An apprentice who joined a waste management specialist in the South 12 years ago as a teenager has been promoted to director.

Luke Haskell (pictured above), who started out as a marketing and sales assistant and was most recently General Manager, joins the Board as Commercial Director for TJ Waste & Recycling.

TJ Group, which also operates bulk haulage and muck-away TJ Transport and is based at Avonmouth and headquartered near Portsmouth, is a major independent player in a sector occupied by just over 1,000 companies in the UK.

Contributing to group turnover, TJ Waste & Recycling provides commercial waste management and workplace recycling services – as well as skip and specialist waste management for events such as Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival – to the public and trade across the South and, from Bristol, the West.

John Gosling, TJ’s Managing Director, said: “Luke’s appointment to director is thoroughly deserved – TJ paid for Luke’s NVQ in business administration when he began with us 12 years ago and it was an investment which has repeatedly paid for itself.

Luke, who came to us from college for vocational learning at the age of 19, has worked tirelessly for the company since then, fostering innovation and addressing legacy challenges which come with many well-established businesses.”

He added: “As a ‘digital native’, he is credited with helping TJ forge a strong local market presence and brand awareness through transforming our social media, logo, digital marketing and website functionality, along with making the online ordering service for customers as convenient and simple as possible.

Furthermore, Luke has generated new waste management contracts with local authorities and in the private sector and has supported TJ with intellectual property rights for innovations, including iBlend, a recycled aggregate we sell for use as a sub-base beneath highways and construction projects.”

Luke was Marketing Manager for nearly eight years prior to becoming General Manager in 2019, also studied to degree level whilst juggling full-time work.

Awarded by the University of Winchester, he is a Doctor of Business Administration, Organisational Leadership, and, from the University of Portsmouth, Master of Business Administration, Strategic Leadership.

Luke said: “The 12-year journey from apprentice to director at TJ has been action-packed – what motivates me is to see the company as an industry leader, one that others in the sector aspire to become, where best practice is the norm in every sphere of operation.

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have repaid the belief TJ had in me from the start. This is an industry which can only grow as domestic and trade waste becomes an even-more important and valuable recycling resource in the UK.”

TJ Group, which employs 197 people and operates a fleet of 80 liveried vehicles, is listed as one of the top 250 companies in the Solent region, home to 1.25 million people and 42,000 businesses.

Headquartered in Wickham Road, Fareham, TJ was established 30 years by Terry ‘TJ’ Higgins as a sole trader, starting out in Havant, near Portsmouth, with a portable cabin, a telephone, a contacts book and hired lorries.

As Chairman and owner, Terry now finds himself welcoming many of his original workforce’s children into full-time employment.

The company operates materials recovery facilities in Portsmouth and Southampton, with transport depots at its headquarters and in Avonmouth, near Bristol, and Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. Under licence, TJ also runs a sand and gravel quarry at Hythe, near Southampton, and a chalk one near Petersfield.