Iron Mountain raises ITAD guidance on strong growth

Data management heavyweight Iron Mountain cited growth in its asset lifecycle management (ALM) and other services for its record revenue in the third quarter. 

The company reported total Q3 revenue of $1.8 billion, higher by 12.6% on the year. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased by 15.6% on the year, driven by growth in its data center, digitization and ALM businesses.

Q3 ALM revenue reached $169 million, higher by 65% on the year. In the company’s quarterly earnings call, CFO Barry Hytinen cited particularly strong growth in component pricing trends, as well as increasing volumes from enterprise customers, which offer higher margins. 

As such, the company raised its full-year guidance for ALM revenues to $600 million. 

Commodity pricing also provided tailwinds, as memory values continued to rise, Hytinen said. “As you know, that can be very subject to change and really component by component,” he said, noting that hard drives also had increased in value but not as rapidly as memory pricing. 

The ALM segment saw organic growth of 36% in the quarter, along with improving margins. CEO Bill Meaney said the company’s portfolio of growth businesses, including ALM, drove two-thirds of Iron Mountain’s revenue growth in the quarter. 

Meaney added that the company’s ALM business represents a major opportunity for continued growth. “The market is very large and highly fragmented, and we are well positioned to capitalize on growth through expanding business with existing customers, gaining new customers through our cross-selling efforts and strategic acquisitions to expand our capabilities and geographic footprint.”

Among those strategic acquisitions are the September purchase of Australian IT refurbisher ACT Logistics, and of Premier Surplus near Atlanta and Wisetek earlier this year. 

Meaney added that “a leading financial services company with more than 200,000 employees globally has selected Iron Mountain as its ALM partner for the first time,” and Germany-headquartered global firm had hired engaged Iron Mountain for a decommissioning and remarketing program across six data centers in the US, Europe and Asia.

This type of performance “will remain an important tailwind going forward as the growth portfolio further increases as a percentage of total revenue, expected to be nearly 30% of total revenue exiting 2025,” he said.