Liberty Tire Recycling acquires two Florida recyclers

PITTSBURGH—Liberty Tire Recycling has acquired two scrap tire recycling companies in Florida: Empire Tire of Edgewater in Orlando and McGee Tire in Apopka.

Liberty's acquisitions expand the company's footprint in the state into the growing central Florida market. Liberty said it will build on the success of these two companies by bringing its approach to collections, processing and recycling of end-of-life tires.

"These are great companies who have served their clients and employees well. We are thrilled to continue their legacy of excellence," Liberty Tire CEO Thomas Womble said.

"This is a real opportunity for Liberty and Central Florida to leverage our scale and financial position to expand operations, create new jobs, improve collections and recycling efforts, and provide sustainable solutions for end-of-life tires."

Empire Tire of Edgewater is the largest Orlando-area scrap tire collector and McGee Tire is an Orlando-area route collection business, according to Liberty Tire.

Empire Tire & Wheel retail stores will continue to operate under their existing ownership.

"My brother and I worked hard for over 20 years in this business. We'd worked with Liberty in the past and knew them to be good operators, but what really impressed me was their commitment to their employees," Jesse McGee, founder of McGee Tire, said. "They really care about the people like we do."

Liberty Tire said the acquisitions position it to handle additional collections and processing capacity in the rapidly growing Florida market and more efficiently move end-of-life tire materials into higher-value markets.

Liberty Tire said an estimated 1 million scrap tires are generated annually for every million people in the U.S., and the population in Central Florida has been growing at more than 25 percent each decade.

"Adding Empire and McGee to the Liberty team has created a truly world-class operation here in Florida," David Cannon, regional vice president of Liberty, said.

"We are going to be able to keep hundreds of thousands of tires out of Florida landfills each year by finding more opportunities for reuse and recycling, all while optimizing our route collections and customer service."

Liberty Tire is a full-service tire collection, processing and manufacturing company with 54 processing locations throughout the U.S. and western Canada. The company said it has collected more than 1.56 billion tires over the past decade, which are then processed into products for the commercial and retail sectors.