Scrap specialist expands offer with skip firm purchase backed by community lenders
A scrap metal specialist has expanded its recycling offering to customers by purchasing a skip hire company backed with funding from two leading community finance providers.
Family business Total Metal Recovery, based in Bromsgrove, has acquired neighbouring firm A-Z Skips by using funds secured through ART Business Loans and BCRS Business Loans, retaining seven staff and adding a driver position.
The owners of Total Metal Recovery, who now employ 17 staff in total across the two companies, decided to purchase the skip hire and waste recycling business, which has the next door premises in Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, as part of a diversification strategy to extend their waste service offering.
Total Metal Recovery is a recycling specialist which collects, processes and recycles metals to promote the circular economy while A-Z Skips offers services including skip delivery and collection, waste sorting, confidential waste destruction and aggregate sales.
The management team worked through the application processes for ART Business Loans and BCRS Business Loans to secure two six-figure deals to secure the purchase.
Total Metal Recovery director Matthew Dunn said: “Both the lenders were very good in supporting our ambitions and thorough in enabling us to get the finance to acquire A-Z Skips, which allows us to offer the full waste service package to our customers.
“The acquisition comes at a pivotal time, with market conditions evolving and demand on the rise. We valued our experience with ART Business Loans and BCRS Business Loans, as they took a holistic approach by considering both the opportunity and the people behind the business. We are excited about what lies ahead.”
Birmingham-based ART Business Loans is a community development finance institution which seeks to ensure viable businesses in the West Midlands and adjoining counties can access finance. Offering loans for any business purpose from between £10,000 and £250,000, ART Business Loans takes a personal approach to assessing applications.
Business lending manager Roz Haque said: “Total Metal Recovery’s acquisition of A-Z Skips is an excellent example of how the right funding can help established businesses expand their capabilities and serve their customers better.
“We are pleased that ART Business Loans could provide the support to realise their business growth plans, capitalising on an opportunity literally next door to their existing premises. Their focus on providing trusted services shows the kind of sustainable growth we like to support.”
Wolverhampton-based BCRS Business Loans, also a community development finance institution, provides loans between £10,000 and £250,000 to small to medium sized enterprises across the Midlands and Wales who are unable to access the finance they need from traditional sources.
Business development manager Mark Savill, who oversaw the loan, said: “As a community-based lender BCRS Business Loans is driven by a goal of supporting viable businesses to realise opportunities so we were pleased to help the Total Metal Recovery team.
“We recognised the diversification journey they were on and saw the opportunity to safeguard the A-Z workforce while employing more people to build the business. We look
forward to following the progress of Matthew and his team as they deliver more waste services to customers in their region.”
Andy Moss, from the debt advisor Ricosta Capital, introduced Total Metal Recovery to the two lenders. Andy said: “It was a pleasure to work with ART Business Loans and BCRS Business Loans to ensure Total Metal Recovery were able to get the support needed to expand their business and create new employment in the West Midlands. Working together, we have delivered a funding package to a great business that has a strong future.”
In the last 10 years ART Business Loans has lent more than £25m to 600 businesses that have created or preserved 4,290 jobs. The lender was recently allocated £7m under the British Business Bank’s Community ENABLE Fund to provide loans above £25,000 to businesses across the West Midlands. Since its 2002 launch, BCRS Business Loans has delivered £100m in total lending to businesses, generating £518m in economic impact. Up to April 2025, BCRS Business Loans supported 1,594 businesses that were unable to access traditional finance, creating over 5,900 jobs and safeguarding 11,779 existing roles.