Waste Industries Inc.

WORLD WASTES STAFF

Waste Industries, Raleigh, N.C., logged record revenues of $116.3 million in 1997, a year that included an initial public offering that raised $25 million in capital.

During 1997, the company made seven acquisitions and added $27 million in annualized revenues to its profit and loss sheet. In acquiring these customers, the company entered four new markets in the southern United States and built six new transfer stations.

With 14 acquisitions since September 1997, the company estimated its annualized growth rate at $190 million as of early October 1998.

Waste Industries serves 300,000 residential, commercial and industrial customer locations, and operates two landfills, 33 branch operations that provide collection services, 22 transfer stations and five recycling plants in a seven-state area that includes Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Going forward, Waste Industries' acquisition strategy is to acquire companies in and on the fringes of existing markets, and to enter at least two new markets each year, according to the company's annual report.

"We strive to be the No. 1 or No. 2 service provider in the markets we serve," says Robert Hall, Waste Industries' chief financial officer.

Hall distinguishes Waste Industries from other waste management companies in terms of growth strategies. "Waste Industries Inc. has a dual growth strategy: strong, mid-teen organic growth, which includes privatization, and an emerging disciplined acquisition strategy," Hall says.