Outward Bound

STARTING SMALL

Hinton came to the secure destruction industry not from the recycling industry, as a number of industry professionals do, but from the propane industry.

Hinton’s family was in the retail propane gas business for three generations before selling the company 10 years ago. Hinton, knowing that he wanted to own his own business, but not quite sure what sector he wanted that business to be in, took a job with a company his family had bought equipment from and began to consider his options. A year-and-a-half later, he started his own document destruction firm out of his home.

"I was looking for a challenge," Hinton says of his decision to start a mobile destruction firm. "I saw that a company in South Carolina was doing it and came across an ad in USA Today for Shred-Tech."

After visiting Shred-Tech in Cambridge, Ontario, he bought a truck and entered the business.

In the beginning, Hinton went door to door, soliciting customers for On-Site Shred, he says. "Back in 1999, it was a relatively new business and you really had to get out and explain and sell the service," Hinton says. "Now, people are pretty educated, and you have to sell your company more than you have to sell the service."

In addition to sales, Hinton also serviced all of the company’s accounts. Fortunately for Hinton, he proved to be a more-than-capable multitasker and after a few months he could afford to hire a driver, which allowed him to focus on sales.

Hinton says he found a number of similarities between the retail propane gas business and the document destruction industry in that they both involved trucks, routes and logistics as well as a commitment to customer service, which gave him an advantage in establishing On-Site Shred.

However, he says, "Wilmington only had 90,000 people, so I recognized pretty quickly that I was going to have to move into some other areas." About six months later, Hinton decided to relocate On-Site Shred to Garner, N.C., a suburb of Raleigh, the city where he was born and raised and the state’s capital.

While mobile destruction services make up 90 percent of On-Site Shred’s business, the company also added a shredding plant to its Garner location about five years ago, which allows On-Site Shred to pursue purge jobs and product destruction opportunities. The plant is equipped with a Vecoplan grinder that is capable of processing paper and a variety of other materials. Hinton says he purchased the machine because of its versatility. "We don’t have to have a paper shredder and a separate machine to destroy tapes and CDs and that sort of thing."

Hinton says the company’s in-plant jobs are an even mix of document purge jobs and non-paper destruction jobs, such as pharmaceutical bottles, driver’s licenses, video tapes and clothing.

In addition to the Garner headquarters and shredding plant, the company has added offices in Charlotte, N.C., Chesapeake, Va., and Roanoke, Va., within the last six years. These locations allow On-Site Shred to cover North Carolina and Virginia and parts of West Virginia and South Carolina, Hinton says.

REALIZING POTENTIAL

While Hinton may not have envisioned the growth potential of On-Site Shred when he began the business in 1999 before federal laws like HIPAA and FACTA were enacted, he certainly acknowledges it now. And On-Site Shred, as a strong regional company, may be ideally situated for future growth.

Hinton says On-Site Shred’s customers encouraged the company’s expansion. The company services many customers with multiple locations in the region, "and they kind of pushed us into those areas," he says. On-Site Shred’s strategy is to establish a customer base in a city prior to locating a dedicated office and truck in the area. "Once we got into those areas, we needed to make it worthwhile, so we set up an office with a sales person to make the customer base denser," Hinton says.

On-Site Shred also targets contracted business as a way to establish route density in an area.

"I would say that probably 75 percent of our business is regular service," Hinton says. "We want that commitment from the customer for ongoing business." He says that by having On-Site Shred’s branded containers and a driver regularly servicing accounts, the company is able to build a connection with its customers that leads to a long-term relationship.

This focus on route density and contract service is not the only key to On-Site Shred’s success. The company also strives to provide regional and national coverage, which Hinton thinks is a distinct advantage and a growing customer requirement. While On-Site Shred does a good job of covering its operating region, the company partners with other NAID (National Association for Information Destruction) AAA certified firms to provide national coverage.

Hinton credits On-Site Shred’s growth to its ability to provide regional and national coverage to its corporate, medical and financial customers. To do so, On-Site Shred partners with shredding companies that have the same standards and philosophy. "That has really worked well," he adds.

Because of the number of national accounts that On-Site Shred services, the Garner office handles all of the company’s administrative functions. Hinton says these accounts are difficult to administer from a number of offices.

As competition among secure shredding firms increases, Hinton chooses to focus on the benefits that can arise from such a situation.