Raleigh’s Waste Industries is merging with Canadian environmental services company GFL Environmental. The $2.8 billion deal will make the combined company the largest privately owned environmental services company in North America.
“The continued evolution of Waste Industries takes another large step forward in this combination with GFL,” says Ven Poole, chairman and CEO of Waste Industries. “These companies complement each other in multiple ways and the management teams share a similar culture oriented around exceptional customer service, operational excellence and our commitment to making a difference in the communities we serve.”
Waste Industries CEO Ven Poole
Formed in the Triangle by Lonnie Poole Jr. in 1970, Waste Industries has been family-owned throughout its expansion across the Southeast. The company’s ownership restructured in 2017 through a buyout deal that sold the company to an investor group that included members of the Poole family, senior company management and two national venture capital firms. Currently, Waste Industries operates in nine states, after acquisitions in Colorado and Pennsylvania in the past two months, with 2,850 employees.
In the spring of 2018, Waste Industries announced it had finalized its merger with Alpine Waste & Recycling, a local non-hazardous solid waste collection and recycling company based in Denver, Colorado. Alpine was a vertically integrated company operating residential collection, commercial collection, a materials recovery facility, and a landfill. The acquisition of Alpine represented Waste Industries’ first strategic move outside of its East Coast footprint since the company’s founding.
In 2015, Waste Industries completed a $975 million refinancing of existing credit facilities – with $260 million to be used for acquisitions and corporate purposes.
The largest waste management companies in the world are Engie and Veolia, both headquartered in France. The largest waste company in North America is Waste Management Inc., followed by Republic Services, Clean Harbors, Stericycle, and Progressive Waste. Waste Connections is a major Canadian player, generating $4.62 billion (U.S.) in revenue in 2017 according to Statista.
