Our founder and Company Chairman Nigel, started with a £100 loan in 1973, which enabled him to purchase a pick-up truck and establish himself as a scrap metal merchant.
As Nigel’s customer base grew, the business quickly expanded, both in premises and services. The scrap metal yard lead to expansion and by the mid-1980s Nigel had local customers across the motor, agricultural and manufacturing industries. The business became an established local employer, known for reliable and friendly service.
The early 1990s saw large scale change and opportunities, with the first waste customer, Marietta Foods, asking for their waste to be collected as well as their scrap metal. Wiltshire Waste Recycling (now known as Grist Environmental) was formed as the solution for the increase in waste collections and has grown year on year, with outstanding environmental business practices. We are one of Wiltshire’s business success stories, employing over two hundred staff in the Devizes area; supported by a large fleet of specialist vehicles to keep the wheels of the business turning.
Today Grist Environmental is an established company with several services across the South West: accident repair services, vehicle recovery, car sales, spare parts for vehicles, waste solutions, event services, hazardous waste services, aggregate supplies and agricultural services. The common values across all of our services are reliability, flexibility and honest customer service.
We are proud of our hardworking and dedicated staff, many of whom have worked within the group for over twenty years. In Nigel’s words these member of staff are ‘part of the family’; and they work closely with him, and his three sons, who each take leading roles in the development and the day-to-day operations of the company.
We remain committed to our core business values of caring for the environment, excellent service and striving to provide customers with a full range of services both now and in the future.