As Centriforce marks its 50th anniversary, CEO Jonathan Pearce reflects on the people, products and customer relationships that have underpinned the company’s growth and why continued investment is essential for critical infrastructure and the future of plastics recycling.
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For Jonathan, the company’s success over the past five decades can be distilled into three things: people, product and relationships.
“It’s the people that make a business,” he says, pointing to the core skills retained by the company since it was founded in 1976. Alongside its workforce, he identifies Centriforce’s products – which meet a growing need for damage prevention, particularly in critical infrastructure – and its strong customer relationships as the other two pillars of the business.
As the company celebrates 50 years, Centriforce is looking to the future. When asked how it feels to be leading the company forward, Jonathan says, “To be CEO when the company celebrates its 50th birthday is a huge privilege. I’ve been with the business for 23 years. I started in Customer Services, and I am now the CEO. I am very proud to have seen the journey the company has been on since 2003.”
The business is also expecting to achieve a significant commercial milestone in 2026 with sales set to go past £30m for the year. Following its acquisition by private equity company Rubicon two years ago, Centriforce is now on what Jonathan describes as “a real investment curve”.
This investment will support expansion across North America, Europe and Asia, alongside further growth in the UK and European infrastructure markets. The expansion of power networks, increasingly incorporating data centres and AI, is creating opportunities for Centriforce’s products. Investment is also being directed towards faster, more efficient production lines and automation, as Jonathan says, “We want to automate our raw material feed system, increase throughput across our production lines and make our site as safe as possible for our employees. With Rubicon’s support, Centriforce will continue to invest heavily in Capital Expenditure projects”
For the wider recycling industry, however, the road ahead remains challenging. Jonathan points to a combination of legislation, virgin polymer pricing and demand for recycled materials. He explains, “There needs to be tighter legislation not just on recycling plastics, but on exporting them, to ensure plastics are recycled within the UK or wherever they’re generated. Another big challenge facing the recycling market has been the very low price of virgin plastic. Before the war in Iran, virgin plastics were being overproduced, and because of this, their price has fallen. This means people are buying virgin rather than recycled, which decreases the demand for recycled plastics as well as the investment in recycling.”
For Jonathan, the answer is not to lower standards when conditions become difficult. Instead, the recycling sector must continue investing in infrastructure and maintaining the quality of recycled materials. He concludes, “It’s paramount that we keep going; there are always bumps in the road, but we need to keep developing. Landfilling plastics is just a no-no. Keep the faith. There are more than enough opportunities to make new products out of plastic waste. Our success over the last 50 years has been built on this concept.”