The June 2023 acquisition by global metals company Elemental paved the way for Colt Recycling’s fourth U.S. site, and CEO Jim Maher expects the affiliation to help gain share in the large Texas market. | Courtesy of Colt Recycling
New Hampshire-headquartered Colt Recycling is in the process of starting up its fourth electronics processing facility, located in San Marcos, Texas.
The location was a natural fit for Colt, which offers e-scrap processing, data destruction and ITAD services. Last summer, Colt was acquired by Luxembourg-headquartered Elemental Holding Group, which has a catalytic converter processing plant in San Marcos. That helped Colt grow its footprint organically, Colt President and CEO Jim Maher told E-Scrap News.
First the company acquired additional warehouse space in San Marcos, starting work on that in fall 2023, then engaged in the auditing process to get its material certified.
“Obviously, our core customer base knew we were setting up in Texas, but they also knew we needed to be certified before we could operate,” Maher said.
Texas is a big state with a lot of processors, but “with the Elemental brand we should be able to gain market share,” he noted.
Before the Texas facility, Colt’s most recent expansion was in 2016, when it opened a North Carolina processing plant. It also operates two locations in New Hampshire.
Looking forward, Colt could head to the West Coast for the next facility, Maher said. But for the time being, Colt is shredding e-scrap in North Carolina and New Hampshire and will be operating the Texas site “as soon as we can get the equipment in place.”
Maher cited manufacturing delays for long lead times on equipment, though in the meantime the company can deploy some of its excess machinery.
“It could be 12 weeks or 24 weeks, but hopefully through the fall we’ll have all the decisions made,” he said.
Gaining certification “takes longer than you would think,” Maher said. “It’s chicken and egg – can’t get material unless you’re certified, but can’t get certifications without material.”
In the interim, Colt had to send some of its own material from other locations to obtain certification for the Texas site, he said. In late July 2024, Colt obtained the needed certifications – R2V3, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 – enabling the company to market the facility to customers.