An encore performance

One could say Bob Korkos is drawn to the secure destruction industry. He has been working in the industry since 2002, which is when he founded his first company, Guardian Document Shredding, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“I built the company from the ground up and was proud of the growth we experienced,” Korkos says.

Guardian Document Shredding attracted the attention of Cincinnati-based Cintas, which purchased the company in 2006. (Cintas merged its document destruction operations with Shred-it in the spring of 2014.)

Following the sale of Guardian, Korkos worked as a consultant with shredding equipment manufacturer Shred-Tech, Cambridge, Ontario. While working for Shred-Tech, Korkos’ friend and colleague, Mark McKenna, suggested he look at a shredding company that was for sale in Charlotte, North Carolina. That visit gave Korkos the idea to move south to open another secure destruction company.

“After one visit, I was hooked on not just the beauty of the city but also on the incredible climate and market opportunity,” Korkos says of Charlotte.

In 2007, roughly one year after selling Guardian Document Shredding, Korkos says he and his wife, Barb, “took a leap of faith,” relocating to Charlotte and launching a new mobile secure destruction business, which they named Automated Shredding.

Korkos says that while he had looked at related industries, such as medical waste and document scanning, he was drawn back to the secure destruction industry “because it made the best business choice.”

He adds, “This is a great business. Customers have a need for the service, and the laws require responsible destruction and disposal, which gives some added stability to our industry. We have a source of revenue from our service as well as revenue from recycling the shredded paper.”
 

Act One

Before Korkos discovered the secure information destruction industry, he worked for Harley-Davidson, as district manager for New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He caught the shredding bug through a friend. “A friend of mine became interested in the information destruction industry and started a shredding company,” he says. “After spending some time with him and watching the business grow, I decided to start my own shredding company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.”

In the short time he owned Guardian Document Shredding, the company grew sufficiently to attract the interest of Cintas. (Korkos’ confidentially agreement with Cintas prevents him from disclosing any more information about Guardian’s revenue at the time of the sale or the sale itself.)

Among the lessons he learned along the way were to invest in quality equipment with high throughput, optimize routes and advertise consistently. Korkos also learned to avoid short selling his company’s services, he says.
 

Act Two

Automated Shredding offers on-site, secure destruction of documents, hard drives and nonpaper media and products. The company operates out of a 3,000-square-foot secure facility just 3 miles south of Charlotte. “All our equipment is securely parked indoors to ensure protection from the weather and added security,” Korkos says.

“We also have a complete maintenance and equipment repair shop within our facility,” he adds.

The company is certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), Phoenix, with endorsements for paper/printed media, nonpaper media and physical destruction of computer hard drives.

Automated Shredding also is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has received the Angie’s List Super Service Award, Korkos points out.

The company employs six people and serves clients in the commercial, government and residential sectors.

In addition to mobile shredding, Automated Shredding offers drive-up service at its Fort Mill, South Carolina, facility.

Korkos says 67 percent of the company’s business is regularly scheduled, recurring work within the Charlotte metro area.

The majority of the company’s 600 clients are served on-site using its MDX-1 and MDS-35T shred trucks, which are manufactured by Shred-Tech.

“We’re proud to have an MDX-1 high-security shredding truck in our fleet,” he says. “This truck produces an incredibly small shred size for maximum data destruction,” Korkos adds.

Automated Shredding uses the MDX-1 exclusively to destroy paper documents.

The company’s MDS-35GT shred truck is used for a wider variety of shredding tasks, including paper documents, products and hard drives, he says.

“We also have a hydraulic hard drive destruction puncher that we built in-house,” Korkos adds.
 

Taking center stage

Korkos says a number of factors help to set Automated Shredding apart from area competitors. “Our standards for security and excellence are the highest in our industry.

“Our company is sufficiently bonded and insured for general liability along with professional liability E&O (errors and omissions) insurance,” he says.

Regarding professional liability insurance, Korkos says, “I felt that not having coverage was a potential risk for our company and also to our customers.”

He adds, “Today, some of our contracts require E&O coverage, and I believe that we will start to see more customers requiring this coverage.”

Automated Shredding also invests time and energy in its equipment. “Our trucks and equipment are cleaned and maintained on a weekly basis, improving their safety and reliability,” Korkos says, adding that the company’s drivers have said they have never worked before for a company that maintains its trucks and equipment as well as Automated Shredding does.

Korkos says, “This gives employees a secure feeling, knowing we are concerned about their safety.”

He also credits those employees, who he says are “very customer driven,” for Automated Shredding’s success.

Korkos remarks, “Our customers know our drivers and office staff by name thanks to very little turnover—something we are very proud of.

“Our drivers are always willing to go the extra mile with a smile for a customer,” he continues.

Automated Shredding employees go through prehire and annual background investigations and drug testing. They also are trained on secure shredding policies, according to the company.

“Your employees are you No. 1 most important asset,” Korkos says. “They are out in the field representing your business, which means you have to hire well and be willing to pay well.”

He adds, “Our employees are like family, and we treat them as such.”

Automated Shredding has focused on recruiting quality drivers. “In order to get the best of the best, we pay about 25 to 30 percent higher than our competitors,” Korkos says.
 

Setting the scene

Korkos describes market conditions as “very stable” in his service area, which covers the Charlotte metropolitan area, including Greenville, Spartanburg and central South Carolina.

That market stability does not mean competition is lacking. “We have no shortage of competition in our area, and I think competition is always good for business,” he says.

Despite the competition and the challenges presented by the recession from 2009 to 2011, Korkos says Automated Shredding has seen growth year over year.

Automated Shredding attributes this growth in part to “providing that extra level of security and assurance,” Korkos says.

Data breaches, which seem to be reported regularly and involve vast numbers of records, also have helped to draw attention to the need for information security, leading companies to seek out secure destruction service providers. “The national attention on data breaches has made businesses even more attuned and conscientious about protecting their customers’ personal information,” he adds.

While federal and state laws help to ensure this protection for individuals, Korkos says, “There is not enough legislation to help govern the operation of data destruction services.”

He adds, “We pride ourselves on going above and beyond to ensure absolute security and data destruction for our clients, but unfortunately there are companies that are not NAID certified and don’t invest in the time, insurance measures or equipment to properly provide secure data destruction.”

So Automated Shredding can continue providing the level of service its customers have come to expect, the company is considering purchasing and relocating to a new building, which would give the company the ability to expand into the storage business and potentially add off-site shredding capabilities.

“I am currently looking at a building that I would like to purchase in place of our leased building,” Korkos says. “This would give us the ability to expand into the storage business and potentially off-site shredding. At this time, I would like to be in the position to be able to quickly expand into a plant-based shredding system if needed.”

Regarding his repeat performance as an owner of a mobile secure destruction company, Korkos says, “When my family and I moved to Charlotte, we didn’t know a single person. We worked hard, and I’m proud of our reputation as a quality, customer-oriented company. We have the highest customer retention of any independently owned data destruction company in the area. We will do what it takes to get the job done.”

The author is editor of Storage & Destruction Business magazine and can be contacted at dtoto@gie.net.