California Style

Johnny (left) and Matt Dalton

Matt noticed the numerous Shred-It trucks dumping shredded paper at the family’s recycling facility and thought, "We could get into that," he says. Now the two companies are competitors in California, a highly competitive market for document destruction firms, Matt says.

"In any one area, we can have 20-plus competitors—anybody from the mom-and-pop companies with one truck to Iron Mountain, who has come in and made several acquisitions," he says.

He continues, "We have found that individuals getting into the business with one or two trucks quote much lower than they need to just to keep their trucks busy. But, at the same time, they are really saturating the market, and it is detrimental to the industry as a whole." The potential damage is not only in the driving down of prices for secure destruction services, creating tighter margins for firms operating in California, but also in the tarnishing of the industry’s reputation in general, as some of the new entrants are unfamiliar with regulations and security procedures, Matt says.

Certified Document Destruction tries to differentiate itself within the competitive California market by emphasizing customer service. Matt says he feels the speed with which Certified Document Destruction can respond to customer requests—typically within a 24-hour period—puts the company at an advantage, as some of the its competitors can take as many as three days to service an account. "We may be overstaffed at times, but we take that risk. When we get busy, we are still able to respond to our current clients within 24 hours."

Matt says the company’s focus on customer service stems from the Dalton family’s vested interest in the company. "We’ll do anything for our customers to meet and exceed their expectations. We realize that the future of our business is based on taking care of customers’ needs," he says.

Certified Document Destruction’s focus on customer service has helped the company expand during the last nine years.

"Our sales employees personally oversee every new install of containers," Matt says. "I don’t ask them to, they just do because they are the type of individuals that go the extra mile."

Should customers encounter problems, they contact the sales reps who established their accounts. Matt also fields customer complaints himself. "With thousands of customers, you would expect a lot of calls; however, I have not received more than a couple per week for a long time," he says. "We have wonderful employees who keep our customers very happy."

While the amount of competition among document destruction firms in California has served to lower pricing for the service in the state, Matt says Certified Document Destruction’s loyal customers are willing to pay more for its quality service. "We are typically a little higher in price, but I feel that we make up for it in our service and security procedures," he says.

Certified Document Destruction puts an emphasis on security, whether it’s shredding information on-site or at one of its four plants. Two people—a driver and a security officer—staff each of the company’s trucks, ensuring that someone always has an eye on the material, Matt says.

At its shredding plants, each door requires key access. Visitors are asked to present identification and to sign a logbook. A security officer then escorts them through the facility. Additionally, the plants are equipped with 24-hour surveillance cameras, which the Daltons monitor at their Anaheim facility. The company also performs background checks on its staff.

Certified Document Destruction’s commitment to security includes the equipment it uses, which produces a shred size that corresponds with Department of Defense (DOD) standards for classified documents, gaining the company DOD certification. An inspector from the Defense Security Service visits the company’s plants, examining the shredders to assure that they meet DOD shred-size specifications, Matt says.

"What sets us apart is that we take pride in having the finest equipment that is available in the industry," Matt says. "We have spent a tremendous amount of money to build state-of-the-art facilities."

Certified Document Destruction’s Anaheim facility houses a 200-hp system from Allegheny Paper Shredders of Delmont, Pa. Matt says the Allegheny system can destroy upwards of 20,000 pounds of material per hour. Its plants in Sacramento and San Jose are equipped with 25-hp Allegheny systems, and the San Diego location houses a 75-hp AMS-7500 from Ameri-Shred Corp., Monroeville, Pa. Each location is also equipped with a baler from American Baler Co. of Bellevue, Ohio.

The company operates eight shred trucks manufactured by ShredFast Inc. of Airway Heights, Wash., or Shred-Tech of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Certified Document Destruction also uses tipper trucks from ShredFast to collect material to be shredded off site.

Certified Document Destruction recently began using routing software from EZshred of Twinsburg, Ohio, at its Anaheim plant, though the other locations use homemade software. However, the company may expand its use of EZshred to its other locations in light of the streamlining it’s experiencing in billing and routing at its Anaheim facility, Matt says.

Matt says roughly 90 percent of Certified Document Destruction’s customers in Southern California opt for off-site shredding services, while 90 percent of its Northern California customers prefer on-site service. "Most of this has to do with need," Matt says, "however, we have acquired those types of companies in those areas."

While most of the company’s business involves document destruction, it also offers product destruction and is currently looking into purchasing equipment from Vecoplan LLC, Archdale, N.C., to handle growing product destruction needs, Matt says.

"We have ongoing product destruction accounts," Matt says, adding that the company has destroyed everything from computers to toys to clothing.

In terms of document destruction, Matt says, "We will service anything from 500 containers for a large corporation to one box at a local residence." In fact, residential secure shredding is a growing part of Certified Document Destruction’s business, with homeowners bringing material directly to one of the company’s plants for destruction or calling to request a pickup.

Certified Document Destruction has grown largely through acquisitions. In the past nine years, the company has made roughly eight acquisitions, which have been folded into its four regional locations.

"We have a couple of other acquisitions in mind within California," Matt says. "We are happy with California; it keeps us busy."

While Matt doesn’t rule out expanding beyond California, he says, "We feel that we have developed a great system with wonderful employees at the locations that we have. We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin by going out of state."

The author is managing editor of SDB and can be contacted at dtoto@gie.net.