LRS continues to grow through acquisitions

LRS, headquartered in Morton Grove, Illinois, has acquired Johnson County Refuse, North Liberty, Iowa, and two portable restroom providers, Port 'O' Jonny in Hiawatha, Iowa, and Action Services Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The purchases grow LRS’ Midwest footprint across greater Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

All three acquisitions are effective immediately. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1982, North Liberty-based Johnson County Refuse provides waste collection, recycling and roll-off container services in North Liberty and surrounding areas. Based on the acquisition, LRS begins providing waste and recycling services to nearly 20 Johnson County municipalities and more than 3,600 commercial customers. The company also welcomes 50 employees to the LRS family, including Johnson County Refuse Owner Steve Smith.   

"Across the Midwest, LRS has demonstrated vision and leadership by delivering sustainable and circular waste diversion and recycling services to help reduce the carbon footprint and assure customers their waste is being disposed reliably and responsibly," Smith says. "After more than 35 years of building a business on principles of sustainability and customer service, we couldn't be more proud to join forces with LRS, streamline operations, expand services, and double-down on delivering the best possible experience for our customers."

The combination of Hiawatha-based Port 'O' Jonny, founded in 1986, and Cedar Rapids-based Action Services, founded in 1991, will create a portable services regional powerhouse led by Action Services Owner Jay Kremer, LRS says. 

"We were attracted to LRS for several reasons as an independently owned business, namely the company's steadfast commitment to growing organically and through the acquisition of storied family-owned waste industry businesses," Action Services' Kremer says. "We look forward to seeing the legacy of our businesses flourish under the LRS banner and to maintaining a commitment to our valued customers who helped get us to this milestone moment."

LRS Chief Executive Officer Alan T. Handley says, "We are thrilled to welcome Steve, Jay, all employees and thousands of customers from each of these outstanding companies to our LRS family. This strategic trifecta of acquisitions gives us an immediate foothold in eastern Iowa, the ability to scale and introduce new services and the opportunity to consolidate operational redundancies to produce an even better customer experience.”

Its purchase of Johnson County Refuse adds more than 50 waste, recycling and roll-off trucks to the LRS fleet, while the purchases of Port 'O' Jonny and Action Services adds 25 portable services trucks.

Waste and recycling continue to be disposed at the Iowa City Landfill operated by Johnson County.

LRS first entered the Iowa market in 2019, providing commercial roll-off container services in Davenport and throughout Scott County. 

As of mid-December, LRS completed 18 strategic, largely vertically integrated acquisitions of independent, family-owned waste, recycling and portable services companies.