SULO-Group to Acquire Cleanaway Germany


  • The new integrated waste management company set to become Germany’s second largest and the fifth biggest in Europe 
  • Annual turnover of EUR 1.2 billion with well over 8,000 employees 
  • Path-breaking step towards necessary consolidation of industry

Herford/Hamburg, October 13th 2005 – The Herford-based waste management company SULO announces acquisition of Cleanaway Deutschland AG & Co. KG. SULO acquires the company from Brambles, an Australian player in the service industry. Besides the German business segment the purchase will also affect Cleanaway’s activities in Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and the Baltic States. SULO itself is owned by Private Equity-Funds since early 2004. These funds in turn are advised by The Blackstone Group and Apax Partners.

The value of transaction amounts to approx EUR 570 million. The acquisition and the final settlement date for the transaction are still subject to approval by the relevant European and German anti-trust authorities.

The new company will become Germany’s second largest waste management company and the fifth biggest in Europe with an annual turnover of approx EUR 1.2 billion and well over 8,000 employees. In Germany there will be more than 200 service sites and more than 20 production facilities. The group will additionally be represented in over 10 European countries.

Significantly strengthened market presence for the new SULO-Group in Germany and Europe:

  • In the municipal sector alone SULO will collect the waste of roughly 10 million citizens, covering the wide range from solid waste, organic waste to paper and glass.
  • SULO will also become the biggest partner for recycling and container return systems (e.g. Duales System Deutschland – “Grüner Punkt”) making it virtually destined for the development of new services such as deposit systems.
  • On the commercial and industry segment SULO will provide waste management services to well over 100,000 customers.
  • The two companies’ activities complement each other also geographically very well: Whereas SULO has a strong market presence in the South of Germany, Cleanaway is a leading provider especially in the North and East of the country.
  • Besides its given presence in such Eastern Europe countries as the Czech Republic, Poland and the Ukraine SULO will now expand into the Baltic States, whereby the latter have increasingly come to adopt the environment standards of the European Union.

In addition, the acquisition will lead to further growth potential in the future markets of recyclable waste management:

  • The acquisition will make SULO one of the world’s leading dealer for recovered paper with an annual trading volume in excess of 1.5 million tons, thereby enabling the company to offer its customers a high degree of supply guarantee.
  • For the rapidly growing market of return value and deposit systems the purchase of Cleanaway Germany provides SULO with further access to PET recycling plants in Germany as well as in Austria, Switzerland and Sweden. These plants already operate with state-of-the-art and patented recycling technologies, whilst further plants are planned for.

SULO is furthermore the only German waste management company able to offer customized waste management services as well as in-house developed products of environment technology. This group-internal transfer of knowledge benefits the customers in the form of all-in-one solutions.

SULO intends to integrate all Cleanaway activities fully into the SULO-Group. The future SULO Board of Management will include members from both companies’ management.

Jürgen Rauen, CEO of SULO’s Board of Management: “The acquisition of Cleanaway Germany is a clear indication that we are consistently implementing our growth strategy for SULO. The incorporation of Cleanaway will provide the SULO-Group with a well-balanced product and service range as well as a significantly strengthened market position. This step also shows that SULO is capable of seizing strategic market opportunities, not least because of the financial strength and the solidity of our investors.”

Max-Arnold Köttgen, CEO of Cleanaway Germany: “The still highly fragmented German waste management and recycling industry is about to face fundamental structural changes. Here the future will be with efficient service providers that can offer the full range of logistics, sorting and recycling under one roof and with stateof- the-art technology. The merger of SULO and Cleanaway Germany constitutes an important step towards the necessary consolidation and will point the way to the future.”

About SULO

The SULO-Group is based in Herford/Westphalia, Germany. Founded way back in 1892 it now covers the full range of disposal services for disposal technology and waste management. The company’s and all its business divisions prime objective is to provide a seamless waste recycling cycle, all-in-one customer solutions and a responsible interaction with the environment. The business division Environmental Technology manufactures innovative containers, identification and weighing systems as well as requirement-based individual container solutions. The business division Environmental Services covers the full range of services for disposal and waste management, including marketing of new raw materials. The two divisions cater both for municipal clients as well as for private, commercial and industrial customers. The Packaging division produces high-quality containers for the storage and transport of hazardous materials.

About Cleanaway Germany

Cleanaway Germany is one of the leading Germany disposal and recycling companies that provides all-in-one solutions for waste management. Cleanaway works closely together with its customers and offers the full range of services and technical expertise of a modern internationally operative disposal and recycling company. Its customer base includes local municipalities, industrial clients, commerce and trade, public authorities, private customers and the German Duale System Deutschland DSD. Cleanaway Germany is a member of the international Cleanaway-Group, which in turn is a subsidiary of Brambles that offers services to industrial clients in over 40 countries.