LRS recently purchased a business that will expand the company’s footprint to in part of the Chicago metro area, while also providing an update on executive leadership changes.
The acquisition of Environmental Recycling & Disposal comes with 10 municipal contracts, 30,000 residential customers, 4,200 business accounts and a transfer station. LRS Chief Operating Officer John Larsen said the operation will add more than 50 employees.
Environmental was founded in 1998 by the Ipema family. Jay and Dale Ipema will stay on with LRS as consultants for one year. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"We're really pleased to get the deal done, really happy to work with the Ipema family during this transition time and excited to expand our market within the Will County area,” said Larsen.
This is the first transaction announced since LRS saw the exit of its CEO and CFO in May. Larsen said the company hired a new CFO, Luke Chenery, in July.
According to a spokesperson, Chenery is responsible for overseeing financial, IT and Project Atlas initiatives. Chenery previously served as president and CEO of NYNJ Link, public-private partnership (with Macquarie backing) created to lead the Goethals Bridge replacement between New York and New Jersey. Prior to that he served as CFO at multiple other companies that were affiliated with Macquarie.
As for hiring a new CEO, Larsen said that Macquarie and LRS have been working to assess opportunities and "I would expect that would be done sometime in the next couple months.”
In the near term, LRS is focused on integrating this transaction and growing in a region where it previously had a small presence aside from some roll-off and portable restroom operations.
"This is a new market for us and we look to expand it pretty aggressively moving forward,” said Larsen.
The Moen Transfer Station, which opened in 2020 after what LRS described as “the first successful MSW transfer station permit process in Will County in 25 years,” is a key feature of the deal. The facility, permitted for up to 600 tons of MSW per day, services Will, Grundy and LaSalle counties.
According to Moen’s website, the facility “has the potential to move three times that amount.” Larsen said LRS could initially look to expand the permitted capacity to around 1,000 tons per day. Environmental had sent some waste to LRS’ Atkinson Landfill in northwestern Illinois, but sporadically. Following the transaction, Larsen said “we'll be internalizing the majority of that volume.”
The Macquarie-backed company currently operates in 10 states from its Illinois base and has grown rapidly through acquisitions in recent years.
Prior transactions include the January purchases of J&J Rubbish Service in Minnesota, as well as Michiana Recycling & Disposal and Modern Waste Systems in Michigan and Indiana. The latter transaction was described as the company’s largest to date. LRS also opened a new $50 million MRF in Chicago earlier this year.
