Your best-selling grade might be your worst deal.
A strong spread can disappear once haulage, handling, yard time and tied-up cash are counted. A Finance Health Check shows what is really left.
26 years of accountancy and finance experience in UK scrap metal.
One person does the work, and you will know who.
The review is carried out by the person you speak to. There is no team of analysts behind the curtain, no work passed down to a junior, and no sales function between you and the person doing the thinking. That is the point of a practice this size.
Sector
UK scrap metal, recycling and waste — not a general practice that also takes scrap clients.
Direct contact
Enquiries go straight to the person who would do the work. Send one here
Seven pressures sit between the buy and the bank.
Most reporting shows the buy and sell price. The review checks the rest.
No calculator or estimates. This simply shows what we review.
Purchase price
What did it cost to get the material through the gate?
Effect on the return
Sets the floor. Every later cost is subtracted from a spread that is already fixed at this point.
What the review examines
How buying prices are set, who can vary them, and whether the person buying can see the full cost of servicing the deal.
Selling price
What was actually realised, after grading and deductions?
Effect on the return
Sets the headline spread — the number most yards judge a deal on, and the last one that looks this good.
What the review examines
Realised prices against expected, the size and frequency of deductions, and how disputes and re-grades are recorded.
Haulage
Was the cost of moving it visible before the deal was agreed?
Effect on the return
Takes a bite that varies by route, load and backhaul. Often the first cost to be averaged, and the first to mislead.
What the review examines
Route economics, whether transport cost is attributed to the deal or absorbed centrally, and how empty running is treated.
Handling and labour
How much yard work did this material need before it could leave?
Effect on the return
Consumes labour, plant and time. Rarely attributed to the deal that caused it, so it lands on the yard as a whole.
What the review examines
Processing steps by grade, plant and operator time, and whether handling-heavy material is priced to reflect it.
Yard capacity
What else could that space and that hour have been used for?
Effect on the return
Finite. Material sitting in a bay is capacity denied to something else — a cost that never appears on any ledger.
What the review examines
Dwell time by grade, congestion at the points that actually constrain throughput, and what gets displaced.
Working capital
How long was cash tied up between paying out and being paid?
Effect on the return
Sets the pace the business can trade at. A good margin held too long still limits what you can buy next week.
What the review examines
The gap between payment out and cash in, stock held against forward positions, and the pressure points in the cycle.
True commercial return
After all of that, was this the best use of the business?
Effect on the return
What is left, and whether the capacity it consumed could have earned more somewhere else.
What the review examines
Whether the decision to take this trade again would be made on evidence, or on the headline spread alone.
This map explains which pressures we examine and how they relate. It calculates nothing and uses no figures — your numbers are the only ones that matter, and they are looked at during the review itself.
A clear written report.
The question, the evidence, the finding and what to do first.
Read the full exampleIllustrative document
Finance Health Check — Findings
Commercial question
Whether the grades taking the largest share of yard time were producing a return that justified the capacity they consumed — or whether that capacity was better used elsewhere.
Evidence reviewed
Records already used to run the business. Nothing was rebuilt or re-keyed for the review.
- Trading period examined
- redactedmonths
- Purchase and sales records
- redactedtransactions
- Haulage records
- redactedmovements
- Stock reports
- redactedperiod-end positions
- Management accounts
- redactedperiods
- Interviews
- redacted(owner, yard, transport)
Key finding
The headline spread on the highest-volume grade held up. The return after haulage, handling and dwell time did not — and the difference was wide enough to change which trades were worth taking. The gap appeared in none of the reports the business was already producing, because transport was absorbed centrally and handling time was never attributed to a grade.
Priority action
Attribute haulage and handling to the grade that caused them, before the next buying decision, starting with the two grades that consume the most yard time. This is a reporting change rather than a systems project, and can be done inside the records that already exist.
Assumptions and boundaries
Findings rest on the records provided and on what was described in interview. No stock count was performed and no valuation was carried out. This is commercial analysis — not audit, tax or regulated financial advice. No saving or return is claimed, promised or implied.
Illustrative format only. Not a client document, not a real engagement, and not evidence of any result. Figures are redacted rather than invented, so nothing here can be read as a claim.
Engagement note 01
AnonymisedA profitable trade that was the wrong use of the yard
Anonymised engagement. Identity and commercially sensitive details withheld by agreement.
Read the full engagement noteFinding
The material generated revenue and the spread was genuine. The return after operational demands was materially lower than the headline margin implied, because yard labour and transport capacity were being consumed by comparatively lower-margin activity. The gap was invisible in the existing reporting rather than absent from the business.
Recommendation
Attribute haulage and handling to the grade that caused them, before the next buying decision. Prioritise selected higher-margin non-ferrous opportunities, including relevant aluminium grades, where the expected commercial return justified the use of finite yard and transport capacity.
Five clear stages. One fixed scope.
You agree the scope and fee before work starts.
If this is not the right service, we will say so. An enquiry commits you to nothing.
- 01
Agree the question
We agree what needs testing, what is in scope and the fixed fee before work starts.
- 02
Gather what already exists
We request only the existing records needed for the agreed scope.
- 03
Test the commercial picture
We connect the records to what material costs to buy, move, handle, hold and sell.
- 04
Separate assumption from evidence
We show which assumptions are supported by evidence and which are not.
- 05
Set the order of action
You get ranked actions: internal fixes, specialist work and anything not worth doing.
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