Phil Gudgeon will take over the running of Cawleys Waste Management in October ' 25 years after he started working in the industry as a skip driver's mate.

Cawleys, with a turn-over of £34 million, is a family business and one of Luton's largest employers, provides waste management services to businesses across England. It also maintains its own fleet of 70 vehicles and operates a 24-hour vehicle workshop.

The company, which positions itself as an early adopter of new technologies, was among the first to move from landfill to recycling and runs its own dirty Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to process mixed waste streams. It was also among the first users of anaerobic digestion to tackle food waste in the retail sector, launching a trial service with Waitrose 10 years' ago.

And last year Cawleys helped Canary Wharf Estate be declared a Clean Coffee Zone with a coffee recycling service and, for all its business customers, introduced a new system to tackle plastic waste management and clean waste streams called Infinity.

Phil, 42, joined the business in 2013 and has been instrumental in delivering efficiencies and innovation to the operational side of the business, introducing in-vehicle weighing system and a route review which has delivered more than a million pounds in cost savings to the company to date.

And he was also the driving force behind the company becoming the first waste management business in the UK to join the DVSA Enhanced Recognition Scheme earlier this year.

'Having worked in many different waste management companies, I can honestly say that Cawleys is an exceptionally innovative business,' said Phil.  

'Decisions can be made quickly and cleanly but are taken with a long term, generational perspective.  Waste management is all about protecting the future through what we do now and I'm determined that we will continue to do our best in this respect on every front.

'My priorities for the business are to become leaner and more efficient in terms of what we process. We must help our customers extract more value from their materials and find more ways to use that material. 

'The values of customer service and care really do matter and I'll continue to focus on this too.  It is a privilege to become the MD of Cawleys'

Jon Cawley, chairman of Cawleys said: 'Phil has proved himself a highly skilled leader and a great person to work with.

'He knows our industry inside out, and cares deeply about the people and processes that we are all part of.  I'm delighted that he is taking over as MD of the business. We all are.  He is well liked and well respected; we're lucky to have him'