Stericycle reports revenue decline in 2023

Stericycle Inc., a medical and regulated waste handler and secure destruction services provider, has reported a decrease in revenue last year compared with 2022 and a net loss of more than $21 million in 2023.

The Bannockburn, Illinois-based company’s CEO cites the divestiture of some operations as one reason for the firm’s 1.7 percent decline in revenue in 2023 compared with the previous year.

“Throughout 2023, we made strong progress executing across all of our key business priorities, most notably the enterprise resource planning deployment for our United States Regulated Waste and Compliance Services business, and portfolio optimization, as we completed eight divestitures in the year,” Stericycle President and CEO Cindy J. Miller says.

“Organic revenue [in 2023] and adjusted earnings per share performance came in line with our expectations. We continued to drive efficiency improvements in cost of revenues that helped mitigate headwinds of approximately $50 million in commodity indexed revenues in 2023.”

In an investor presentation accompanying its results, Stericycle indicates it anticipates organic revenue growth of 3 to 5 percent this year.

The company also anticipates maintaining a 13 percent to 17 percent average annual adjusted EBITDA growth rate from 2024 to 2027.

In its most recently completed financial quarter, Stericycle says its medical and specialty waste operations generated nearly $440 million in revenue while its Shred-It branded secure information destruction service generated $212 million in revenue.

The company’s secure destruction operations experienced a year-on-year fourth quarter decline in revenue in both North America (-1.6 percent) and internationally (-9.0 percent). Revenue in its medical and specialty waste business unit in North America in the fourth quarter of 2023 grew by 0.4 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2022.