current activities will see significant growth in the year, and says it is looking at entering new recycling verticals, including batteries and cosmetics.