The Akron area’s largest rental company for portable toilet service has more than tripled its fleet, buying a competitor in Cuyahoga County.
Superior-Speedie Portable Services Inc. bought Waid’s Rainbow Rentals of Valley View for an undisclosed amount, bringing its number of portable toilets to about 6,000. Superior-Speedie, with offices in Springfield Township, had about 1,700 units prior to the purchase.
“It’s just crazy,” Superior-Speedie part-owner Pat Flynn said of company growth.
He said his goal, when he came on board in 2006, was to triple the size of the company in several years.
“At this point, we are nine times the original size,” he said, noting the company had about 650 portable toilets in 2006.
Flynn said the purchase ensures that a national competitor won’t buy Waid’s, making an inroad into the market.
Ron Waid, who was part owner of Waid’s Rainbow Rentals, said Superior-Speedie approached him about purchasing the business about four months ago. He said he had been thinking about selling to focus more on his family’s other business.
“I was very happy,” with Superior-Speedie’s offer, he said, noting that Superior-Speedie took on nearly all of Waid’s Rainbow Rental’s roughly 15 workers, including route drivers. Two of Waid’s office employees didn’t want to commute to Springfield Township.
Superior-Speedie now has about 30 workers.
The Waid family continues to own Waid Corp., which provides sanitation services, including sewer testing, cleaning and repair.
Superior-Speedie now covers 20 counties, picking up Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning counties.
The vast majority of portable potties Superior-Speedie acquired with the purchase are standard plastic units. The company also picked up several restroom trailers, bringing the number of restroom and shower trailers it can offer to 28.
The white restroom trailers are heated/air-conditioned and outfitted with sinks and stalls with doors. The price range for a single unit is roughly $27,000 to $65,000.
Flynn said the company now is providing disaster relief services, and last year set up some of its trailers in East Coast areas Hurricane Sandy damaged.
“I pulled into a police station and [police officers] came up thanking me, saying they hadn’t taken a hot shower in two weeks,” Flynn said.
Superior-Speedie began in 2004, when part-owners Jeff Grubbs and his wife, Shelly, owners of Superior Drainage, decided to add a portable restroom rental business to their plumbing/drainage enterprise. Jeff Grubbs earlier had worked for a company that provided portable toilets.
The purchase of Waid’s Rainbow Rentals roughly coincides with Superior-Speedie’s move in early February from the drainage business’s offices on George Washington Boulevard in Akron to a building at 900 Killian Road in Springfield Township that Flynn and Grubbs had purchased.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.