Having the rot set in is normally bad news for a company – not so for TJ Composting, as biodegrading everyday green waste into a highly desirable product has been the secret to its success.

With demand among gardeners, farmers, landscapers and horticulturists ever increasing, the company has recently expanded its operations with help from Clydesdale Bank’s Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) in Maidstone.

The £800,000 support has enabled TJ Composting to open a third fully licensed site and purchase the machinery and equipment needed to produce its nutrient rich organic compost from garden cuttings brought in from Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC). More and more local authorities are insisting on such waste being recycled in order to ease pressure on landfill sites – good news for TJ Composting, which turns it into three grades of soil-enhancer for different uses.

Martin White, Business Partner at the Maidstone FSC, said: “TJ Composting creates an environmentally friendly product of high quality and it is no surprise that the business is going from strength to strength.

“The key point is that TJ Composting is well run company and it has been very pleasing to help them grow, a process made faster and easier by Clydesdale Bank’s innovative FSC operating model which allows funding packages to be individually designed and signed-off locally.”

The company’s newest site, at Chipping Ongar, has the capacity to process 25,000 tonnes of green waste per year, producing some 15,000 tonnes of soil-conditioning compost per year. It compliments existing sites at Swanley, Kent, and Beddingham, near Brighton.

Clydesdale Bank funded the development of the new site with a £500,000 loan, with an interest rate hedge to protect against rate movements. A further £300,000 of Asset Finance enabled TJ Composting to buy the weighbridge, shredder, trucks and other machinery needed to successfully run the site. It takes Clydesdale Bank’s total support for the business to around £2million with the finance arranged through the FSC in Maidstone.

“There’s a lot of organic waste out there. The UK composting industry in 2008 will process around 3.75 million tonnes but needs to be processing at least 10 million by 2010 so there is considerable scope for growth,” said Charlie Trousdell, Managing Director of TJ Composting.

“We’re providing a natural fertiliser which is environmentally friendly and puts carbon back into the soil. It is also cheaper for farmers than artificial fertilisers, which have risen dramatically in price as fossil fuels are used during production, so we are very well placed. Farmers using our product are saving in the region of £300 per hectare in fertiliser costs so it’s a win-win situation.”