Raleigh, North Carolina, April 18, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The U.S. Small Business Administration represents more than 33 million small businesses and innovative startups. Dylan Gehlken Named North Carolina's 2024 Small Business Person of the Year. Gehlken founded and leads his Raleigh-based Greasecycle, an environmentally friendly company that converts food waste into renewable energy resources.
The 38-year-old Durham resident is one of a handful of people currently nominated for America's Best Small Business Award, and will attend a special awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., this spring. Mr. Gehrken's selection as the nationally recognized SBA Person of the Year is a lesson in perseverance, vision and building his sustainable all-in-one solutions to commercial needs.
“North Carolina is full of amazing people doing truly impactful work, and I am humbled and honored to represent our state as this year’s Small Business Person of the Year,” Gehrken said. . “I learned about sustainability decades ago at a pivotal time in my life, and that lesson resonated with me. When it came time to start my own business, I wanted to repurpose things that people had overlooked. I wanted to find a way to turn it into something useful.Grease Cycle was born to give our planet sustainability.”
Gehlken founded Greasecycle in 2009 with a windowless van, a blank contract drawn up on his college laptop, and a desire to own all the neighborhood grease. In 2012, GreaseCycle built his own processing facility in Raleigh, then opened his second location in the Charlotte area in 2022, allowing him to recycle more end-of-life waste than anywhere else in the industry. Ta. Within these facilities, solids are composted, extracted brown and yellow greases are converted into feedstock for the biodiesel industry and sustainable aviation fuels, and wastewater is treated to clean water and discharged into local water systems. will be done. Today, Greasecycle employs his nearly 75 people and serves approximately 5,000 customers throughout most of the Southeast.
Elaine Fairman, Executive Director of Business Expansion Funding Corporation, said: “We have the good fortune to work with amazing small businesses every day, and we enjoy every minute of it.” Grease Cycle's expansion into the Charlotte market is a great project and we are thrilled to be a part of it and Dylan's commitment to providing jobs for the community. His efforts to protect our environment are outstanding.”
With a customer base that includes restaurants, commercial kitchens, and food manufacturers, Grease Cycle provides grease trap cleaning, waste disposal, cooking oil recycling, and preventive care. From 2020 to 2024, the company grew from 28 employees to 70 employees based in the territories of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Sales increased from $6.5 million in 2020 to more than $22 million in 2022. Grease Cycle has been named to Inc Magazine's list of America's 5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies five times. The company offers paid internships for college students who are mentored by the sales team. They also financially support research at the University of the Environment. The company offers a “Grease Cycle MBA” program for middle managers, where they meet twice a month as a cohort for six months with Duke MBAs to learn about time management, employee management, feedback best practices, and business principles. and training the basics of performance tracking.
About the grease cycle
Founded in 2009, Greasecycle is an all-in-one grease management resource for restaurants that collects used cooking oil, automatically schedules grease trap pumping, provides line jetting maintenance, and provides quarterly oil waste to customers. We are distributing redemption payments per. As a full-service provider, Greasecycle transports the materials to his two facilities in North Carolina, where 100% of the grease, water and food particles are recycled into compost or biofuel feedstock. Good for customers and the environment.
View source version on businesswire.com. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240418748159/en/
contact address
Jill Gehrken, Grease Cycle
jill@grease-cycle.com
919-817-6792
