Just over one-hundred years ago in 1917, in Sydney, Australia, Albert G. Sims started a small recycling business. The process of collecting material by bicycle soon graduated to horse and cart, which then gave way to motor vehicles and mechanized equipment. By the late 1930s the company known as Albert G. Sims Limited had metals recycling operations across Australia. By 1948 Albert G. Sims had listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
By the late 1980s, Sims entered the US with the acquisition of LMC Corporation based in San Francisco, and has not looked back since. Further expansion in North America included the Richmond Steel Recycling Joint Venture in 1996, the merger with Hugo Neu in 2005, the formation of the Sims Adams Recycling Joint Venture in 2007, and the merger with Metal Management in 2008.
In the United Kingdom, the Company established itself in 1995 with the formation of Sims Bird Limited, which was followed by the acquisition of McIntyre Metals in 1996, Philips Services in 2000, and Dunn Brothers in 2011.
The full international scope of the business arose with the creation of Sims Recycling Solutions in 2004. Through numerous key acquisitions and investments spanning countries as diverse as the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, the US, India, Austria, Dubai, and South Africa meant SRS achieved true global scale.
Today Sims Metal Management is the worlds leading listed metals and electronics recycler, as well as an emerging player in the Municipal Recycling and Renewable Energy industry.
Recycling over 14 million tonnes of scrap metal per year, operating from over 250 sites spanning five continents, with 46 metals recycling sites in the UK. Globally, the business has over 90 years of experience in metals recycling and lead the way in technology development to achieve higher recycling and recovery rates.
Our focus on optimization and continuous improvement, with internal investments in our operations, functions and people is setting us on a solid path for many years to come.
Please see our 100-year anniversary video for further history.