Waste services firm bought by Florida company in $66M cash deal

A family-owned waste disposal company in Shelby County has been acquired by one of the largest players in the industry.

Ponte Vedra, Florida-based Advanced Disposal Services Inc., which does business in 16 states plus the Bahamas, has purchased Morristown-based CGS Services Inc., which serves 14 counties in central and eastern Indiana.

Advanced Disposal did not disclose the acquisition price when it announced the deal on Feb. 2, but, in a public filing on Friday, Advanced Disposal said it paid $66 million in cash.

Under the new ownership, CGS will keep its name and its employee base, Advanced Disposal said.

“The CGS management team and supervisors are continuing to operate the company and will provide the same level of excellent service that customers expect,” Advanced Disposal Vice President of Marketing and Communications Vice President Mark Nighbor wrote in an e-mail to IBJ. “There will not be any job cuts, as we are currently looking to hire more employees as we grow in this area.”

According to the CGS website, the company was established in 1946 by Elmer Caldwell and his son Paul Caldwell, who started out selling dirt and gravel they had excavated from their family farm. The company incorporated as Caldwell Gravel Sales Inc. in 1968, and in 1993 it changed its name to CGS Services Inc.

The company was in its fourth generation of family ownership when Advanced Disposal purchased the company.

CGS still sells gravel and other aggregate products. But it also offers a variety of other services including residential and commercial waste disposal services, recycling, and specialty industrial disposal services. The company has about 150 employees and annual revenue of nearly $30 million.

Advanced Disposal was established in 2000 and has since completed more than 190 acquisitions and development projects. The company has about 5,400 employees and operates 90 collection operations, 72 transfer stations, 39 active solid-waste landfills and 21 recycling facilities.

For the 12 months ended June 30, Advanced Disposal had revenues of $1.4 billion and a net loss of $28.3 million. Based on annual revenues, Advanced Disposal says it is the fourth-largest solid waste company in the U.S. 

When contacted by IBJ on Tuesday, CGS referred questions to Advanced Disposal.