Living by the motto, “Local People Serving Local People,” Superior USA Waste and its companies, Harley Hollan and Central Disposal, strive to invest in their employees and communities, while focusing on business diversification and integration.
With a career in the waste and recycling industry for 30+ years, Superior USA Waste’s CEO Billy Dietrich’s father was the CEO and chairman of the Superior Services and Onyx North America in the early the 1990s through 2004. His father now retired and Superior Services and Onyx no longer in business, in May 2021, Dietrich went out on his own, reusing a modified version of the former name that was so successful under his father’s leadership—Superior USA Waste. He partnered with financial groups, Red Dog Equity, Monroe Capital, and the Pritzker Organization. “I’m very blessed to have the financial partners I have; we are true partners in every sense of the word.” In March 2022, they purchased Central Disposal, a fully integrated operation in Shawnee, OK that has an MSW landfill, transfer station, and hauling operation with all lines of business from commercial and industrial to residential. In September 2022, they purchased Harley Hollan Companies in Tulsa, OK, which had a MRF, a C&D facility, as well as a commercial front loader service/industrial roll-off operation that serviced the Tulsa market. “Being within the industry, it’s always difficult to find your own landfill, and to be able to purchase a fully integrated operation just outside of Oklahoma City and Shawnee was an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up. We were able to expand the business in Tulsa with an incredibly fantastic company in Harley Hollan,” says Dietrich. When they purchased the CenterPoint Landfill in Prague, OK, it was doing approximately 160 tons per day, and currently, within a very short period of time, takes in 600 tons a day, with 1,000 tons per day expected very shortly with the addition of the MSW transfer station at their Tulsa operations.
With approximately 140 employees and running 60 trucks a day, Superior USA Waste deals with all types of recyclables, mostly in the Tulsa market, through their MRF, pulling out cardboard, wood, concrete, rebar, etc. They also deal with glass, plastics, and cardboard recycling in the Shawnee market outside of Oklahoma City. Where Superior USA Waste is located, recycling is not mandated and there are not many recycling facilities, so they try to pull out as much recycling material as they can out of the waste stream daily. Once the material is prepared, it is sent to locations that take those recyclables.
The company services approximately 23,000 residential customers through their Central Disposal operations in Shawnee and surrounding communities. Most of those residents are served through their long-term municipal franchise contracts. Superior USA Waste also services more than 2,000 commercial and industrial customers at operating locations (through Central Disposal and Harley Hollan Companies).
Keeping it Local
As with many companies in the industry, Superior USA Waste has been impacted by COVID, and labor and supply chain shortages over the past few years. Dietrich believes that the biggest challenge in the industry today is the cost of equipment and the repairs associated with repairing equipment. He says that the costs for new and used equipment have skyrocketed, while repairing the fleet is eye popping. “The price for parts (if you can find them) are at all-time highs as well. These issues are real.” However, he stresses that they have been very lucky with their employees and success through those challenges. “I think it goes back to our local management doing such a fantastic job and the approach that we take, which is ‘Local people serving local people’. We live by that motto, and I think it’s been successful for us,” says Dietrich. He points out that when some companies acquire other businesses, they want to immediately change the name, losing the local aspect of the business. However, Superior USA Waste’s goal is to minimize the interruption during that transition period by keeping the local name because it has been built by hard-working entrepreneurs and the community already knows the company. “We try to keep those local operators in place, and they still are a part of our business as investor owners,” comments Dietrich. “One of the hardest things to do is to get an entrepreneur to work for you and be within your culture as opposed to running the everyday operations. We have been very blessed to fully integrate these operations through a transition period and have the former owners a part of our business, including Jon-Mark Adcock (President of Central Disposal) and Harley Hollan and his wife Frannie, who continue to run the operations for us on a daily basis, they all do a fantastic job and are a major part of our success.”
When Dietrich talks about achievements, he is especially proud of this fact—keeping the local name and local ownership continuing to run the business. He says it goes a long way with employees as well. “We bring all of them over from the acquired company and nothing really changes for them, except for the health and benefits, which is a major part of our employee package. This is also an important part of employee retention. We always make sure that our employees are taken care of and it will only continue to get better as we grow.”
Outreach and Training
Dietrich is proud of how they have expanded so much recently, and he points out that while everyone has experienced some driver shortage, they are currently at full capacity. The company makes it a point to stay in touch with vocational educational groups that are in the areas served. Thinking outside the box, they even have a couple of former school bus drivers that they reached out to who ended up coming onboard. “They are absolutely wonderful drivers. They run our automated side loaders on a couple of the routes in Shawnee. If we had more operating locations, I would certainly do more out reach programs in that aspect to those individuals. We have been very successful with that,” says Dietrich.
He goes on to emphasize that the local aspect of their business is key and one of their goals is to be out in those environments where they live and work. For example, Superior USA Waste/Central Disposal just held a Touch-a-Truck event outside of the Shawnee location recently, in which kids and adults participated. “It was great. Everyone comes out and gets to touch a truck and really see it, rather than just watching it ride down the street. Those types of activities and our sponsorships with the local little leagues, Future Farmers of America, etc., go a long way within our organization. If you are well known in the community, it is only going to be beneficial for you as a professional business.”
Superior USA Waste also holds regular safety/training meetings with help from their insurance group, CIA, which offers training programs as well sessions with drivers. Dietrich says we do anything and everything they can to help educate their drivers, helpers, and other employees on the importance of safety. “Training is constant and it’s always evolving. We do things in pencil because if there’s a better way, we will absolutely do it.” On the safety side of the business, they have weekly safety meetings held by operations managers and their insurance company. “One of the most important aspects of our business is safety. It is one of the reasons that we looked at bringing in local school bus drivers to see how they would operate, and they’ve done a fantastic job.”
Dietrich emphasizes that his father’s mantra was: “Compliance is non-negotiable” and that they continue to follow that today. “It goes back to the people that surround you on an operating basis and I’m extremely lucky for the team that I have to cover compliance on all basis. We also have an excellent engineering group, Civil & Environmental Consultants, who helps us. Jeff Shepard does an amazing job, and he certainly keeps us informed with those types of issues. Jon-Mark Adcock’s brother (Todd) is also involved with environmental matters associated with the DEQ for Oklahoma, and he keeps me personally up-to-date on the findings and happenings that are going on with the state.”
Into the Future
Dietrich explains that they are actively looking at M&A opportunities throughout Oklahoma and contiguous states. Their latest acquisition in March was SDS, a tuck-in operation to Central Disposal in Shawnee, and it has diversified the business, with a little more on the industrial side. “We have a couple of very nice acquisitions that we will wrap up within the next 60 days, so I am very excited about those and the continued growth/develop of our business. I am always on the road looking for businesses that add value to our footprint. Currently, we have a fully integrated operation, transfer station, and hauling operation in Shawnee, and if you move to the middle of the state towards Prague, we run across the middle portion of the state to Tulsa and the surrounding communities with Harley Hollan, bringing most of that waste back to our landfill, so it’s all internalized and we provide that continuous service.”
Dietrich continues, “We have been in the business for a long time, and we certainly know how to run successful operations and do the right things. While we have had many outstanding achievements, I think what I am most proud of is our CenterPoint Landfill in Prague, OK. We put a lot of time, money, and investment into the facility, and to see how far it has come in two years, is amazing. At the end of the day, you want to not only look professional, but also have your businesses run professionally and I am very proud about how it looks and how it’s run—it’s a shining star.” | WA
For more information, contact Billy Dietrich at [email protected].