Oct 28, 2026 earnings call — Leadership change and record quarterly results
Raised 2026 adjusted EBITDA midpoint to $1.46 billion, $80 million above prior midpoint.
Revenue $1.9B (est $1.7B) · EPS $3.93 (est $3.26)
Key quotes
"On January 1, I will become the sole CEO of the company. Mike will be retiring from his Co-CEO role and Board seat at year-end."
"We gathered 62 million gallons of waste oil in the quarter, while maintaining a healthy charge-for-oil rate even with base oil pricing at record levels."
Analyst Q&A 12
Hub locations and benefits
Q (Noah Kaye · Oppenheimer): He asked about results and ROI from prior hub projects and how many more hub opportunities exist.
A: Management said hubs let multiple business units share people, equipment and customers. They run distribution centers, maintenance, and equipment rental from hubs, and have about 12 hub areas in North America. The L.A. hub consolidates six branches and five business units to allow much bigger scale.
"And outside of those hubs, we obviously have a lot of spokes that can feed materials into them." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
SDA unit timing
Q (Bryan Burgmeier): He asked whether moving spending on SDA changes the start-up and if they might pull forward spending for base oils.
A: Management said the spending timing changed but the start-up timing did not. They still expect the SDA unit to come online at the tail end of 2028 and continue toward making the 600 Neutral product.
"Yes, Bryan, we continue to look to bring that unit online at the tail end of 2028." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
Drivers of ES beat and PFAS scale
Q (Patrick Brown · Raymond James): He asked for puts and takes behind the $80 million EBITDA movement and about the large ER work and PFAS revenue and NDAA impacts.
A: Management said ES beat estimates by about $30 million, with over half from one large ER that largely completed in Q3. They described the ER: a major L.A. warehouse fire with a rapid response that generated $120 million of revenue, and they said PFAS revenues grew about 30% to north of $150 million to $200 million, with about one-third from water treatment.
"And our teams and have to applaud our emergency response teams because we were on the scene within 24 hours, and it was a massive project." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
Tech Services growth detail
Q (Adam Bubes · Goldman Sachs): He asked whether Q3 Tech Services growth was organic or M&A driven and why growth looked modest.
A: Management said Q3 ES grew almost 17%, and almost 16% of that was organic, so very little inorganic help. For Tech Services specifically, they said Q3 compared to a strong Q3 last year, making a tough comp, but deferred revenue and volumes remain solid.
"Just in terms of organic growth in Q3 in ES, we had overall growth of almost 17%, almost 16% of that was organic." — Eric Dugas (CFO)
End markets and data centers
Q (Trevor Romeo · William Blair): He asked which end markets are driving volume growth, whether chemicals is ramping, and for early commercial updates on data center work.
A: Management said chemicals showed a slight ramp, but most volume growth came from semiconductors, manufacturing, retail and pharmaceuticals. On data centers, they said they have about 12 active projects in the pipeline and are adding lines of business such as coolant change-out and recycling in partnership with cooling providers.
"When we look at our pipeline right now, there's about 12 active projects that we see us getting nestled with a footprint in." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
PFAS revenue mix and municipal exposure
Q (James Schumm · TD Cowen): He asked what portion of PFAS revenue is water filtration and municipal exposure.
A: Management said about 1/3 of PFAS revenue is water treatment, covering industrial and municipal clients. They said they are building treatment systems for municipal water companies and see municipal opportunities growing in the pipeline.
"Right now, Trevor, our -- when you look at our revenue base, breaking it down again, about 1/3 of that revenue is around water treatment, industrial and municipal water treatment." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
Timing and cadence of large 10-year contract
Q (Jerry Revich · Wells Fargo): He asked when revenue from the announced 10-year contract would start and how the cadence ramps with facilities coming online.
A: Management said they expected the contract to kick in in the fourth quarter and planned about $10 million of revenue in Q4. They said work has started, the first loads arrived, and they still think $25 million to $35 million in 2027 range as previously discussed.
"What we said last quarter was we expected this contract to kind of kick in, in the fourth quarter." — Eric Dugas (CFO)
Incinerator utilization details
Q (David Manthey · Baird): He asked whether pull-forward of an incinerator turnaround was due to volumes or unit performance and how it affected utilization.
A: Management said the turnaround timing was driven by unit performance and feed blends, not by lower volumes, and that pulling a few weeks of turnaround across quarters is normal. They cautioned against over-interpreting quarter-to-quarter utilization moves and said annual context matters.
"So it's a little bit of a difference of comparing turnaround timing from Q3 last year to Q3 of this year." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
Onshoring and large customer wins
Q (Lawrence Solow · CJS): He asked whether the large multiyear contract is replicable and how many similar opportunities exist.
A: Management said they see continued demand for being a single service provider for large organizations and a number of similar opportunities are in the works. They said embedding their systems and people drives follow-on work and reshoring fuels more opportunities.
"We're excited about that opportunity, and we have a number of them in the works." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
Industrial Services organic growth
Q (James Ricchiuti · Needham & Company): He asked what the organic growth rate has been in Industrial Services and whether it might improve in 2027.
A: Management said Industrial Services shows very little inorganic contribution. Revenues recently have been flattish and margins modestly down year-on-year, but they see potential upside if larger scope turnarounds return and from data center and specialty work.
"In terms of organic versus inorganic growth, there's very little, if no kind of inorganic growth in industrial." — Eric Dugas (CFO)
Why turnaround was accelerated and charge-for-oil update
Q (Shlomo Rosenbaum · Stifel): He asked why a scheduled incinerator outage was accelerated into September and for details on charge-for-oil trend and level.
A: Management said the outage timing was based on unit performance and blend effects, not lower volumes, and such pull-forwards are normal. On charge-for-oil, they declined to give a public number but said they ended Q3 in a charge-for-oil position even with high base oil prices and are working to hold that position.
"We continue to have robust volumes throughout the network." — Eric Gerstenberg (CEO)
ES margins and free cash flow conversion
Q (Nandita Nayar · BofA): She asked how to think about ES margins excluding the $120 million ER event, the path to 30% margins, and whether 2026 is a peak CapEx year for faster free cash flow conversion.
A: Management said ER jobs helped Q3 margins but they expect 25 to 50 basis points of annual margin expansion and view 30% as an aspirational goal without an exact date. On free cash flow, they said trailing 12-month conversion is in the mid 45% range, and the current guide of 43% is a reasonable, conservative number while they aim to grow conversion over time.
"When I look at our trailing 12-month free cash flow conversion, just as we sit here in September, it is in that mid, I believe, 45%, 46%." — Eric Dugas (CFO)