Emerald Waste Services Acquires WM’s Central Florida Assets

Emerald Waste Services, LLC, a WHI Capital Partners portfolio company, acquired Waste Management, Inc. of Florida's municipal solid waste collection routes in and around Gainesville, Fla., Volusia County, Fla., and around Tallahassee, FL. The transaction also includes the purchase of a transfer station in Gainesville.

The transaction diversifies its revenue base and expands its service territory, which now runs from Pascagoula, MS to Daytona Beach, FL.

In the transaction with WMI, EWS acquired 77 residential MSW collection routes across 16 municipalities in North and Central Florida, as well as 17 commercial MSW routes in the territory. Along with its existing MSW collection contracts, EWS now services more than 118,000 residential customers and 27,000 commercial customers, and generates about 70 percent of its revenues from MSW collection routes. EWS' service territory now covers 40 counties across three states.

To complement its MSW operations, EWS owns and operates ten landfills and is the largest owner of C&D landfill airspace in the Gulf Coast region stretching from southeast Mississippi to northwest Florida. EWS' service area continues to experience strong population growth, commercial real estate development and expanding military facilities. "In two and a half years, we have successfully built an outstanding business that is well positioned to benefit from the future growth of the region," said EWS CEO, Bart Begley. "The WMI acquisition is an important strategic milestone as we continue to build our MSW operations, both in disposal and collection."

"The combination of EWS' existing landfill capacity and hauling operations with the acquired WMI assets and contracts provides us with an ideal revenue mix between MSW and C&D," said WHI Capital Partners' Managing Partner Adam Schecter. "We will continue to aggressively grow this platform both organically as well as through strategic acquisition opportunities that our team has identified."

Since its formation, EWS has successfully closed and integrated seven acquisitions in the