The company says Arrow's reliability and emphasis on customer service have positioned it as the preeminent provider to its base of 10,000-plus clients.

Carr's Hill Capital Partners Management (CHP), a lower middle-market private equity firm based in New Orleans, has announced its investment in Arrow Inc., a provider of roll-off container and waste hauling services for residential, commercial and industrial clients in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area.   

CHP says Arrow's reliability and emphasis on customer service have positioned it as the preeminent provider to its base of more than 10,000 clients annually.  

"Arrow Waste is a market leader with tremendous potential," says H. David de Laureal, managing partner of CHP.  

Following CHP's investment, Justin Vetsch joined Arrow Waste as CEO. Vetsch brings more than 11 years of industry experience, most notably in senior roles at WM in markets including Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. Vetsch has played a pivotal role in expanding commercial relationships, entering new markets and developing strategic partnerships throughout the waste industry, according to CHP. Rip Thomson, Arrow's founder, will continue as an active advisor to the business  

"I was immediately impressed by Arrow's longstanding customer relationships and reputation for high-quality service," Vetsch says. "The vision and capital support of the CHP team created a compelling opportunity, and we're already making significant progress expanding Arrow's postcollection capacity and growing our commercial waste client base. I look forward to continuing to build a best-in-class, client-focused environmental services firm."  

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel for CHP; Hancock Whitney and Tecum Capital provided financing for the transaction. 

Waste and recycling firm sees its second quarter net income rise 51 percent year on year.

Casella Waste Systems Inc., based in Rutland, Vermont, has reported second-quarter revenue that rose by 31.4 percent compared with the second quarter of 2021 and net income that rose by 51 percent from a year earlier.

“We had a strong quarter, as our mature operating efficiency and pricing programs helped us to offset the impact of historically high inflation,” says John W. Casella, CEO and board chair. “Our core business is performing very well and driving growth, while our execution against our acquisition strategy has resulted in incremental growth."

The CEO says in the 12 months ending June 30, 2022, for the first time in the company’s history it exceeded $1.0 billion in annual revenue. John Casella says, “This is a true milestone for the company. I am proud of our continued execution and believe we have the right people and processes in place to continue delivering strong results over the remainder of the year.”

The company also has been busy in the acquisition market, the CEO says. “We continue to grow the business meaningfully through acquisitions. Year to date, we have closed on 11 strategic acquisitions with annualized revenue of approximately $47 million and continue to have a robust pipeline of opportunities. We remain disciplined in our approach and have the potential to close on additional deals this fiscal year.”

Regarding retaining profitability, John Casella says, "As we expected, our fuel cost recovery fees effectively helped to offset the impact of rising fuel costs in the quarter, while resulting in limited margin compression. Further, our nimble efforts to adjust our pricing programs early in the year resulted in a 7.7 percent increase in collection pricing and a 6.9 percent increase in solid waste pricing in the second quarter.”

Looking ahead, John Casella says, “Given our strong operating execution year-to-date and the expected positive contribution of acquisitions completed this year, we are updating fiscal year 2022 guidance ranges for the second time this year.”

He continues, “These guidance ranges assume a stable economic environment through the remainder of the year, including the current historically high inflationary environment. We expect our pricing, fuel cost recovery fees, and operating efficiency programs to allow us to outpace higher costs and drive margin expansion year over year.”

Breaking down its second quarter revenue stream, Casella Waste says growth was mainly driven by: the roll-over impact from acquisitions along with newly closed acquisitions; positive collection and disposal pricing; higher solid waste fuel cost recovery fees; higher solid waste volumes; higher recycled commodity prices; and higher pricing, fees and volumes within its Resource Solutions (waste audit and diversion guidance) operating segment.

Packaging producer says 51 percent of its fiber and 28 percent of its resin consisted of recycled content.

Novolex, a Hartsville, South Carolina-based packaging designer and producer, has reported boosts in its recycling activity in its recently released fourth annual sustainability report.

According to the company, this year’s report also includes a new metric, aligned with Sustainability Accounting Standards Board guidance, finding that 78 percent of applicable revenue in 2021 derived from products that can be recycled, composted or reused.

“Our 2021 report underscores how Novolex continues to make important strides toward our ambitious environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals,” says Stan Bikulege, Novolex chair and CEO. “Sustainability, innovation and choice are the foundation of everything we do at Novolex.”

Regarding raw material sourcing, the company says in 2021 nearly half (48 percent) of Novolex raw materials were from renewable, bio-based or postconsumer recycled (PCR) sources.

Just over half (51 percent) of all fiber used in Novolex’s products was postconsumer recycled content, representing a 5 percent increase since 2019, the company says.

On the plastics side, 28 percent of all resin was recycled content, and another 2 percent was bio-based resin made from renewable resources, Novolex adds.

Novolex says last year it also added to its portfolio of compostable and recyclable products by acquiring Vegware, a Europe-based provider of compostable food service packaging, and Flexo Converters, a maker of paper bags and packaging.

Novolex describes itself as a developer and maker of packaging products for companies in the food service, delivery and carryout, food processor and industrial markets. The company operates 57 manufacturing plants in North America and Europe, including two plastic film recycling centers. It is majority owned by New York-based Apollo Funds.

Equipment maker upgrades metals sorting and recovery capacity of Nova Scotia-based Dartmouth Metals.

Wendt Corp., based in Buffalo, New York, has announced the commissioning of a nonferrous metals sorting system at Dartmouth Metals Ltd. in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The equipment maker says installation of the system “represents part of Dartmouth’s growth strategy to recover a greater percentage of nonferrous metals, opening additional markets for the valuable material.”

Wendt Corp. describes Dartmouth Metals as a third-generation, family-operated business that roots in the scrap industry tracing back to the 1960s. In 1979, Peter Giberson founded what is known today as Dartmouth Metals Ltd., with his son, Dave, joining the business full time in 2003. The company now has 40 employees.

The nonferrous sorting plant provided by Wendt Corp. features a tumbleback feeder, trommel screen, fines eddy current separator, J-box and a Wendt/Tomra Finder sensor unit. The plant also incorporates Dartmouth Metals’ two previously existing eddy current separators. Dartmouth’s nonferrous plant was installed and commissioned this June.

Dartmouth operates what Wendt Corp. describes as a small shredder and had been running its automobile shredder residue (ASR) through the two eddy current separators, leaving some other nonferrous metals uncaptured.

“We were shipping away our no-ferrous materials to a friendly local competitor, but we knew what we were missing,” Dave Giberson says.

Dartmouth Metals had its ASR sampled several times and found it should have been getting 11 to 14 percent metallic recovery but was only achieving 6 percent recovery with its original setup. “We were missing half of the material we could have been recovering,” Dave Giberson says. “When the door closed for shipping our fluff material without sorting it properly, we knew it was time to invest.”

Dartmouth says it expects to recover that last 6 to 8 percent of metals, which includes zorba fines, zurik and copper wire, with the new system. The company also attributes the new system with increased labor savings and attracting higher levels of talent.

“The Wendt system modernizes our yard and has made it a more appealing place to work,” Dave Giberson says. “We have saved in labor because of the advanced technology but have also added higher level positions to operate and maintain the equipment. People are familiar with Wendt equipment, and it has attracted additional talent to my company because of it.”

Wendt Corp. describes itself as specializing in developing solutions to fit customer requirements, from single pieces of equipment to small scrap processing plants to the largest plants in the world.

“Wendt had a lot of ideas from the start and systematically took their time to make sure I was happy with the layout and that it would fit my current operation,” Dave Giberson says.

Bill Close, Wendt’s nonferrous business development manager, says, “We discussed what their goals were to grow his business and what available assets he wanted to reuse. Together we collaborated to develop a solution unique to their needs.”

Dartmouth Metals had a 45-year-old existing building onsite the company needed to utilize to fit the nonferrous plant inside. “The Wendt team engineered the system to maximize space and fit in our existing building,” Dave Giberson says. “They were flexible and practical with the layout to account for the equipment, as well as the handling of material.”

Shredder maker moves into 150,000-square-foot complex in Austria.

Shredding and recycling equipment maker Lindner Recyclingtech GmbH has moved into its new 14,000-square-meter (150,000-square-foot) corporate headquarters complex in Spittal/Drau, Austria.

The company moved its new offices and adjacent production area in July. “The high global demand for Lindner’s quality products made it necessary to expand the plant and the team,” the company says.

Lindner says it emphasized sustainability and technology in designing and building the new campus. “In terms of production, the focus was on the further expansion of automation and robotics, the associated quality assurance, process optimization in assembly and on extending the company’s own manufacturing capabilities,” Lindner says.

Lindner owner and CEO Manuel Lindner says, “The [energy] crisis has further reassured us that this is the right path. The disrupted supply chains have also shown how important it is for us to manufacture as many components as possible in our own production. Only by investing in our own manufacturing capabilities, robotics, automation and flow production we can ensure the quality of our products and reliable delivery times in the future.”

Michael Lackner, managing director at Lindner, says, “We want our new headquarters to be perfectly equipped for future requirements and be well-positioned to maintain high quality standards and meet the increasing demand for our machines. The production area in the new plant has doubled, which means that we are ideally equipped to cope with the increasing capacities.”

He continues, “It is just as important to us that we offer our employees a modern workplace. By using automation and robotics, we can make work more comfortable. Heavy physical work, such as mounting machines, is no longer necessary. Instead, the task is focused on the proper operation of the robots. We are also significantly expanding our team, which means that we are currently taking on 100 new employees.”

A three-story office complex also is part of the new complex. Throughout the campus, the company says “a great deal of importance was attached to the use of environmentally friendly building materials and sustainability when building the new home of recycling.”

The investment was made possible, the Lindner organization says, because “recycling has been experiencing a strong upswing for many years—worldwide. In 2019, due to the associated higher demand for efficient recycling solutions and Lindner’s endeavor to support its customers in the transformation of end-of-life materials into recyclables, the decision was made to build a new factory—the new home of recycling.”

The company’s motto in its new home of recycling has not changed, Lindner-Recyclingtech says: Make the most of waste.