Family-owned business sold

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1976

GREENFIELD — A longtime Indiana waste management and recycling company with an office in Greenfield has been sold.

Advanced Disposal, a publicly traded solid waste company based in Florida, has purchased CGS Services Inc., a family-owned business that serves 14 Indiana counties, including Hancock, and generates nearly $30 million in revenue annually.

Morristown-based CGS Services offers a variety of services in the waste management, recycling and hauling industry to central Indiana customers. It has been a family-owned and operated business since 1946, according to its website.

In 2009, the company opened a full-service office in the Greenfield Area Chamber of Commerce building in downtown Greenfield and eventually moved into its own building on Main Street, where it has served customers since 2014.

For years, CGS Services has served as a community partner, sponsoring local events and donating services.

Linda Muegge, vice president of CGS Services, said she never thought she’d sell the family business, which her grandfather started on a family farm in Morristown in 1946.

But the timing is right, she said. Advanced Disposal will take good care of CGS Services’ customers and employees, she said.

The sale will allow her to focus more on nonprofit work in her community, including volunteering with the Hancock County Community Foundation, and spend more time with family, Muegge said.

Advanced Disposal’s acquisition of CGS Services allows the company to expand its operations into Indiana, a news release states. The sale was final last week. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

“CGS is an established operation in a secondary market that fits perfectly with our market selection strategy and gives us a new platform to continue to grow our business,” Richard Burke, chief executive officer, stated in the news release. “CGS has developed an excellent reputation in the markets it serves, and we are pleased to welcome their top-tier professionals and customers to the Advanced Disposal family.”

Advanced Disposal, the fourth-largest solid waste company in the U.S., employs 5,400 people across its markets, which includes 16 states and the Bahamas, the company’s website states.

The company offers all the same services as CGS Services, Muegge said.

Elmer Caldwell opened CGS Services on his family farm in 1946; his son, Paul Caldwell, eventually joined the operation helping to haul out gravel, rock and clay that made farming difficult.

The company became Caldwell Gravel Sales Inc. in 1968, selling gravel.

In 1971, it moved into the waste removal business when it received its first sanitary landfill permit.

It officially became CGS Services in 1993.

Muegge said it’s bittersweet to sell the business, which now employs fourth-generation family members.

“Every generation brought a new talent or a new venture,” she said. “It’s really been a family business.”

Advanced Disposal did not release information about whether CGS Services employees will be retained as part of the sale.

Representatives for Advanced Disposal could not be reached for comment.