Charlie Appleby is the chairman and chief executive officer of Jacksonville-based Advanced Disposal, which is on track to become the largest privately owned environmental services business in the country.
Upon the official closing of two recent acquisition and consolation agreements, the company will have operations in 20 states and annual revenues of about $1.4 billion, along with a fleet of more than 3,000 trucks, 47 landfills, 92 transfer stations and almost 5,500 employees.
Also as a result of the agreements, Advanced Disposal is considering up to four different locations for the headquarters — Jacksonville, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Charlotte.
Appleby is a certified public accountant and a founding member in 1984 of the Grenadier, Appleby, Collins & Co. accounting firm in Jacksonville.
Appleby is a decorated retired colonel in the Florida Army National Guard and was selected for promotion to brigadier general.
The Daily Record interviewed Appleby for “First Coast Success,” a regular segment on the award-winning 89.9 FM flagship First Coast Connect program, hosted by Melissa Ross.
The interview is scheduled for broadcast this morning and the replay will be at 8 p.m. on the WJCT Arts Channel or online at www.wjctondemand.org.
Following are edited excerpts from the full transcript.
Tell us about the formation of Advanced Disposal, which was known as Advanced Disposal Services. How did it come about and how did you become involved?
It goes back to Grenadier, Appleby, Collins and Company. We had a client, Andy Crawford, of Southland Services. Andy was a close personal friend in addition to being one of the firm’s larger clients. Andy built a very fine company that he started in 1977.
Wayne Huizenga acquired Republic Services back and moved it to Fort Lauderdale. Wayne wanted to grow Republic Services rapidly. The first company he talked to was Andy Crawford and Southland Services. I assisted Andy in negotiating the sale of Southland Services to Republic Services and Andy agreed to stay on and run the North Florida and South Georgia operations.
Andy and I had numerous conversations about assisting him in his investments and other aspects of his business.
Flying back from New York one day he said, ‘Do you want to stay in public accounting the rest of your life?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know it’s been a good career for me and I had never thought about it much.’
In about 10 minutes we struck a deal to start a private investment company. Andy eventually stepped down from Republic, his noncompetes expired, and he said, ‘we ought to go back into the garbage business.’
We decided to do just that.
We found a very small company in northeast Atlanta called Advanced Disposal Services. We bought it.
How did you get from there to become the largest privately owned company?
We started with Advance Disposal, that little, tiny hauling company in northeast Atlanta. We had an opportunity to buy a landfill north of Atlanta in Forsyth County and we quickly learned that a landfill without volume is a liability, not an asset. We looked around for volume and so we went on an acquisition spree and beginning buying companies.
That became the basis of our business strategy, where we would build what we call integrated geographic hubs where we have a disposal or recycling facility in an area and around that facility we build hauling operations to bring that waste into the facility. That became the core of Advanced Disposal’s business strategy.
We have completed over 96 acquisitions; we’ve spent over $500 million on those acquisitions. We started from $10,000 in monthly revenue.
Will it remain based in Jacksonville?
We hope it will stay here. We will be actually the fifth largest solid waste disposal company, if you count the public companies, in the country.
It’s a very competitive industry.
Most definitely. It’s like any business though. Everybody says, ‘Oh I wish I was in that business, that business is really easy.’
It’s not. Business is hard. All businesses are hard, each one has its own set of challenges, own set of opportunities. What you do with those opportunities and how you deal with those challenges is ultimately how you become successful.
Talk about your style of leadership.
I view my style of leadership as collaborative. Many people are surprised when I say that because of my military background. Most people view someone in the military as being somewhat authoritarian, but that’s not really my style. I like to seek input from people. I’m not afraid to make a decision. We make a decision, we move on and we don’t look back.
What is the extent of your services in Jacksonville? Where do we see you here?
We provide almost the full range of services in Jacksonville. The only thing we do not do in Jacksonville that we do in other areas, we do not own a solid waste landfill here. That is because the landfill is owned and controlled by the City. All the waste is either contractually or otherwise flow-controlled into that landfill.
Where do you see the company? Do you see keeping it in Jacksonville?
Personally, I hope to. We acquired a company headquartered in Milwaukee and we are merging with a sister company that’s headquartered in New Jersey and each of us has corporate headquarters in each of those locations.
I am from Northeast Florida. I was raised in Palatka. I prefer to stay here.
I am chairman of the board, but we have to report to a board and we have to make an informed business decision. I certainly hope that informed business decision points to Jacksonville.
Are you planning on talking to City leaders about what might be available here?
I’ve had preliminary, limited conversations. Those discussions will increase pretty soon here.
You’ve also been appointed to government boards, including your current service on the JEA and your past appointment to the former Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. You were one of the outspoken members on the JEDC. Do you have any comments about the time you served on the commission?
I enjoyed that time. I guess I was noted for the questions that I would ask of the people that came before the JEDC. What I consider to be the ultimate compliment was when I stepped down from that board, (former executive director) Ron Barton, in his final words when I was leaving, said, ‘we finally got into the habit of when we were ready to present something to the commission, we would say, OK, everything is ready to go, now what question is Charlie Appleby going to ask that we don’t know the answer to yet?’
Do you have any insights or suggestions for Mayor Alvin Brown about his new office of Economic Development and the proposed Downtown Investment Authority?
I think he is doing a good job. He actually is a friend of mine. He has asked me for advice and sometimes he listens to it and sometimes he doesn’t, which is what he should do. He is the mayor, not me.
One of the challenges is the time frame involved (for decisions about economic incentives) from start to finish. Businesses don’t typically move in that particular time frame.
We’ll be faced with that same challenge with Advance Disposal’s decision whether to continue headquarters here or relocate it somewhere else.
We need to make a decision to move on and if that drags on month after month, and if there is another city that can say, look here is what we can do for you, and if it otherwise makes sense to do that, that could potentially put Jacksonville at a disadvantage.
That was the biggest challenge of the old structure of the JEDC.
I know that if we stay, the mayor wants me to relocate Downtown. That shouldn’t come as to a surprise to anybody. There will be a movement cost from our present (suburban Baymeadows) location to the facilities Downtown, there will be increased IT costs, there will be relocation costs, there will be quite a lot of expenses we will incur, and any assistance that we can get would be helpful.
How many employees do you have in Jacksonville?
We employ almost 370 people in Northeast Florida. Our corporate headquarters is about 35 people. We are proud to have a lean operating headquarters. If we were to move everything here, that corporate headquarters would probably increase from about 35 people to probably 115-125. Those would be nice-paying jobs also, the kind of jobs at the JEDC we always wanted to have.
What are you seeing with the economy?
We don’t see much total overall growth. The growth seems to be pretty flat. The mayor’s approach to economic development to bring jobs to Jacksonville is important for the City and it is important in all the areas in which we operate. The country has been stuck in neutral for way too long and we’ve got to figure out how to get out of this.
What’s that going to take?
It’s always about leadership. It’s always about people.
The right people in the right place at the right time can make a marginal company successful. The wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time can make a great company go bankrupt.
You can say that same thing anywhere. It’s true in the military. It’s true in business. It’s true in running our country.
What advice do you have for effective leadership?
Effective leadership is honesty, integrity. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are and let them do their thing.
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