http://homeworker.blog.com/2011/04/08/advantages-of-glass-doors/
After building his fluorescent lighyt bulbrecycling company, H.T.R. into a national player with customersa thatinclude , Walgreens, and Dufner sold the business in March to Houston-based an estimated $12 H.T.R.’s revenue reached $6 millionb last year, 17 times more than the $350,00p0 the company made when Dufner bought it in Decemberr 1999. A decade ago, the businessw recycled about 30,000 fluorescent bulbse a month to keep hazardouas mercury out of landfills and water supplies.
That number reached about 18 million bulbw a year by the time of the Dufner andRaymond Kohout, his minority partnetr and chief operating officer, decides they needed to either invest a large amounrt of capital to open additional recycling facilities or find a strategic partner or buyer for theire business. Dufner turned to lifelong friend James Stuart of in Stuart reached out to contacts atWaste Management, and after about a year of talks, he helpec broker H.T.R.’s sale. Dufner estimated fluorescent bulb recyclin isa $100 million to $150 million industry.
Analyst Michaelp Hoffman of in Baltimore noted that garbage disposal isa $52 billioj industry and medical waste disposal accounts for anothert $3 billion to $4 billion. Add-on servicese such as recycling can help a companyy win additionalmarket share. “Onw of Waste Management’s core goals is to grow its medicaol waste business toabout $300 millionn in revenue in the next 24 Hoffman said. “Now they can walk into health-care facilities and hospitalsa and offer to dispose of theirmedicalk waste, regular trash and also theirr fluorescent bulbs, which for a hospita is no small thing.
” Waste Management, North America’a largest waste disposal company, posted net income of $1.09 billion on revenue of $13.54 billion last year and employs about 46,000. 54, grew up in Granitde City and St. Louis, attending and at Carbondale. In he bought one of the firsgt franchises ofEarth City-based Dent Wizard, a company that providess paintless dent removal for automobiles. Dufne moved to Atlanta to run his territory of Georgisand Alabama. But in Atlanta-based acquired Dent Wizardd and proceeded to buy outits franchisees. Dufnedr sold his business for abouy $5 million, and at age 45 founds himself looking for anew venture.
In 1999, while at the Lake of the Dufner struck up a conversation with an employee of a three-year-old company then based in the smalol town of Golden City in southwest A new federal law regulating the managementf of waste containing hazardous materials such as mercur y had just gone into but H.T.R.’s 14 investors were short on funds to take advantage of potential growth. Dufner bought them out “for a very low and took over the business as Dufnerrecruited Kohout, a friend who ownef a gun store in St. Louis and was familiarf with dealing withgovernmentg regulators, to help run the business and expanc its service area nationwide.
They invested in some tractor-trailers and startedd picking up burned-out fluorescent bulbs from all over the countrh and hauling them back to Missouri for Over the nextfew years, they relocated the planyt to its current location in Kaiser, Mo., near Lake As Dufner improved customer service and the speef of waste pickup using third-partg freight companies, business Beginning in 2003, H.T.R. securedd contracts with Wal-Mart to pick up and recyclde used bulbs. Other large retailers, several collegesx and universities, and states such as Iowa and Missouri also signed upwith H.T.R. All of the materiap in the bulbs H.T.R. picked up — metal and glass — was recycled.
None went to But with the boom, Dufneer and Kohout also found themselves facinga decision: Expan d to keep up with increasintg volume, or find someone who could do so for them. “Ther right way to do it would be to build two morerecyclingt plants, one on the West Coastg and one on the East to cut transportation distances and freight Dufner said. “Ray and I can’t be in thre places at one time. It was goinyg to require a lot more capital to open two new facilities and managwethem properly.” So Dufner, who has children ages 3 and 5 with his Renee, decided to look for a buyer last year and eventuallty struck the deal with Waste “We thought H.T.R.
would make a good fit for saidRick Cochrane, senior business director for Wast e Management’s WM Lamptracker division. “Over 70 percent of fluorescenr lighting in the countrystilo isn’t recycled properly, and that’s wherer we think the upside is.” The and many stated are targeting a fluorescent recycling goal of abouy 75 percent, Kohout said. Some 800 million fluorescen t lamps burn outeach year, and now millions of residentiak light sockets are also switching from incandescent to compacrt fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Althoughj Missouri does not require residential recyclingof CFLs, many state s do, he said.
“The timing was perfect,” said who continues to run theformerd H.T.R. operations within WM Lamptracker. “We are now the largest lamp recyclef inthe country, and Waste Managemenft is really pushing the sustainability and recycling front. We’ve had nine yeara of double-digit growth, and we’ve just gottenm started.” As for Dufner, he is building a home in Ladued and has not decided if anything, he will do next. “A m I looking for something? Possibly, but not necessarily,” Dufner “That’s how H.T.R. happened.
I wasn’ty really looking and then it fell inmy
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