Manny and Sam Asadurian live next to each other in sprawling homes on a hillside in Moorpark. They each have a 1987 Rolls-Royce in their driveway. In front of Manny's home is a swimming pool and behind his home is a pond stocked with catfish. Deer graze freely nearby. Below their homes on the hillside, white fences encircle the prized thoroughbred horses that they race at Santa Anita.
It's all a testimonial to what 40 years of hauling garbage can do for a family's fortune.
The Asadurian brothers took over a one-truck garbage route from their father that was grossing $250 a month. Now, the Asadurians are the rubbish kings of eastern Ventura County, worth untold millions, and control public and private rubbish companies doing nearly $30 million a year in sales.
Little known outside of Moorpark, the Asadurians now plan to make their name known to Wall Street. One of their companies, G.I. Industries in Simi Valley, went public last year, and the family's goal is to boost G.I. to the $100-million sales plateau inside five years.
The patriarch is Samuel Asadurian, 61, a short, gravel-voiced man. He dresses like a gentleman horse rancher in leather boots, slacks, cowboy shirt, gold watch and a horseshoe-shaped diamond pinkie ring the size of a sugar cube.
Vanity License Plate
His brother is Manuel Sr., 56, chairman of G.I. But everybody calls him Manny, which is what's on his Rolls-Royce's vanity license plate.
The brothers have transferred most of the control of their business to their sons: Sam's son is Carl, 35, while Manny's son is Manuel Jr., 31. Both are senior vice presidents.
"The boys want to grow," Sam Asadurian said, "so I figured this is a good vehicle for them to continue growing." A public company, he said, can more easily line up outside financing and use stock to buy other rubbish companies. Having a public company also will enable the younger employees of G.I. to own some stock as well, he said. "Let them be part of it with our sons."
In the fiscal year ended last April, G.I. showed a $397,000 profit on $3.8 million in sales. But it doesn't reflect the scope of the Asadurians' holdings.
In November, G.I. Industries bought two more more privately owned Asadurian trash-collection companies, Conejo Enterprises and American Rubbish, for 1 million shares of stock. It boosted G.I.'s annualized sales to about $15 million to $17 million a year, said Daniel Van Rossen, G.I.'s vice president of administration.
There remain several other rubbish companies in which the Asadurians have interests, which may be blended into G.I. Industries.
Last year, the Asadurians brought in W. Michael Reynolds as G.I.'s president. Reynolds, who separately runs a Burbank brokerage firm, JP Michael, said G.I. plans to buy rubbish companies in California, Arizona and Nevada, and to offer a computerized billing service for small, under-equipped rubbish firms. G.I. is also diversifying: it owns Thrifty Car rental franchises, has an equipment leasing firm and is moving into real-estate development. And Reynolds also hopes to get into alternative energy projects and funding feature television and film productions.
If the Asadurians' goal is to share some of their wealth with employees, they have plenty to spare. Real-estate records show that the Asadurians own 14 pieces of land in Ventura and Los Angeles counties with an assessed value of $2.2 million (the market value would be higher). The Asadurians also are listed as co-owners of several pieces of land in Moorpark, worth another $1 million or so.
Meanwhile, the Asadurians' 67% of G.I. Industries stock--based on a recent over-the-counter price of $7.50 per share--is worth $14 million.
Profit Expected
But the value of all the Asadurian companies figures to be much higher. Van Rossen estimates that G.I. will turn a profit of at least 10 cents per dollar of sales, which is in line with the best-run solid-waste disposal companies in the United States, including the billion-dollar-plus firms of Waste Management and Browning-Ferris Industries.
The total market value of Browning-Ferris and Waste Management's stock is better than twice their companies' annual sales. Applying this formula, the Asadurians control companies--public and private--worth about $60 million.
Neither generation of Asadurians is shy about displaying their wealth. Sam, Manny, Carl and Manny Jr. each drive 1987 Rolls-Royces, and they have a fondness for glitzy jewelry.
There was the unfortunate Saturday night in 1986, for instance, when Manny Jr. met a young woman in a Reno casino and took her to his hotel room. When he woke up at 2 a.m., she was gone--and so was $200,000 worth of his jewelry, according to a police report.
