Federal International acquires All-American Recycling

Federal International, a St. Louis-based recycling company, has acquired Columbus, Georgia-based All-American Recycling. With the acquisition, Federal International now operates seven processing plants and two sales offices in North America. Blair Brown, vice president of All-American, will remain with the company and will head up the new business unit.

John Daniel, president of Federal International, says the acquisition makes sense for the company. “We are always looking for good companies at fair prices. And, culturally, it (All-American Recycling) is a great fit.”

While All-American handles a significant amount of fiber, Daniel says the company also handles and processes nonferrous scrap. This, he adds, is part of Federal International’s strategy to grow the metals recycling part of its business. To support this trend, Daniel says the company is looking to buy an excavator and a shear to allow it to process more scrap metal.

Though fiber still constitutes a majority of the material the company handles, other recyclable commodities are becoming a growing percentage of the material the company handles. In addition to metals, Federal International is growing its pallet recycling business, according to Daniel.

“We want to provide full waste and recycling services to our customers,” Daniel comments.

Daniel says Federal International, though based in St. Louis, doesn’t consider itself pigeonholed by its regional presence. “We have never identified ourselves with a geographical region.” The company also has facilities in Missouri, Texas and Colorado, along with its new plant in Georgia.

As for recent volatility caused by China’s more stringent policies regarding the import of some recyclables, Daniel says his company has been only tangentially affected. “We are domestic shippers. We are not seeing any major impacts in our business.”