Euro Plant Supplies Ltd

Out of the Humber into Africa

A North Lincolnshire company has won its first business in Africa by supplying local companies with the technology to recycle agricultural waste into high quality particleboard.

Euro Plant Supplies Ltd (EPS) based in Crowle have just signed contracts with two companies in Ghana to supply the Ecopanel system which combines a unique non-toxic bonding technology with specially developed plant and equipment. The system was developed by Ken White, a winner of UK Inventor of the Year Award.

EPS have been supported in their overseas business bids by the international trade team at Business Link Humber. The company signed up to UK Trade & Investment’s Passport to Export, a programme developed to support new and novice exporters.

Says Mike Herzberg, Sales Manager ”We were looking to expand our overseas activity and Passport gave us some ideas of the most effective and economic ways of doing this. The programme also gave us a great opportunity to talk to other companies with similar export ambitions to our own.”

The team of Business Link Humber later supported EPS in approaching the British High Commission in Ghana where they were able to showcase their systems to local timber extractors. This led directly to orders with two companies and a lot of interest from others.

Adds Herzberg “An agro-based country like Ghana generates a large amount of fibrous waste mainly from agro-processing such as timber logging and saw-milling industries. This waste, which would otherwise be simply burnt, can now be converted into another cash product with use of the Ecopanel system.”

The introduction of this technology to Ghana will, play a significant role in managing and reducing waste, but will also contribute to Ghana’s foreign exchange earnings, create employment opportunities in rural areas, and help reduce de-forestation and pollution into the environment.

Says David Lilley, international trade team manager at Business Link Humber. “EPS is a company that has a great future in exports with a product that has many benefits both to the environment and the economy of developing countries like Ghana. We will do everything to support them in expanding their overseas business.”