Fast-growing lighting supplier builds its recycling operations

Joe Kedzierski and John Leferman, finding themselves ensnared in the credit crunch, are looking for growth in places where tight credit doesn't matter.

Recycling, for instance.

Bulb Daddy, the supplier of commercial and industrial lighting supplies owned by Kedzierski and Leferman, is booking orders so quickly that the three-year-old company's working capital is stretched thin.

And manufacturers who a year ago would have extended ample credit to allow the Reno company's sales staff to book ever-larger orders today have pulled in the reins, says Leferman.

"We're almost growing too fast," says Kedzierski, who says Bulb Daddy benefits from the push of property owners to replace old lighting with cost-effective, environmentally friendly new products.

That leads to big orders and big headaches for Leferman, who needs to juggle Bulb Daddy's finances so it can pay manufacturers even while it waits for its own customers to pay up.

The company's founders have financed it entirely from their own resources, and Leferman says offers for working capital from loans from banks are priced so high that there would be no profit left for Bulb Daddy.

But the same orders for new bulbs and lighting ballasts that stretch Bulb Daddy's working capital also presents an opportunity, Kedzierski says.

Those old bulbs can't be dumped into the trash, and Bulb Daddy's owners think the company can generate a profit by handling the recycling chore for its own customers and others.

Waste Management doesn't want used bulbs to end up its landfills because they contain mercury that's a hazard to workers and groundwater, says Justin Caporusso, a spokesman for Waste Management.

While Waste Management offers a mail-in recycling program for a fee, Kedzierski and Leferman think they can compete against the waste-handling giant.

Bulb Daddy, like other recyclers, will charge a fee to handle recycled bulbs.

The company just moved into a 13,000-square-foot office and warehouse facility at 1195 Greg St., and it has plenty of space to store light bulbs on their way to recycling facilities.

Then, too, the 11 people who work with the company, whether full- or part-time, have wide contacts among the commercial property owners, retailers and industrial users who are big users of lighting.

Incentives from NV Energy help pay the cost of some conversions to energy-efficiency lighting helping Bulb Daddy generate sales of new lights as well as recycling revenues for old systems.

"We think we're at the right place at the right time," says Kadzierski.