Update: GFL acquires PDC

GFL Environmental, Ontario, has acquired Peoria Disposal Co. (PDC), based in Peoria, Illinois.

According to Central Illinois Proud, PDC Municipal Marketing Manager Eric Shangraw confirmed the sale of the company’s landfills, transfer stations and hauling services on Sept. 24. The deal goes into effect Oct. 1.

Shangraw said the company’s employees were notified of the sale Sept. 22 and noted that the company’s employees will be retained by GFL. Matt Coulter, a vice president at PDC, will stay with GFL as an area vice president. 

Founded in 1928, PDC is a vertically integrated waste management solutions provider operating throughout central Illinois and eastern Missouri. The company’s end-to-end waste management solutions include four solid waste landfills; four transfer stations; a material recovery facility; a RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) Part B transfer, storage and disposal facility; a centralized wastewater treatment facility, and 16 transportation terminals that support a fleet of more than 300 collection and hauling vehicles. PDC’s presence across the region, integrated service model and commitment to service quality, safety and sustainability has enabled the company to secure long-term contracts with municipal, commercial and industrial customers throughout the region.

Cleveland-based Brown Gibbons Lang & Co.'s (BGL's) Environmental & Industrial Services investment banking team served as the exclusive financial advisor to PDC in the transaction. The specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.*

In a news release announcing the transaction that GFL released Oct. 1, the company's founder and CEO Patrick Dovigi says, "We continue to demonstrate our ability to successfully execute on our growth strategy of pursuing strategic and accretive acquisitions. The acquisition of PDC provides us with a unique opportunity to acquire one of the best family-owned and -operated vertically integrated set of assets in the United States while expanding our solid waste footprint within the U.S. Midwest. PDC has a leading market position in a secondary market with some of the strongest operating margins in our industry. The acquisition of PDC also provides us with the opportunity to advance our sustainability initiatives by unlocking significant value from landfill gas to energy projects at the PDC landfills, as part of GFL Renewables."

"After months of family meetings and input from trusted advisors, we made the difficult decision to put PDC up for sale,"  Royal Coulter, president and CEO of PDC, says in the news release. "We ran a process where we interviewed four other parties, and while GFL was not the highest bidder, after spending two days with Patrick, our family felt that GFL was the right company to take over PDC and continue the legacy that we have built in Peoria over the last 93 years. It is clear to us that GFL shares the same core values as PDC: entrepreneurial spirit, operational excellence, a focus on safety and a commitment to giving back to the communities that it serves. I am excited to be part of GFL's next chapter."

*Sources close to the transaction have indicated to Waste Today that previously reported financial estimates originally included in this article were inaccurate. As such, that information has since been removed and the article has been amended.