Furniture Recycling Group hits £3m

Blackburn's Furniture Recycling Group has registered a 20 per cent increase in sales, taking turnover to £3m.

The mattress recycling specialist has now diverted more than 1 million mattresses and 3,500 tons of mattress components from landfill since launching in 2012.

The recent growth comes on the back of three new partnerships with national retailers, leading to a business expansion which has created 10 jobs.

Last year, TFR Group increased the number of mattresses they can recycle a week by 63 percent, going from recycling 4,000 mattresses to 6,500 a week.

A research and development programme which will see the system fully automated will eventually increase capacity to 20,000 mattresses per week, the company says.

TFR Group recently designed and prototyped a revolutionary system that will allow a standard 40ft trailer, that ordinarily carries 90 mattresses, to carry 600 mattresses, meaning a significant reduction in transportation costs, and vastly increasing the viability of mattress recycling throughout the country.

Nick Oettinger, managing director of The Furniture Recycling Group, said: “We’ve had a great 12 months and it’s fantastic to see the company continue to grow.

“With 167,000 tonnes of mattresses still being sent to landfill each year in the UK, now’s the time for retailers and manufacturers to get on board to help create Britain’s much needed circular economy." Nick added: "We’re very proud that more retailers are thinking more about the end of life scenarios of their products, and the next stage for TFR Group is to meet with mattress manufacturers to discuss how they can adapt the designs of their mattresses to ensure they can be recycled more easily."