Where Are They Now: Peter Moody, Founder, GAP Group North East

Since its launch in 2018, the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme has celebrated hundreds of exceptional individuals. In this series, we reconnect with some of our alumni to discover where their growth journeys have taken them, the impact of being part of the programme, and what their ambitions look like today.

Former Royal Navy submariner Peter Moody has swapped the ocean depths for the front line of Britain’s green-tech revolution. He has built GAP Group North East into one of the largest electrical waste recyclers in the UK, processing more than 90,000 tonnes each year. Since appearing in The LDC Top 50 in 2024, Peter has opened a new state-of-the-art fridge recycling plant near Perth, Scotland, running on a 100 per cent net-zero carbon footprint, and established a new facility at Hessay, near York, which will shortly begin treating a new waste stream – details to be announced. His next venture is extracting gold and copper from old circuit boards. “I’ve got two daughters, and I’m trying to build a better world for future generations.”

What has been your biggest project since appearing in The LDC Top 50?

Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, opened our new facility at the Bin Eco-Park near Perth last June. It’s our second fridge plant, and just as big an undertaking as the first – you forget the grief you went through until you’re back in the thick of it! We’re currently operating at 75 per cent capacity, processing around 480,000 fridges a year, with plenty of headroom still to grow.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities?

We’re launching GAP Urban Metals Recovery, a joint venture with DEScycle, a spin-out from the University of Leicester, to recover gold and copper from circuit boards. It’s a huge opportunity – there’s a wealth of critical materials locked up in electronic waste that the UK currently isn’t recovering at scale. The government wants 20 per cent of rare earth metals to come from recycled materials by 2035, and we intend to be part of delivering that.

What’s next for you?

Eventually, I’d like to move into a chairman role. This industry is so exciting, and I want to create long-lasting change that outlives me. As the proverb goes: “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.”