Tire recycling firm GreenMan Technologies Inc. has signed a letter of intent to purchase the Iowa-based scrap tire collection and processing operations of Utah Recyclers Inc. for an undisclosed amount.
Headquartered in Des Moines, the Iowa operations of UT handle more than 2 million tires annually, according to a GreenMan press release.
GreenMan expects the deal to close in April. It will operate the Des Moines plant as GreenMan Technologies of Iowa Inc., according to GreenMan CFO Chuck Coppa. Most of the Iowa facility's business is in tire-derived fuel, although it also has some contracts for crumb rubber, he said.
UT and GreenMan-which has long had operations in nearby Minnesota-have worked together the past few years on remediation of Iowa's worst illegal tire dumps, according to Mr. Coppa.
``Between us we've cleared more than 7 million tires there, so we got to know each other pretty well,'' he said. ``We knew that UT wanted to focus more on its operations in Utah, and we have great synergy in Iowa, so we decided to approach them about buying those operations.''
Based in Lynnhaven, Mass., GreenMan is one of the most expansion-minded tire recyclers in the U.S. On March 1 it opened Able Tire of Oklahoma L.L.C., a joint venture with Able Tire Co. L.L.C. of Burleson, Texas, to collect and market whole tires to cement kilns in Oklahoma. Within the last year or so it also has acquired tire recycling operations in Wisconsin and Tennessee.
GreenMan's main business is tire chips for tire-derived fuel, and it has approximately 100 employees at plants in Georgia, Minnesota, South Carolina and elsewhere. It posted earnings of $77,000 on sales of $5.8 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001.