Manufacturing & Supply Chain

ABP Food Group’s Renewables Division, Olleco, the UK’s leading supplier of cooking oils and collector of used cooking oils, has become the first dedicated circular economy company to be granted a Royal Warrant by Her Majesty The Queen. The Warrant recognises the company’s work to create a “closed loop” solution for the Royal Household.

Olleco supplies fresh, sustainable cooking oils and fats and reduces carbon miles by using the return journey to take back used cooking oils. These are then processed at Olleco’s state-of-the-art bio refinery to create premium biodiesel, a renewable fuel which reduces the carbon impact of road vehicles by up to 86%.

Warrants are awarded as a mark of recognition to people or companies that have regularly supplied goods or services to members of the Royal Family for at least five years.

Olleco is a major resource management and sustainability company. Their new Royal Warrant comes shortly after they achieved second place at the Circulars Awards at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Both of these honours reflect the pivotal role Olleco plays in bringing their partners into the circular economy, supporting their commitment to sustainability and reducing their carbon footprint.

Robert Behan, CEO of Olleco, said: “This is a huge honour and we are delighted and proud to be recognised for our service, helping the Royal Household to tackle climate change. If we are to achieve the UN’s goal of keeping global warming below 1.5°c, every household, community, organisation and nation in the world has to change the way they operate.”

Olleco serves many of the UK’s leading food and hospitality brands from a network of 19 sites strategically located throughout the British Isles. As well as supplying fresh oils and fats and taking back used oils, they collect food waste, which is then converted to renewable energy and fed back into the national gas and electricity grids. Since their formation by ABP Food Group in 2006, Olleco has helped thousands of UK businesses and organisations to embrace the circular economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by hundreds of thousands of tonnes.

ABP Food Group is one of Europe’s leading agri-business companies and operates across 4 divisions: beef, renewables, pet food and proteins. It is a founding member of Origin Green and in 2016 became the first company to receive quadruple certification from the Carbon Trust for the measures that it had taken to reduce its carbon footprint.