Tomra tries to break reverse vending reliance

Nov 09, 2005 | 02:31 PM | Paul Schaffer

Norway's Tomra Systems ASA, best known for its reverse vending machines that issue deposit-fee coupons to beverage customers returning aluminum cans, wants a broader recycling and waste management role, its executives said.

Tomra North America had revenue of almost $100 million in the nine months through September, about 43 percent of which came from its reverse vending machine activities, the North American unit's president and chief executive officer, Greg Knoll, said earlier this week at a forum for securities analysts in Oslo, Norway.

Its reverse vending role is most substantial in California, while Michigan, where it is allied with Schupan & Sons Inc., Kalamazoo, and New York are the key sites for the company's materials handling business, which accounted for about 57 percent of the company's revenue from January through September.....