Serving the food and hospitality industry and the planet

We are one of the UK’s most progressive circular economy companies. We help food and hospitality businesses address some of their biggest environmental challenges and ensure a sustainable future for our planet.

The global climate crisis is front of mind in everything we do and we deploy human ingenuity to create the innovative technologies and dynamic systems needed to radically reduce your carbon footprint and, ultimately, help you achieve zero carbon operations.

A history of environmental innovation

Established in 2006, we are the renewables arm of our parent – ABP Food Group. We were originally created to address changes in legislation banning the traditional use of used cooking oil as an ingredient in animal feed.

Used cooking oil is a precious, energy-rich material however, in landfill, it contributes to global warming. When it is disposed of in sewers, it causes blockages and can lead to the formation of fatbergs. To ensure that it is not wasted in either of these damaging ways, we set out to collect as much used cooking oil as possible and convert it into high value, renewable fuels such as biodiesel.

To reduce the carbon footprint of our used cooking oil collections, we combine our collection journeys with the delivery of fresh cooking oils and fats. We source a range of premium cooking oils and fats from sustainable sources to meet the demands of our customers and deploy a fleet of bespoke vehicles designed to minimise the carbon impact of our logistics.

Combining delivery and collections in a single vehicle is a strikingly simple approach to reduce the carbon impact of our cooking oil supply and recovery service by 50%.

This business model, coupled with a highly professional, national service, quickly propelled Olleco to become market leaders and attracted the business of many of the largest names in the food industry. Not content with that, we looked at other areas where we could help the food industry further improve its carbon footprint.

Food waste is another key environmental challenge for the food and hospitality sectors. It was often being sent to landfill where it produces methane - a greenhouse gas around 25 times more damaging than CO2.

Processing food waste through an anaerobic digester captures the methane safely so it can be used to make renewable energy. Seeing this opportunity, we added food waste collection and processing to the services we offer our customers.

The ultimate seal of approval

On April 1st 2019 we were awarded the Royal Warrant by Her Majesty The Queen. This was the result of over five years of unblemished service delivering fresh oil to, and collecting used oil from, Royal estates across the country.

We’re enormously proud to be one of the first companies to be supplying the Royal Household with a circular economy closed loop solution. And, of course, bearing the Royal Warrant is a huge honour and testament to the excellent service we provide.

Olleco takes its place in the climate emergency - Video