Commercial Waste & Recycling Hauler, Licensed NY Zone Award

$8.1M

Revenue

$1.5M

SDE

9.0x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a commercial waste and recycling hauler operating in a dense New York metropolitan market, generating over $8 million in annual revenue and more than $1.4 million in adjusted EBITDA after a market-rate replacement for the owner's role. The company provides front-load commercial collection, roll-off and compactor service, and cardboard recycling to business customers, with revenue anchored by recurring scheduled routes and larger accounts on multi-year auto-renewing agreements. The single most valuable asset here is a long-term municipal commercial waste zone award, a licensed territorial position that is genuinely difficult to obtain and even harder to replicate.

The operation is manager-run and does not require daily owner involvement. Routing, billing, customer service, and field work are handled by an established in-house team, supported by a modern GPS-equipped fleet, in-house mechanics, and an owned base of containers, compactors, and totes placed at customer sites. All trucks, containers, compactors, and equipment convey free and clear at closing, meaning a buyer inherits both the hard assets and the regulated territory in one transaction.

The business operates from a leased yard with an on-site office and maintenance shop, and prepares an annual financial audit for the municipality, which is a useful starting point for diligence. The catch worth underlining: a change of control triggers municipal regulatory review, so the natural buyer is an existing hauler or platform already licensed in the market with its own disposal capacity. At a $13.5M ask against $1.4M EBITDA, this is priced at roughly 9.6x, a full multiple that leans heavily on the strategic value of the zone award rather than standalone cash flow economics.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong because revenue is built on recurring scheduled routes and multi-year agreements that renew automatically, not one-off jobs that must be re-won each month. The $1.4M EBITDA is stated after a market-rate owner replacement, so the number reflects a manager-run business rather than an inflated owner-operator SDE.
The moat is unusually hard: a long-term municipal commercial waste zone award gives the company an exclusive-feeling awarded territory that competitors cannot simply enter. Change-of-control requires regulatory approval, which keeps new entrants out and makes the license itself the scarcest asset in the deal.
Waste collection is about as recession-resistant as a service gets. Businesses legally have to dispose of waste in good times and bad, routes are sticky, and the regulated rate ceiling sits above current pricing, giving built-in upside insulation if volumes soften.
An operator advantage is baked in for the right buyer. A hauler with its own transfer station or landfill capacity can capture disposal margin that currently leaks to third parties, turning a 9x headline multiple into a materially lower effective multiple post-integration.

How to improve it

Reprice existing accounts toward the regulated ceiling, since current rates reportedly sit below the allowed maximum. This is close to pure-margin revenue and can be executed account by account within the first 90 days using the existing audit and contract base.
Route owned tonnage through your own transfer or landfill capacity to capture disposal margin currently paid to third parties. For a strategic acquirer this single lever can add meaningful EBITDA without touching the top line.
Densify routes using fleet capacity already in place. Adding accounts inside the awarded territory spreads fixed truck, driver, and fuel costs over more stops, which is the highest-ROI growth available in any hauling business.
Expand roll-off and compactor service across the wider region, the owner's own identified growth path. These are higher-ticket, project-layered services that ride on the same dispatch and maintenance infrastructure.
Modernize routing and dispatch technology to cut miles per stop and overtime. With GPS already on every truck, the data exists to optimize; the gap is likely software and process rather than hardware.
Tighten billing and collections cadence. Recurring commercial accounts should be on auto-pay and monthly invoicing with clear late-fee enforcement, improving working capital and reducing DSO immediately.
Review maintenance and fleet replacement schedules through the in-house shop. Extending truck life while controlling repair spend protects the equipment value that is a large component of this purchase price.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize the zone award itself: exact term remaining, renewal mechanics, transferability, and the full change-of-control review process. The entire investment thesis rests on this license, so understand precisely what municipal approval of a new owner requires and how long it takes.
Verify the EBITDA bridge from $1.5M cash flow to $1.4M adjusted EBITDA, specifically the market-rate owner replacement assumption. Confirm whether that salary is already a real hire or a theoretical add-back, because the difference changes the true manager-run margin.
Inspect the fleet and container base conveyed free and clear: age, condition, remaining useful life, and realistic replacement capex. A large chunk of the $13.5M price is equipment value, so a deferred-capex surprise would meaningfully erode returns.
Audit customer concentration and contract terms on the larger multi-year accounts. Confirm auto-renewal language, pricing escalators, and how much revenue sits with the top five customers versus the recurring route base.
Pressure-test the 9x+ multiple against standalone cash flow. This price only pencils for a strategic buyer who can capture disposal margin and density synergies; a financial buyer without existing capacity should model whether the license premium is justified on their own economics.
Review the leased yard terms, including remaining lease, renewal options, and whether the maintenance shop and permitted use transfer cleanly. A waste yard is a permitted, hard-to-relocate site, so lease security is as important as the operating license.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →