TNB talks to Tom Rumboll, CEO of SYNETIQ, one of the SMMT’s newest members
How would you describe SYNETIQ?
We’re the UK’s leading integrated vehicle salvage, dismantling and recycling company, but we’re a world away from the old school concept of a breaker’s yard. We’re focused on greener and more sustainable motoring in the UK, utilising the waste hierarchy to reduce, reuse, remanufacture and recycle through our circular model. The underlying concept is simple – by more efficiently processing vehicles at the end of their life, we can drastically cut CO2 emissions and save both time and money for our customers. Our circular model means the more vehicles we dismantle, the greater our supply of green parts back into the vehicle repair network is, and the greater environmental and financial savings we can generate.
Who do you work with?
We’re proud to have major household names in our client portfolio, including fleet operators, police forces, logistics companies, vehicle repair bodyshops, as well as insurers and accident management companies. The services we provide can vary greatly, with many tailored to the client’s needs. Our compliant processing of salvage vehicles maximises the financial and environmental impact of each vehicle we process, and, through our supply of green parts, we’ve been helping to keep some of the UK’s largest commercial fleets moving for over a decade.
What are Green Parts?
Green Parts are OEM, non-safety critical, quality-controlled parts, such as doors, bumpers, and lights, and are perfect for reuse on damaged-repairable vehicles. They can be up to 70% cheaper when compared with new, OEM parts and with similar levels of CO2 savings. They also often act as a “like-for-like” replacement for vehicles already in use. We supply insurers, bodyshops and fleet operators with green parts already, and interest is now growing quickly in the consumer space.
What are you focused on?
The ‘Our Road to Tomorrow’ initiative is our commitment to sustainable motoring for all, but it provides some hard and fast data on just what’s achievable. We want to help inform our clients and customers of the benefits of our sustainable approach. Our collaboration with circular economy specialist Oakdene Hollins is helping us to understand the true CO2 footprint of our activities, as well as the CO2 savings that can be achieved using green parts in vehicle repair.
How does that support the CV industry?
We’ve been able to deliver clear financial and environmental benefits to clients who use Green Parts. Centralised and decentralised stock management, as well as rapid distribution, means that operators can get vehicles back on the road more quickly, without relying on newly manufactured parts. This obviously reduces the CO2 emissions/carbon footprint associated with manufacturing new parts and stops vehicles sitting idle, waiting for a specific part. This is especially true in situations where parts sourced from abroad suffer shipping delays.
What does membership of the SMMT mean to you as a business?
One of the biggest benefits is the ability to participate in key SMMT working groups, such as Electric Vehicle, Aftermarket and Remanufacturing. By working closely with manufacturers, we believe the industry can maximise the reuse and recycling potential of each vehicle, reducing CO2 emissions and material waste further. This includes the decarbonisation of road transport. We’re expanding and investing in our Winsford site to establish Europe’s first dedicated EV processing and recycling centre to handle existing and future generations of vehicles – also operating as a centre of excellence to provide certified training to other businesses on the safe handling of EV batteries and architecture. We’ve also adapted our UK site coverage to ensure our logistics network is working as efficiently as possible, with larger flagship sites supported by smaller ‘Smart Hubs’ to strategically manage the flow of vehicles, while reducing unnecessary mileage.
