Meet Darren Jones, our UK Operations Support Manager. In July 2024, Darren celebrated his 10-year anniversary with N+P. A perfect opportunity to highlight Darren's journey and to share the story of the developments and transitions Darren has experienced over the past 10 years. He reflects on both his personal experiences and the growth to the evolution of the company and UK waste landscape.
A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE IN THE WASTE SECTOR
Before joining N+P, Darren worked for various companies in the waste, demolition, and scrap sectors. He held roles, ranging from operations to plant manager, transport manager, and general manager. During this career he has obtained several certifications, such as WAMITAB COTC, Transport CPC and NRSWA, to always be compliant to the strict laws and regulations.
One of the companies he previously worked at, was the Ron Hull Group, where he was involved in the installation and management of a MRF (Material Recovery Facility) in Rotherham. This company supplied SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) to N+P. During his time at Ron Hull, Darren was approached by another company looking to set up a waste processing facility in York. Shortly after their visit, they offered him a role at Yorwaste where he was responsible for the MRF operation and managed three other facilities in the district, which also supplied SRF to N+P.
THE FIRST N+P OFFICE
During his career at both companies, Darren was always in regular contact with the perceived relatively small Dutch company, N+P. N+P, represented in the UK by Neville Roberts, was an absolute expert in the use of alternative fuels in cement kilns. Neville was so impressed with the quality of the SRF, that he offered Darren a job in quality management to advise and assist current SRF and RDF producers with their processing capabilities and quality issues. Darren found this role to be an excellent fit, providing job satisfaction and being part of a growing market, so here he began his journey at N+P in July 2014.
Darren started as the UK Quality Officer, traveling across the United Kingdom to visit sites and provide advice on quality issues and processes. He then had the opportunity to be responsible for the first N+P UK office, located in Grimsby. N+P had a portacabin office with a small round table and chairs. Although the facility was very basic, the most important thing was that it had good wifi and a kettle. The first office in the UK gave N+P a good foothold to develop its presence in the UK market with established connections in Europe, not just a Dutch company exporting waste! From here SRF bales were exported to, among others, Latvia. The miles on his car quickly added up; he travelled more than 80,000 kilometres per year to develop customer and supply relations and sustain quality demands of N+P for supply to its consumers.
THE challenge OF A NEW ROLE
When Darren first started, he had to get to know everyone, not only at N+P but also at most of the production sites he visited. In the United Kingdom, they say, "Teaching Grandma how to suck eggs," which means showing someone experienced how to do something. Initially, it was challenging to tell them what to do with their processes, but over time, due to N+P's reputation in the waste market and the services they offered, this changed. He received calls from people inviting him in to help with processes and offtake, we became experts in our field. N+P has grown into a well-known and respected key player in the industry. I had the opportunity to go to work traveling by helicopter, I was asked to work with a waste company in Scotland. They were impressed with the N+P approach with assisting them, they arranged for me to picked up and taken in style when I ever I visited. As part of building close relationships, Darren himself also has been involved in every RWM Exhibition N+P has participated in over the past decade. Due in part to these events, he has built an extensive network of valuable past connections and many new relationships within the waste industry. N+P provides opportunities to travel and develop himself, something he values greatly in his career.
AN INNOVATIVE TIME
Darren describes his time at N+P as fantastic; from the very first months, he could see that N+P was very innovative with ideas and approaches. N+P was looking into high CV residues from other industries that were not considered before and blending them into their SRF production. The company challenged itself to come up with new ideas to help introduce into the process and improve its products. He recalls, "I was there when the first Subcoal Pellet arrived in the UK, and we had to store them in the baling shed in Grimsby." During one of the many projects, he was involved in trials loading containers with SRF using a scrap metal compactor with Rick Martens. They looked at other options to help use other modes of transportation for deliveries and shipment of alternative fuels.
An unforgettable moment was when N+P acquired the TSP location (Teesside). Darren was tasked with clearing out the shed of old, decomposing RDF waste that had been there for months. He recounts, "I operated a grapple to level the waste; as you can imagine, removing old waste that had been there for a long time was a very big job in not the most ideal circumstances ;-).''
He also remembers the initial steps of removing the old Turmec plant at TSP. The entire plant had to be stripped and removed. Some items were sold and elements that met the high standards were retained. When the new plant was installed, they started with cold commissioning and only produced SRF bales. Michael Kolijn and Darren literally had blood, sweat, and tears over a period of time to commission the operation to the intended standards of N+P, making it the one of the largest and sophisticated alternative fuel production operations in the UK and the N+P Group.
The highlight was making the first pellet: "Such a tremendous feeling to be part of something new. I broke a bottle of champagne over the shredder, as we do with a ship on its maiden voyage. I was privileged to be asked to be the first to feed the shredder with its first grab full of waste."
GROWTH ANd PROGRESS
Darren has seen N+P grow from a company with just a few people around a table at a quarterly meeting into a company that evolved from exporting to trading materials and now has its own processing and sorting sites. He can't wait for the company to mature further.
The success of N+P is thanks to drive and entrepreneurship of founder Karel Jennissen and his wife Karin more than 30 years ago. That mentality is still the driving force for everyone who works at N+P today. Darren would recommend anyone considering entering this industry to look at N+P and their history: inspiring, innovative, and always looking for the next challenge. A saying that will always stay with him comes from Lars Jennissen (Chief Technology & Innovation): "We are working on solutions for problems most people are not aware of."
CLOSING STATEMENT:
“Having worked with Darren for 6 years, not only has he selflessly passed on his operational and technical knowledge to stakeholders within the organisation to the benefit of the businesses development and growth, his commitment to his various technical roles within the company have been immeasurable. Darren conducts himself professionally, creates strong internal and external relationships and is a true N+P ambassador! On behalf of the business, I want to take this opportunity to thank Darren Jones for his 10 years of service and specifically, his continued dedication for the business to be quality driven and compliant, which to his core, is his passion!”
Jon Wylie, UK Commercial Director
