Dive Brief:
- Clover Holdings, based in Hoffman Estates, IL, started out as a printer cartridge recycler worth $1.7 million. Its CEO, Jim Cerkleski expanded the company’s services and could pull in an estimated $1.1 billion in revenue by the end of 2014.
- Clover reached that level of success by adding remanufacturing and reselling of ink cartridges to its list of services. It also began accepting cell phones and equipment from cell towers for recycling.
- The company estimates it prevented 70 million cartridges and four million phones from reaching landfills in 2013.
Dive Insight:
Clover Holdings was able to complete numerous acquisitions through the backing of Golden Gate Capital, a private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. Golden Gate bought a 48% stake in Clover in 2010 for an undisclosed amount.
Cerkleski acquired Clover in 2000, and by 2005 had grown the company to $100 million in revenue by selling refurbished cartridges at larger stores. In 2005, the company bought two cartridge re-manufacturing plants, and 2012 saw the firm acquiring a cell recycling business that re-sells phones back to providers who use them as replacement models for customers. In 2013, Clover also struck a deal to buy a telecom equipment recycler.
Jake Mizrahi, a managing director at Golden Gate, said that the equity firm was drawn to Clover’s infrastructure because it could be leveraged for growth in e-waste market segment, as well as in other segments. Mizrahi also noted that Golden Gate was impressed by the creativity surrounding recycling initiatives established by the Clover. For example, in one program geared towards the education system, schools can receive credits for purchasing computers when parents contribute used ink cartridges for recycling.