Reducing Waste. Building Lives. Claiming R&D.
THE CLAIM
Company name: Recipro (UK) Ltd
Industry: Environmental Services
Area of innovation: Remanufacturing and processing of waste paints
Claim size: £12,776.00 from HMRC
WHO ARE RECIPRO?
At Recipro their mission is to reduce waste through reuse, while benefitting the local community at the same time. They work with suppliers and contractors, who donate unwanted, surplus building materials which they can sell on at hugely discounted rates. Their customers range from charities to schools, churches to shops, as well as the local community. They simply don’t believe in waste!
Les Owens, MD of Recipro sums it up nicely with, “We’re like the Oxfam of construction.”
“We’re like the Oxfam of construction.”
Radish: How is Recipro eligible to make an R&D claim?
Les Owens: “Well, I was aware of R&D but didn’t really understand it. However, I knew that as a business, we were completely changing how some huge organisations run their business and that no-one was doing what we were doing.
But there is a lot of time and effort that goes into trying to understand what our customers need from us – we don’t just take away the surplus materials, we have to calculate the carbon saving and measure the social impact of getting those products to the people who need them.
A lot of what we are doing, we’re not even sure it’s the right thing, a lot of it is trial and error, which I guess is just another way of describing research and development.
I guess we just don’t call it that, we just call it work!”
“A lot of what we are doing…is trial and error, which I guess is just another way of describing research and development.”
Radish: Did you feel confident you were eligible?
Les Owens: “Yes, but I was conscious I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time as everyone is busy, so I wanted to be confident it would be worth our while and your while. In the back of my mind I was definitely thinking some of what we do must be research & development.
Actually, making the claim enabled the team to better understand more what it is we are doing because we all know the job that we do, but sometimes we don’t understand how we get there.
“In the back of my mind I was definitely thinking some of what we do must be research & development.”
Radish: What was your experience like making a claim?
Les Owens: “It was a simple format. Initially the phone call to me was an overview of the business and whether we all agreed there was a claim to be made; then it was mainly over to Tim and James. It was very straight forward, and it happened in a very speedy time frame.
If I was to summarise Radish in one word it would be efficient and working with James at Elevate Advice is great, he allows me to not worry about finance, tax and the stuff your average guy running a business doesn’t have the time to do, so you can concentrate on the business.”
“It was very straight forward, and it happened in a very speedy time frame.”
INTERESTED?
Use this link to book in a 15-minute scoping call with one of our consultants. If you qualify, you can then book in to complete the rest of the information online in a 45-minute consultation. One hour of your time, that’s it.