Global Environmental Services (GES) is a leading certified electronic waste recycler licensed by the state of Kentucky. GES works with an extensive network of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and product brokers and offers a host of services from its state of teh art 70,000 square foot facility.
GES was founded in 2008 by Kenny Gravitt and Paul Haddix. Gravitt and Haddix sought to build a company that recycled electronics properly, doing no harm to the environment or communities around the world.
The recession impacted GES immediately after the company opened its doors for business. In a matter of months GES was facing revenue streams that were less than a quarter of initial financial predictions. “The entire commodity market crashed and left us in the wake,” Gravitt said. “We struggled for a really long time before finding ourselves in front of Gordon Garrett and Shirie Hawkins with the SBDC.”
Hawkins and Garrett helped GES seek funding by preparing pro-forma projections that were later presented to national and local lenders, and a private investor. Three separate funding offers were made, and all fell through. “At this point, I viewed GES as a distressed business and we began embarking on a process that would help get their business house in order,” Garrett said.
Garrett and Hawkins started by focusing on the operational aspects of GES to make the business more efficient. Once operational assets were in check, Hawkins turned their attention to GES’s cost accounting. “At the time GES had 70-80 contracts with electronics firms that had electronic equipment to dispose of,” Garrett said. “GES’s accounting systems were not designed to track profitability by contract, client or even by type of electronic gear sold or recycled.”
The weeks and months that followed brought great change to GES.
Gordon and Shirie came in and taught us how to change our processes in order to stop the hemorrhaging. These were tough conversations that were not always pleasant to have, but they were factual, to the point and, ultimately, saved this company.
– Kenny Gravitt, co-founder
Today, GES is profitable, poised to double revenue in 2011 and ranked in the top 10 of electronics recyclers in the nation.
What started with only four employees has now grown to more than 60 employees. “I am very proud that we have created 60 new jobs in Kentucky,” Gravitt said. “In addition, our employees have the opportunity to build new, technical skills while working here, something that is tremendously important in today’s world.”