GFL Environmental

GFL Environmental Inc. (also known as Green For Life or GFL) is an environmental services company with headquarters in Toronto, Canada. GFL operates in all provinces in Canada, except Prince Edward Island, and currently employs more than 3,200 employees. As of 2016, the approximate enterprise value of GFL is $2.4 billion.^[1] The company provides environmental services to municipal, residential, commercial, industrial and institutional customers.^[2]

Company history

GFL Environmental Inc. was founded in 2007 by Canadian entrepreneur and businessman Patrick Dovigi, who had previous experience in the environmental services industry and wanted to establish a company that could unlock the value in smaller waste companies in Canada.^[2]

Growth

GFL was originally established from the merger of several Ontario environmental services firms, including Direct Line Environmental, National Waste Services and Enviro West.^[3][4]

The same year that GFL was founded, the company gained the investment interest of Canaccord Genuity Corp.^[2] Three years later, in 2010, Roark Capital Group, an Atlanta private equity firm, made a $105 million investment in GFL.^[4][5]

GFL began to acquire environmental solution firms around Canada. In 2011, GFL acquired Turtle Island Recycling, a recycling company operating in Toronto.^[6]

In 2014, GFL acquired the waste collection business of Contrans Group Inc., giving the company a larger solid waste management presence in Edmonton and Slave Lake, Alberta.^[7]

Also in 2014, GFL purchased the business operated by Waste Management in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.^[8]

A reorganization of GFL's share capital was completed in late 2014. The reorganization saw Roark Capital Group, which had provided capital to GFL since 2010, selling its stake in the company.^[2] The reorganization introduced a new investor for GFL, Highbridge Principal Strategies (HPS).

GFL ACQUIRES EXCAVATION AND DEMOLITION BUSINESSES VAUGHAN, ON, July 28, 2015 /CNW GFL Environmental Inc. announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, GFL Excavating Corp. completed the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Anpro Environmental Group Inc., Anpro Excavating & Grading Ltd. and Pro-Green Demolition Ltd on July 24, 2015. Anpro has been a market leader in Southern Ontario in the excavating business for more than 40 years and Pro-Green, in the demolition business, for the past 10 years. Patrick Dovigi, President and CEO of GFL said: "With this acquisition, GFL will be the largest soil remediation and demolition contractor in Ontario, placing GFL in an excellent position for the large volume of infrastructure projects that have been announced forOntario over the next 3 to 5 years. The acquisition will also provide GFL with access to a new customer base which will present significant cross-selling opportunities for our liquid and solid waste operations. We are pleased to welcome all of Anpro and Pro-Green's employees to GFL." GFL, headquartered in Vaughan, ON, is a diversified environmental services company providing a comprehensive line up of solid waste, soil remediation, and liquid waste services. Through a national platform that currently spans 8 provinces, GFL currently serves approximately 23,400 commercial, industrial and institutional customers and more than 1,000,000 households under municipal solid waste contracts. Following completion of the acquisition, GFL will have a workforce of over 2,000 employees.

In February 2016, GFL completed the acquisition of Services Matrec Inc. (Matrec), the waste management division of Montreal-based TransForce.^[1] The $800 million purchase represented GFL's largest acquisition in its company history and was supported by an equity investment of $458 million made by a fund managed by Macquarie Group and an additional investment provided by Highbridge Principal Strategies and other co-investors.^[1][9]

The Matrec acquisition also represented GFL's entrance into the Quebec and eastern Ontario markets and increased GFL's total valuation to roughly $2.4 billion.^[1]

Also in 2016, a new acquisition was announced with Canadian private equity firm, Novacap and Developpement EDB Inc., agreeing to sell Corporation de Developpement de Enviro-Viridis Inc., a Quebec-based environmental services firm, to GFL.

TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2016 /CNW/ - GFL Environmental Inc. ("GFL") announced today that on September 30, 2016, it completed its merger of Rizzo Environmental Services, Inc. and its subsidiary companies ("Rizzo Environmental" ) with a new U.S. subsidiary of GFL. Headquartered in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Rizzo Environmental is a market leader in municipal, commercial and industrial solid waste collection and in commercial recycling processing and brokerage. Rizzo Environmental currently provides collection services to more than 40 municipalities in Southeastern Michigan. Its recycling operations, with 3 commercial recycling facilities, serve customers in lower Michigan and northern Ohio.

Residential solid waste operations

In 2011, GFL won a seven-year contract to collect residential garbage from approximately 165,000 homes in west Toronto, specifically in the residential neighborhoods between Yonge Street and the Humber River.^[4] The contract was expected to save the city roughly $11 million per year or $78 million over its total term.^[4]

GFL’s award of the contract was particularly publicized because it represented one of Toronto’s first moves to privatize and outsource the city’s residential garbage collection.

GFL’s contract with the city of Toronto to collect residential waste west of Yonge Street began in August 2012.^[4]

In January 2015, the Halifax council awarded GFL three new contracts to collect residential waste in Halifax for the next four years ^[10]

In 2016, the city of Windsor chose to keep their waste and recycling collection service outsourced and elected to retain GFL's services for the next seven years.^[11] Windsor first contracted out its waste collection to GFL in 2010 after the city's workers went on a prolonged strike.

Soil remediation and excavation business

In 2011, GFL was awarded a contract by the city of Toronto to excavate the site of the Pan Am Aquatics Centre in Toronto that was opened for the Pan Am Games in July 2015. In January 2016, GFL acquired Anchor Shoring Group ^[12] to expand its services offered through its soil remediation, excavation and infrastructure group.

References