t is stretching a point to describe SITA as a
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South-Eastern haulier. First of all, haulage is something the company does in pursuit of its main activity, which is waste management. Second, SITA is arguably the UK's biggest waste management company, and operates from 211 sites all over the country. Of these 43 are landfill sites, 18 are waste transfer stations, six are municipal recycling facilities and four are wasteto-energy operations.
SITA's UK industrial and commercial operations are divided into four regional offices. Keith McGurk is southern regional manager, based at Turners Hill, West Sussex. From there he operates 118 vehicles, all of them specialist waste collection and compaction machines, mostly on Volvo and Mercedes chassis.
"We go for new vehicles as a rule," says McGurk, "but we have grown very rapidly over the years, much of it by acquisition, so we do have a mixture of vehicles entering the fleet."
SITA was founded 80 years ago in France; today it is owned by French utilities giant Suez Lyonnais des Eaux. The UK operation was set up in 1989 at an office in Egham High Street, but has since relocated to headquarters in Fulmer, Bucks. Growth over the past 10 years has been rapid, and the UK sub
UM I sidiary's turnover has risen to 1380m (worldwide, SITA's turnover exceeds £5.5bnl.
SITA is lucky that its huge size brings considerable buying power and resilience. "We do use the size of the company to control cost fluctuations," says McGurk. Vehicle purchases. like all other capital expenditure, are handled by SITA's central purchasing department. The most recent addition to McGurk's fleet is a 26-tonne GIRY Mercedes-Benz Econic, but SITA doesn't buy in single units as a rule. The company has recently placed its first order for two and three-axle Seddon Atkinsons. to a value of 2,4.1m. The vehicles are in build at present and are due for delivery later this year.
But, large though it is, SITA has to remain light on its feet to keep up with its rapidly changing market. Being in the waste business, MA's business has had to contend with significant cost increases in recent years. The introduction of the landfill tax has had a huge effect on the amount of waste that is dumped in the ground, and has stimulated the development of recycling and reprocessing plants. SITA has had to invest to keep ahead.
''It's going to open up new opportunities for us, in recovery, recycling and re-use.' he says. "We also suffer from the cost increases that affect all other vehicle operators. Our fuel costs have increased over the past 12 months by about 20%."
SITA is lucky to be able to pass most of this cost increase directly on to its clients, which are mainly
municipal, commercial and industrial operations.