Bourne metal recycling business BW Riddle and sites in Peterborough, Corby and Boston bought by KJB Consulting (Global)

A metal recycling site which has suffered several serious fires is to be taken over by international metal traders.

KJB Consulting (Global) has agreed to buy Bourne-based Peterborough Metals Recycling T/A BW Riddle, which has its headquarters in South Fen Road.

All of BW Riddle's 55 staff will be retained.

Derbyshire-based KJB will take over the running of BW Riddle’s head office and and four metal recycling sites which it says will increase its turnover from £25million to £90million.

Chief executive of KJB Consulting, James Bowers, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to announce we have acquired BW Riddle and believe this places our business in a strong position to continue our ambitious growth targets."

He added: “As a broker we’d probably hit a ceiling in terms of how much bigger we could get and the services we could offer clients, so purchasing a firm that enables us to now have three yards takes us to the next level.

“BW Riddle is a family business with 60 plus years of trading, good yard locations, strong infrastructure and a fantastic reputation, not only locally, but across the UK. Our message to existing customers and staff is that it is business as usual and we look forward to working with you.”

The family business, founded in 1956, moved to its 32-acre site in Bourne in 1989 before adding sites in Peterborough, Boston and Corby.

Its services include vehicle de-pollution, waste recycling from offices, factories and hospitals, and it specialises in processing industrial materials.

About 150 tons of scrap metal caught fire at the South Fen Road site in March last year, while up to 10 crews from three counties fought another serious blaze there in August 2017.

Crews were also called out to two further fires at the Bourne site in 2012 - in September and December.