Legislation boosts Symphony’s prospects

New legislation around the world has contributed to Symphony Environmental Technologies generating higher revenues in the first four months of 2013 than it achieved in the first half of 2012.

 

Revenues reached £2.12 million in the first four months of 2013, with much of the company’s revenues derived from overseas markets.

 

Symphony Environmental has become a global technology supplier, primarily in the controlled-life plastics market, with its d2w additive and d2Detector. Symphony said it has seen the volume of products featuring its d2w additive grow from 4,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes, with legislation regarding oxo-biodegradable plastics in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America driving growth.

 

It also offers d2p anti-microbial products, and said these have greater potential than d2w as the applications range from food packaging to medical, electrical and farming products.

 

Nirj Deva, chairman of the company, said: ‘The start of 2013 has been very encouraging, and I am pleased to report that revenues for the first four months of this year have already exceeded revenues reported for the first half of 2012, which were £2.12 million.

 

‘Symphony has successfully developed from a UK commodity type finished product reseller of items such as carrier and refuse sacks, to a niche innovative global technology supply and service Company. We are a high margin and operationally geared business, where the structure is in place to deliver strong profits as revenues increase. This global expansion is supported by a growing number of self-supporting distributors, which promote our technologies in more than 96 countries.

 

‘Each one of these distributors is contracted to deliver improving sales results, and to drive and expand the core brands in their specific territories. Most of our revenues and opportunities are derived from overseas markets, and we are therefore less affected by the current volatility within European markets.

 

‘Symphony considers that the market opportunity for a low-cost biodegradable type plastic such as d2w is considerable, as it is not disruptive for a user or producer to upgrade from a non-environmental material to one that is environmentally positive. This upgrade only requires adding one percent of the d2w formulation to the standard product mix and is included at the point of production.

 

‘Legislation in favor of d2w type oxo-biodegradable products has become a key driver, and we are pleased by the positive changes in sentiment to encourage the use of more environmentally responsible products in areas such as Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Pakistan.

 

‘We believe that these positive changes will have a significant impact for d2w oxo-biodegradable type products globally, as it underpins their environmental credentials and valid commercial use on a large scale. By lifecycle analysis we can show that d2w oxo-biodegradable products are the most environmental and cost effective solution to the issue of plastic waste. We must remember that plastics, which are a by-product of oil or gas refining, are the only solution to most packaging applications and will continue to be for many years to come.

 

‘Oxo-biodegradable plastics are in some respects in competition with bio-based compostable plastics, but these are much too expensive and available evidence shows that companies in that field are not performing well.’

 

He continued: ‘The markets for d2p anti-microbial products are expected to be much larger than d2w as its prime use will be into food packaging, which would cover market sectors such as bakery, dairy and fruits. The non-food sectors would cover a multitude of applications including electrical, medical and farming. The technologies that fall under d2p have received enormous interest, and from this several product trials are ongoing. The same view is taken for our d2t tag and trace technologies, albeit our markets will be mainly in product identification control and anti-counterfeiting.

 

‘We are not expecting meaningful commercial sales of d2t until the second half of 2014 and earlier for d2p. Both of these technologies are expected to initially enter the market through our existing customer and distributor base.

 

'The total global plastic production in 2010 was 265,000,000 tonnes, of which polyethylene and polypropylene, account for approximately 48 percent. If one tenth of these were converted into oxo-biodegradable products, with d2w and/or anti-microbial products with d2p, the market would be very large at 12,720,000 tonnes of Symphony’s products.’

 

Symphony Environmental Technologies’ overall investment program into current and new technologies and projects will continue at the same levels as 2012, and will be funded by the current business model.

 

Deva concluded: ‘Our vision is to create a world-class and diverse technology supply and service group whose products can be seen and used worldwide. We have started to achieve this as our d2w logo can be found on the packaging of some of the world’s largest brands. The physical penetration of our brands through to the ultimate consumer will help grow revenues and increase shareholder value.’

 

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