Key Takeaways
- • Kinderhook Industries acquired Pete & Pete Container Service and Boyas Recycling & Excavating, a vertically integrated construction and demolition waste operator in Northeast Ohio, marking the sixth platform investment from its $2.75 billion Fund 8.
- • Pete & Pete controls the full C&D waste chain—collection, processing, and disposal—through owned assets including a material recovery facility and permitted landfill with substantial remaining capacity, enabling margin capture at each stage and insulating the company from third-party tipping fees.
- • The U.S. C&D waste management market is valued at approximately $8.8 billion (2025) with projected annual growth of nearly 6% through 2030, driven by infrastructure spending, commercial redevelopment, and stricter landfill-diversion regulations favoring operators with owned disposal assets.
- • Founder CEO Pete Ristagno Jr. and the management team remain in place post-transaction, positioning the business for buy-and-build expansion across a fragmented regional market; Kinderhook typically pursues transactions between $25 million and $150 million.
- • Pete & Pete's vertically integrated model and rare internalized disposal capability provide a defensible competitive position in a dense, competitive Cleveland market where the company operates an extensive fleet of trucks and containers serving construction, commercial, and municipal customers.
Summary
Kinderhook Industries has acquired Pete & Pete Container Service and Boyas Recycling & Excavating, a Northeast Ohio–based construction and demolition waste platform, in a transaction that represents the firm's sixth platform investment from its $2.75 billion Fund 8. Founded in 1997 and built by the Ristagno family over nearly three decades, Pete & Pete is headquartered in Garfield Heights, approximately 10 miles southeast of Cleveland, and operates under the leadership of CEO Pete Ristagno Jr., who will remain in place to run day-to-day operations alongside his management team.
The acquisition is strategically compelling given Pete & Pete's rare vertically integrated operating model. The company controls collection through its large fleet of roll-off and front-load containers deployed across construction, commercial, and municipal jobsites in the Cleveland market; processing through its material recovery facility operated under sister company Boyas Recycling & Excavating; and disposal through its own permitted C&D landfill with substantial remaining airspace. This end-to-end control enables the company to capture margin at multiple points—sorting marketable commodities at the MRF, recovering concrete and other recyclables, and burying residual volume at its own permitted facility—while shielding the business from third-party tipping fees that compress margins for regional competitors. The company's efficient pickup routes across dense Greater Cleveland leverage its extensive container and truck fleet to maximize collection density in a market that generates substantial construction and demolition debris volumes.
The market fundamentals support the investment thesis. The U.S. C&D waste management market reached approximately $8.8 billion in 2025, with Grand View Research projecting annual growth near 6% through 2030; alternative estimates value the market at roughly $9 billion in 2023, expanding to nearly $19 billion by 2033. Construction and demolition debris represents the largest single component of the U.S. waste stream at more than 600 million tons annually—roughly 25% of all waste—with concrete and asphalt comprising the bulk and exhibiting recovery rates exceeding 90%. Demand is directly tied to construction and demolition activity, infrastructure spending, and residential turnover, creating a durable demand profile. Increasingly stringent landfill-diversion regulations and limited permitted disposal capacity structurally favor operators controlling their own disposal assets, providing Pete & Pete a defensible competitive moat.
Kinderhook Industries, headquartered in New York, invests in control positions in middle-market companies with defensible niche positioning across environmental and equipment services, healthcare services, and industrials and manufacturing, typically pursuing transactions valued between $25 million and $150 million. The firm has raised over $11 billion of committed capital and completed 500-plus investments and follow-on acquisitions since inception. Kinderhook's strategy aligns with a classic buy-and-build playbook: establishing a defensible regional platform with owned disposal assets, retaining founder management to preserve operational continuity and culture, and pursuing tuck-in acquisitions within the fragmented surrounding market. This is Pete & Pete's first institutional capital partner, with Comerica Securities serving as financial advisor to the company.
The acquisition is strategically compelling given Pete & Pete's rare vertically integrated operating model. The company controls collection through its large fleet of roll-off and front-load containers deployed across construction, commercial, and municipal jobsites in the Cleveland market; processing through its material recovery facility operated under sister company Boyas Recycling & Excavating; and disposal through its own permitted C&D landfill with substantial remaining airspace. This end-to-end control enables the company to capture margin at multiple points—sorting marketable commodities at the MRF, recovering concrete and other recyclables, and burying residual volume at its own permitted facility—while shielding the business from third-party tipping fees that compress margins for regional competitors. The company's efficient pickup routes across dense Greater Cleveland leverage its extensive container and truck fleet to maximize collection density in a market that generates substantial construction and demolition debris volumes.
The market fundamentals support the investment thesis. The U.S. C&D waste management market reached approximately $8.8 billion in 2025, with Grand View Research projecting annual growth near 6% through 2030; alternative estimates value the market at roughly $9 billion in 2023, expanding to nearly $19 billion by 2033. Construction and demolition debris represents the largest single component of the U.S. waste stream at more than 600 million tons annually—roughly 25% of all waste—with concrete and asphalt comprising the bulk and exhibiting recovery rates exceeding 90%. Demand is directly tied to construction and demolition activity, infrastructure spending, and residential turnover, creating a durable demand profile. Increasingly stringent landfill-diversion regulations and limited permitted disposal capacity structurally favor operators controlling their own disposal assets, providing Pete & Pete a defensible competitive moat.
Kinderhook Industries, headquartered in New York, invests in control positions in middle-market companies with defensible niche positioning across environmental and equipment services, healthcare services, and industrials and manufacturing, typically pursuing transactions valued between $25 million and $150 million. The firm has raised over $11 billion of committed capital and completed 500-plus investments and follow-on acquisitions since inception. Kinderhook's strategy aligns with a classic buy-and-build playbook: establishing a defensible regional platform with owned disposal assets, retaining founder management to preserve operational continuity and culture, and pursuing tuck-in acquisitions within the fragmented surrounding market. This is Pete & Pete's first institutional capital partner, with Comerica Securities serving as financial advisor to the company.
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