Jeremy Hawkins ADCO Holdings
By Carol Brzozowski
German global portable restroom
rental company looks at tripling size
within the next 36 months
rental company looks at tripling size
within the next 36 months
Within three years, Jeremy Hawkins, the Chief
Operating Officer for ADCO Holdings, hopes to
change the landscape of the portable sanitation
business on the U.S. East Coast by claiming a
greater market share and becoming more of a
‘household’ name.
“We really hope to triple our size within the next
36 months,” Hawkins says. “That growth will
mainly be on the east coast with an emphasis on
the Southeast. But we are open to any nice
opportunities that might come along in the
Midwest or West.”
The company is well on its way through recent
acquisitions. To date,
ADCO Holdings’ companies include seven
portable sanitation operations in Georgia, Florida,
North Carolina and Rhode Island.
ADCO Holdings’ total amount of portable
sanitation units for all of its operating companies
numbers 30,000. The company has about 250
employees in all operations. Its customer focus is
heavily concentrated on routed business, such as
long-term construction, with 20 percent of its
clientele in special events.
The strategic reason for choosing the operations
along the East Coast for acquisition was based on
the future potential of market growth in those
areas, says Hawkins.
Operating Officer for ADCO Holdings, hopes to
change the landscape of the portable sanitation
business on the U.S. East Coast by claiming a
greater market share and becoming more of a
‘household’ name.
“We really hope to triple our size within the next
36 months,” Hawkins says. “That growth will
mainly be on the east coast with an emphasis on
the Southeast. But we are open to any nice
opportunities that might come along in the
Midwest or West.”
The company is well on its way through recent
acquisitions. To date,
ADCO Holdings’ companies include seven
portable sanitation operations in Georgia, Florida,
North Carolina and Rhode Island.
ADCO Holdings’ total amount of portable
sanitation units for all of its operating companies
numbers 30,000. The company has about 250
employees in all operations. Its customer focus is
heavily concentrated on routed business, such as
long-term construction, with 20 percent of its
clientele in special events.
The strategic reason for choosing the operations
along the East Coast for acquisition was based on
the future potential of market growth in those
areas, says Hawkins.
Sun Coast in Fort Myers was the latest acquisition, completed in February 2006.
“It was one of the biggest portable sanitation companies in Florida,” notes Hawkins. “The company represented about
10,000 units.”
In its plans for continued expansion, ADCO is playing ball with such major league players as United Site Services. Hawkins
doesn’t foresee growth aspirations being complicated by that competition.
“They’re friendly competitors,” he says. “When we go into a new market, we’re very happy if they come in as price leader,
as they do in certain situations. They’ve actually bought some of our competitors in an existing market and then raised their
price, so that does nothing but help us maintain the quality of service and profitability.”
ADCO’s strategy is not only to pursue acquisitions, but also start companies from scratch, notes Hawkins.
“It’s whatever makes sense in the area we are looking at,” he points out. “If we are looking at a good area that’s really
popping, we’re open to start-ups. The good point about acquisitions is that you don’t have to find a place, put the
furniture in, turn the phone on and then look for your first customer. You start off billing clientele.”
It’s a bit more expensive to get started that way, but a lot faster, Hawkins notes.
“When you are starting with zero units, to get those first 1,000 out takes some time and then things tend to snowball when
you are in a good market,” he says. “But getting those first ones out can take you more than three years.”
While ADCO’s individual operations go through the usual mechanisms of adapting an existing company to the company
that acquired it, ADCO itself must mesh its own operations with its parent company, Germany-based ADCO Umweltdienste
Holdings GmbH, the global leader in portable sanitation services and equipment.
There are inherent challenges in interfacing German business philosophy with American business philosophy – just ask
anyone who works for the Chrysler Corporation. Contemplating that brings a chuckle to Hawkins.
“There are a lot of them,” he points out. “Obviously, we’re two completely different cultures and Europeans tend to look at
things a little different than Americans do, generally speaking.
“But we work on that constantly, making sure we’re communicating and understanding what we’re communicating.
Because you can communicate all the time, but if two people are taking what’s being said in two different ways, then you
are not effectively communicating.”
In meetings, for example, special care is taken to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands what’s being
said, he says.
Hawkins commends the German work ethic as being very thorough.
“When they do something, they do it right and they do it well. You can bank on that,” he says. “That’s a very nice thing to
count on when you are working for someone or are partners with them, as I am a U.S partner with them.”
On the other hand, while German workers are very thorough, they also enjoy leisure time, with annual six-week vacations
plus up to 12 paid holidays. Hawkins doesn’t foresee establishing that practice into the American operations.
“They wish,” he says of his employees with a laugh. “I wish!”
Whether Hawkins is given free reign by the parent company or is more hands-on depends on the situation, he says.
“When things are going fine, it’s free reign,” he says. “When there seems to be in area of concern, they come in and audit.”
Case in point: the housing slow-down, particularly in the company’s Florida market. The German parent company will audit
the situation to view it in terms of the established benchmarks for the business.
But a major difference between the way the business is run in Europe and the way it is run here centers on market share.
“In Europe we control 60 percent to 70 percent of the whole market, not only in Germany but every country in Europe where
we operate,” says Hawkins. “When you are that big of a player, you really can control the environment in which you are
going to do business in a lot better.
“We’re probably in the top five biggest portable sanitation companies in the U.S., but we certainly don’t have anything
approaching 60 to 70 percent market share. We’d probably be happy with five percent the way we are right now.”
Germany is as big as one of the larger U.S. states – but it’s just that: the size of one state.
“We have 50 states. With their market share, they have the power to control everything in the industry from the image of
the industry to the pricing.
“When you have that power, you can do a lot of things a lot more effectively than when you don’t have that power. When
(they) look into what’s going on here, we have to remind them we don’t have 70 percent of the market, so therefore there
are certain things we cannot do.”
But that’s not just applicable to ADCO, Hawkins points out.
“United Site Services is the biggest privately-held company now and I’d be surprised if they have 10 or 15 percent of the
share,” he says. “No one has that much power; therefore, the industry is completely different here than there.”
One of the challenges Hawkins faces going forward with acquisition plans is finding good employees, from field and office
personnel to management. There aren’t a lot of people coming out of business school wanting to manage a portable
restroom company, he points out. To that end, the company works with headhunters to find the best.
To attract good people to the industry, ADCO offers a competitive pay and benefit package.
“We leave our managers alone; we’re not constantly looking over their shoulder, micro-managing them,” Hawkins says.
“Once we hire someone we’re trusting - to a certain extent they can’t be completely autonomous – we trust their judgment
and let them manage in the way that they like to manage, whatever their management style is.”
ADCO advocates continuing education and pays for it, including everything from seminar education to university classes
for an employee working toward a degree.
The company also pays for travel expenses for any manager who wants to visit another company location in any of the 27
countries worldwide in which the company operates.
For the time being, each ADCO operation maintains its own branding and does its own marketing.
“Although the companies have different names, there’s a lot that’s very similar,” says Hawkins. “We’re working together
to make all the websites, brochures and company uniforms similar.
“Right now, we don’t want to go in and change the name overnight. We’re buying a lot of good will in those companies
that we buy; many of them have been in their local markets for 20 plus years,” he says. “That company has spent the last 20
years building up the good credit that it has in its name, so that’s why we’ve kept the name in a lot of these acquisitions
that we’ve bought.”
Hawkins attributes his company’s overall success thus far to “good people and good service.
“If you’ve got good people, you’re going to get good service,” he adds. “It comes down to putting good people in the
right places.”
“It was one of the biggest portable sanitation companies in Florida,” notes Hawkins. “The company represented about
10,000 units.”
In its plans for continued expansion, ADCO is playing ball with such major league players as United Site Services. Hawkins
doesn’t foresee growth aspirations being complicated by that competition.
“They’re friendly competitors,” he says. “When we go into a new market, we’re very happy if they come in as price leader,
as they do in certain situations. They’ve actually bought some of our competitors in an existing market and then raised their
price, so that does nothing but help us maintain the quality of service and profitability.”
ADCO’s strategy is not only to pursue acquisitions, but also start companies from scratch, notes Hawkins.
“It’s whatever makes sense in the area we are looking at,” he points out. “If we are looking at a good area that’s really
popping, we’re open to start-ups. The good point about acquisitions is that you don’t have to find a place, put the
furniture in, turn the phone on and then look for your first customer. You start off billing clientele.”
It’s a bit more expensive to get started that way, but a lot faster, Hawkins notes.
“When you are starting with zero units, to get those first 1,000 out takes some time and then things tend to snowball when
you are in a good market,” he says. “But getting those first ones out can take you more than three years.”
While ADCO’s individual operations go through the usual mechanisms of adapting an existing company to the company
that acquired it, ADCO itself must mesh its own operations with its parent company, Germany-based ADCO Umweltdienste
Holdings GmbH, the global leader in portable sanitation services and equipment.
There are inherent challenges in interfacing German business philosophy with American business philosophy – just ask
anyone who works for the Chrysler Corporation. Contemplating that brings a chuckle to Hawkins.
“There are a lot of them,” he points out. “Obviously, we’re two completely different cultures and Europeans tend to look at
things a little different than Americans do, generally speaking.
“But we work on that constantly, making sure we’re communicating and understanding what we’re communicating.
Because you can communicate all the time, but if two people are taking what’s being said in two different ways, then you
are not effectively communicating.”
In meetings, for example, special care is taken to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands what’s being
said, he says.
Hawkins commends the German work ethic as being very thorough.
“When they do something, they do it right and they do it well. You can bank on that,” he says. “That’s a very nice thing to
count on when you are working for someone or are partners with them, as I am a U.S partner with them.”
On the other hand, while German workers are very thorough, they also enjoy leisure time, with annual six-week vacations
plus up to 12 paid holidays. Hawkins doesn’t foresee establishing that practice into the American operations.
“They wish,” he says of his employees with a laugh. “I wish!”
Whether Hawkins is given free reign by the parent company or is more hands-on depends on the situation, he says.
“When things are going fine, it’s free reign,” he says. “When there seems to be in area of concern, they come in and audit.”
Case in point: the housing slow-down, particularly in the company’s Florida market. The German parent company will audit
the situation to view it in terms of the established benchmarks for the business.
But a major difference between the way the business is run in Europe and the way it is run here centers on market share.
“In Europe we control 60 percent to 70 percent of the whole market, not only in Germany but every country in Europe where
we operate,” says Hawkins. “When you are that big of a player, you really can control the environment in which you are
going to do business in a lot better.
“We’re probably in the top five biggest portable sanitation companies in the U.S., but we certainly don’t have anything
approaching 60 to 70 percent market share. We’d probably be happy with five percent the way we are right now.”
Germany is as big as one of the larger U.S. states – but it’s just that: the size of one state.
“We have 50 states. With their market share, they have the power to control everything in the industry from the image of
the industry to the pricing.
“When you have that power, you can do a lot of things a lot more effectively than when you don’t have that power. When
(they) look into what’s going on here, we have to remind them we don’t have 70 percent of the market, so therefore there
are certain things we cannot do.”
But that’s not just applicable to ADCO, Hawkins points out.
“United Site Services is the biggest privately-held company now and I’d be surprised if they have 10 or 15 percent of the
share,” he says. “No one has that much power; therefore, the industry is completely different here than there.”
One of the challenges Hawkins faces going forward with acquisition plans is finding good employees, from field and office
personnel to management. There aren’t a lot of people coming out of business school wanting to manage a portable
restroom company, he points out. To that end, the company works with headhunters to find the best.
To attract good people to the industry, ADCO offers a competitive pay and benefit package.
“We leave our managers alone; we’re not constantly looking over their shoulder, micro-managing them,” Hawkins says.
“Once we hire someone we’re trusting - to a certain extent they can’t be completely autonomous – we trust their judgment
and let them manage in the way that they like to manage, whatever their management style is.”
ADCO advocates continuing education and pays for it, including everything from seminar education to university classes
for an employee working toward a degree.
The company also pays for travel expenses for any manager who wants to visit another company location in any of the 27
countries worldwide in which the company operates.
For the time being, each ADCO operation maintains its own branding and does its own marketing.
“Although the companies have different names, there’s a lot that’s very similar,” says Hawkins. “We’re working together
to make all the websites, brochures and company uniforms similar.
“Right now, we don’t want to go in and change the name overnight. We’re buying a lot of good will in those companies
that we buy; many of them have been in their local markets for 20 plus years,” he says. “That company has spent the last 20
years building up the good credit that it has in its name, so that’s why we’ve kept the name in a lot of these acquisitions
that we’ve bought.”
Hawkins attributes his company’s overall success thus far to “good people and good service.
“If you’ve got good people, you’re going to get good service,” he adds. “It comes down to putting good people in the
right places.”
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Serving the American Liquid Waste Industry Since 2002