GMR: Listed 20th Largest Privately Held Company

(excerpt from Dallas Business Journal – by Karen Nielsen)

For 34-year-old GMR Recyclers, the decision to stay the course two years ago despite a slowdown in sales paid off. The company, which buys and recycles thousands of tons of scrap metal every year, has a customer base that ranges from individuals to large manufacturing and recycling companies.

“We decided to stay in this market for our customers,” said President Kenny Goldberg. “Some of our competition chose another road. When we came out the other side, we were a lot stronger for it and our market share increased.”

The Dallas-based company posted $509 million in revenue for the 12-month period ended July 31, a 99.6 percent gain from $255 million in fiscal year 2008, the comparable prior-year period. Goldberg attributes the surge to gaining market share through three acquisitions and rising commodity prices. GMR now has large recycling yards in Houston and in Dallas with smaller operations in Gainesville, Albuquerque, N.M., and Fort Worth.

The company has come through each recession stronger than it went in, but this was the toughest one yet, said Neil Goldberg, vice president, who co-founded the company with his brother. For the first time ever, GMR Recyclers had to cut from its 200-plus employee staff.

“It was very gut-wrenching and sickening,” he said. “We spend more time with the people we work with than we do with our families.”

Today, GMR has 289 local employees and 365 company-wide.