LCR was founded in 2005 with an office near London Bridge. The founding partners had extensive experience dating back to the early 1980s in the global distribution and trading of chemicals, base and minor metals as well as ferro alloys. Already holding significant industry relevant knowledge of base metals and the London Metal Exchange, the company joined the Minor Metal Trade Association in 2006 to support involvement in this area of metals and related chemicals.
In 2009, the company began a strategic move upstream, employing specialised staff and expanding to deal more with metal containing secondaries, particularly spent catalysts. We joined the Chemical Business Association in 2011 and committed ourselves to the Responsible Care program in 2012. In 2015 with our continuing development into the field of secondaries, we obtained UK registration as a waste broker and dealer.
In the following years, LCR continued to develop and grow – further increasing staffing levels and turnover – and in 2016 was officially recognised by the London Stock Exchange as a “Company to Inspire Britain”. We branched out more into non-ferrous secondaries, dealing with ashes, drosses, sludges, tailings and others as well as continuing with our spent catalysts. In 2018 we became members of the Bureau of International Recycling to complement our involvement in the field of secondaries and pave the way for future progress and growth. In 2019 we made it to the FT/Statista top 1000 list, recognising LCR as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe. In the same year we were accredited with ISO 9001.
Following several years of joint cooperation and work, AGR Catalyst Recovery (AGR CR) based in Spain was finally commissioned in 2020. LCR works exclusively with this J/V operation, collecting and processing thousands of tons of spent catalysts coming from European refineries every year.
In 2020 we set up our own exclusive agency in South East Asia. We commenced involvement with the UK company R. S. Bruce in 2021 and work with them in the SEA markets arranging clean-downs of nitric acid plants for recovery of precious metals.
Today, our business encompasses a range of metallurgical and chemical raw materials, by-products, residues and spent catalysts for downstream use, reclamation and recycling. LCR creates elegant recycling loops – buying back fully processed chemicals and metals from companies we have supplied with secondaries. These are resold to industry worldwide to restart the loop.
Meet the Team
To ensure that you get the best out of your experience with LCR, we would like to introduce you to the members of our team and identify the roles they play within our company.
Richard Bartholomew
Managing DirectorRichard Bartholomew
A founder and the Managing Director of LCR, Richard has worked mainly with inorganic chemicals and non-ferrous metals since the 1980s. He has held directorships and senior management positions at other companies until the formation of LCR in 2005.
Richard specialises in vanadium chemicals but also handles projects and developing new business globally in the secondaries and chemical areas of the company.
Peter Nicholson
DirectorPeter Nicholson
One of the two founders and a Director of LCR, Peter has more than 15 years’ experience with chemicals, ferro-alloys and minor metals.
Peter is responsible for chemicals and specific metals and alloys. He is multi-lingual, speaking Japanese, French, German and Russian, and deals with customers worldwide.
Paul McDonald
Head of RecyclingPaul McDonald
Paul has worked in the recycling sector of the non-ferrous metals industry for over 35 years and joined LCR in 2012.
Paul specialises in secondary raw materials, particularly in the sourcing and supply of spent/semi-processed catalysts. He is the department manager and has travelled extensively throughout the world meeting producers, processors and end users.
Catherine Crosby
Operations ManagerCatherine Crosby
Catherine has over 20 years supply chain and logistics experience within the commodity world having worked for blue chip companies such as Tate & Lyle and ED&F Man Ltd.
Catherine has in depth knowledge of global shipping and logistics covering containerised sea freight as well as multimodal shipments by road and air, warehousing and insurance allowing LCR to be ideally placed to meet our partners varied and complex supply chain needs
Paulius Gudavičius
Secondary Raw Materials ManagerPaulius Gudavičius
Paulius joined LCR in 2015 as a Manager of the Spent Catalyst Recycling department.
Paulius is responsible mainly for developing business with oil refineries and is multi-lingual, speaking Lithuanian, English and Russian.
Ruben Salagre Sevillano
Development Manager (Spain/SA)Ruben Salagre Sevillano
With a degree and background in Mechanical Engineering, Ruben joined LCR in 2018 as a member of the Secondaries department.
A native of Spain and fluent in the language, Ruben is responsible for developing our business mainly on the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin-American markets.
Sandy Granville (Lu Bin)
Business Development Manager (Far East)Sandy Granville (Lu Bin)
Sandy Granville (Lu Bin) is responsible for developing new business mainly in the S-E Asian part of the world and is a member of the Spent Catalyst Recycling department.
A native of China who is bilingual in English and Mandarin together with extensive experience in sales and marketing, she handles secondaries containing cobalt, copper, molybdenum, nickel, tungsten, vanadium and zinc.
