Stacking Up

The paperless society seems like a distant fantasy when you consider the number of boxes of documents the largest records storage companies in North America have in their possession, which is in excess of 200 million. That was the number that SDB editors used to determine the ranking of these companies. However, many companies were not forthcoming, so our editors had to turn to estimates from industry sources.

While the paperless society may be difficult to envision, what’s easier to see is how many of these companies have grown to their current scale. Numerous acquisitions have helped many of these companies enlarge their service areas and grow the number of boxes they have in storage.

The Biggest Among the Big
Iron Mountain and Recall both report having the same number of boxes in storage. (SDB editors thought that by promising to keep this number confidential, more records storage companies would respond to our inquiries.) This number far surpasses the companies that rank below them on the list, and a number of acquisitions on the part of both companies over the years have certainly played a role in their current girth.

While Iron Mountain’s acquisition activity has been somewhat muted in recent years, the Boston-based firm recently acquired the operations of File House Offsite Record Storage, Fredericksburg, Va.; Document Systems Inc., Columbia, S.C.; and First National Safe Deposit, Philadelphia.

Among the acquisitions Recall, Norcross, Ga., recently announced was the purchase of Toronto-based Securit’s U.S. records centers in early 2011. The company purchased client records and customers from Securit’s facilities in Dallas, Chicago and Birmingham, Ala. These assets were transferred to nearby Recall facilities, as the deal did not include the physical buildings, of which Shred-it, Securit’s parent company, retained ownership.

North Americas Largest Record Storage Companies. Click picture above to see full table.

At the time of the sale, Shawn Lanthier, vice president of strategy and corporate development at Shred-it, said, “While the document storage operation continues to perform well in other markets, the U.S.-based records management business has not achieved the scale required to operate efficiently, and we have therefore decided to divest our U.S. records management business, redirecting our resources and capital to our core document destruction business and Canadian records management business.”

Mark Wesley, Recall North America president, said, “This is a strategic opportunity for Recall, as these three markets are attractive, and the acquisition will allow us to leverage existing infrastructure to better serve and expand our customer base.”

Sydney-based Brambles, Recall’s parent company, recently abandoned an effort to sell the company, with Brambles Chairman Graham Kraehe saying, “Amid challenging capital markets conditions, and following complex negotiations, offers from bidders for Recall did not reflect its value or offer sufficient certainty.”

He added, “It is in the best interests of Brambles’ shareholders to retain Recall, which is a profitable and growing business.”

Gaining in Girth
A number of companies can attest to the strength of the commercial records and information management (RIM) industry. Among the companies expanding their footprints in the RIM sector through acquisitions are Retrievex, Access Information Management and Cornerstone Records Management.

Livermore, Calif.-based Access has announced a number of purchases since the start of 2011, including its most recent, which expands its geographic footprint into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The acquisition of Philadelphia-area-based Priority Records Management, Priority Archives and Priority Shred, allows the company to serve Delaware, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

Also in 2012, Access acquired Washington Archives Management, expanding the company’s service coverage in the Washington state region, including Seattle, Tacoma and the state capital of Olympia, as well as the assets of Records Retention Services Inc., Montgomery, Ala. This acquisition extended Access’ service area in the Southeast and included a full-service records management storage center and plant-based document destruction facility.

Access CIG LCC, Access Information Management’s parent company, is a holding company established by Dennis Barnedt. The company has made nearly 40 acquisitions in the records and information management sector since 2004.

Conshohocken, Pa.-based Retrievex was formed in 2007 as the result of a partnership between Danvers, Mass.-based ARMS Records Management Services; Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe of New York, a $4 billion fund; and Peter Pierce, formerly of Pierce Leahy Archives, marking his return to the RIM industry.

Acquisitions have always factored into Retrievex’ growth, and that continued in 2012. The company added Minuteman Archives, Abington, Mass., this spring. Minuteman services records management customers in the greater Boston area and is the company’s fourth acquisition in the area since 2007.

Earlier this year, Retrievex also purchased Assured Record Storage, Altamonte Springs, Fla., which marked its foray into Florida. Assured served Greater Orlando, Tampa, Clearwater and Polk County.

Cornerstone Records Management LLC, Columbia, Md., entered the RIM industry in 2008 with the acquisitions of LA Records Management Inc. and Microshred Inc. That initial acquisition was followed by the addition of Nova Records Management and Information Management Storage.

Cornerstone says its acquisition strategy “involves acquisitions that are in or adjacent to the existing footprint, for existing service offerings or acquisitions that can expand service offerings.”

In March of this year, Cornerstone completed the acquisition of the assets of MasterFile Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.

Kent Misemer, CEO of Cornerstone, said at the time of the acquisition, “Cornerstone has steadily been growing our business in Colorado since we opened our 44,000 square foot facility in 2009 through organic growth and our acquisition of The Better Shredder.”

Future Shifts
Also featured on the list is Pittsburgh-based Business Records Management (BRM), which recently acquired Underground Archives, with locations in Wampum and East Brady, Pa. BRM acquired Underground Archives’ private vaulting and film and sound storage business, amounting to roughly 400 clients. BRM leases Underground Archives’ locations, which are former limestone mines, from Daniel Bruce, the company’s former owner.

Future acquisitions of this nature could change BRM’s position on the list of North America’s largest records management companies. However, changes in the way information is generated and retained and how successfully these and other records storage companies plan for and respond to those changes can further affect future rankings of the largest records storage companies in North America.

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