welcome to a scrap life a podcast solely focus on the hustlers Grinders operators and business owners who live and breathe the scrap metal industry every day we are the original recyclers no suits required just guts and hard work here is your host Brett eart all right guys another uh scrap live podcast I’m sitting here with a guy that I met not that long ago it’s kind of crazy once you kind of think you know a lot of people in the industry and somebody introduces you to somebody else and you’re like oh okay I didn’t I didn’t know a lot about you but now uh over the last probably couple weeks since we kind of had an introductory phone call um somebody that was you one of your guys was down at scrap Expo was that I don’t know if that was you but some some of your team was down there and somebody introduced introduced us via Jake bronstein so I’m sitting here today with h Matt Freeze from Milbridge medals out of Cincinnati Ohio if I remember right and uh man thanks for taking the time and coming in and sitting down

shooting the with me yeah no I appreciate it uh happy to be here so who was all down at scrap Expo Matt scrap Expo I was down there our CFO was down there and then our general manager at the scrapyard was down there so you I believe or Jake would have met with h Chris Hendrick okay what did you guys think of the scrap Expo out of curiosity oh I liked it I thought uh I think that was one of the more beneficial uh conventions we’ve been to you know because like it has a unique uh angle I would say where the other ones are really all about trading and networking uh the scrap Expo was more smaller middle some larger yard owners and uh uh and I really like the equipment piece of it like to be able to go see everything set up look at it in one place I mean we actually purchased some equipment while down there and it’s you know super easy to make a decision because you can look at like you know the three competitors of whatever particular item and walk to each one and be like

all right well this guy over here is offering this exactly why are you better blah blah blah so yeah I thought it was a really efficient uh efficient way to get through it and and I got and honestly I think the uh panel uh the speakers the panel of speakers uh was certainly one of the best lineups I’ve seen maybe ever yeah I thought I mean kudos to Jim Keef man and that gie media and and their staff I mean you can tell they put a lot of you know a lot of effort into making the the panel good they put a lot of effort into making the equipment you know set up you know good and and easy to kind of see and operate and you know there was a safety component that you felt comfortable walking around and being able to see and oper and do and so I think there was I mean I was super impressed I mean this year I went to the first one last year and and the difference and you know just the additional people there the addition in in boost space and vendors um equipment

manufacturers Distributors there if he has the ability to keep that thing going and I haven’t spoke to him yet but I’m curious what his you know vision of that event looks like moving forward um I just think it’s it hits a sweet spot it hits a certain demographic really well and that demographic being your small to mediumsized you know operators and I think because probably I have a soft spot for those PE individuals because that’s me right it’s kind of like I being around and and looking at the equipment and talking to people that are their hands are dirty you know running their you know they’re running their business and that’s like a that’s just something I I have a super strong you know appreciation for so yeah I agree and like yeah and I mean just being able to have conversations with those smaller and midlevel guys about you know like one of the simple things I brought away from it I was talking to people like what like what is like some of the stupid little things you do to drive like retail traffic and you know some people are like well

set up like you know a simple little card table and get a big thing of coffee and you know styrofoam cups in the scale house and you know it’s it’s super cheap it’s not really much of an expense and it’s something like you just do and everyone appreciates it so we implemented that like yeah all our customers and employees love it and yeah it didn’t really cost any money and it’s like one of those things you’re like oh well duh probably should have did that yeah it’s all little things like that that I kind of like to uh to hear about from other people well I always say like I I don’t I don’t invent anything right I just travel around I look at what people are doing or or I get on the internet and I just Google and I because I’m just a junkie that way and so I’ll just start looking at how other people are doing things and then is that something I can Implement is that something I can take like a form of it and Implement into my business I mean there’s just so much you know it’s

a wealth of information out there if you’re willing to search for and you’re willing to kind of open your mind and say hey how could I fit this in and use it to my you know my advantage and and i’ I’ve really found that as I’ve traveled around um you know I’ve visited a lot of of scrapyards over the years you know I’ve kind of made a mission of mine um next year to get to one in every state so we’re going to see if I can get that done but the biggest thing like I get so much value out of it because I get to like see what people people are doing and and and everybody’s doing it different like that’s what’s awesome like everybody has their own twist to the formula like everybody has their own Coca-Cola recipe and there’s none that are the same it’s just what is it works for you in your geography with your people with your equipment with your Capital availability and then just try it’s like just one big cake mixed up and you’re trying to bake your own yeah no I totally agree plus

uh you know scrap yards always have have this stigma of like super top secretive like mindsets you know no one’s all to know what you’re paying what you’re doing who your customers but it’s kind of funny in that type of environment anyone you meet with and talk to including myself it’s like more than happy to share you know it’s like I feel like everyone’s like kind of there to like help each other out a little bit like yeah you’re not really there to compete you know you’re there to like you know who your competitors are like correct like I know who I’m competing against every day and it’s really in the whole grand scheme of things it’s like three people right or whatever like it’s not it’s not that many it’s usually one you most of them I try and keep a good enough relationship with that it’s not uh we’re not trying to cut each other’s necks you know um but it’s still we’re still competing we still want the same business we still are trying to drive growth in our businesses but you know i’ I’ve come to realize over the years

your willingness and your ability just to show people how how you’re doing things and talk them through it and help them may not you may not see the benefit today but a year from now two five like it’s going to come Karma’s Karma’s real right it it comes around and it doesn’t you don’t know when it’s going to show its face you just hope that you you’re on the right side of it because you’ve done right by people you know yeah it’s coming good or bad I guess yeah he wanted to be good so I was telling you earlier one of my reasons why I do this podcast is I love talking to people that are living you know a similar life to me in the fact that they’re in the same industry and we all got it came came about in a different way but I love giving people the opportunity to tell their story and then kind of diving into it and saying you know you know what is how’d you get here what’s going on what’s coming down the road so I thought you had it you know we when we

met you know a couple weeks ago you had as unique of a story as I had you kind of reverse engineered a little bit into the business little bit I’m sure you’re not the first one to do it your way but it’s it’s still somewhat unique in the fact that most people kind of start off with a more traditional yard and then work into the brokerage side so I wanted to kind of say hey let’s talk let’s talk about it man give me the give me the cliffnotes version of how you got to uh how you found your way into this business uh well I probably started like most people who you know don’t have like you know multi-generational businesses where um kind of fell into it a uh you know like third cousin of my wife have been in the business for you know many generations and they have that same you know typical story where great-grandfather migrated here you know to the east coast he was recycling rags and picking up metal with a little push cart and all that and then yeah you know fast forward a 100 years

they’ve got this massive monstrous thriving business and um anyway I was out of college and they were opening a retail scrapyard and I knew nothing about scrap all I knew about scrap metal was like oh like you know that industry where you know people steal your converters like that that’s you know just like your the typical like what a lot of people think of when they think about SC yeah like like no one really thinks about like the vastness of the industry and how massive it is but um anyway I didn’t have anything to do and they’re like you should come on board and check out uh you know this retail yard see if you like it and I was like yeah why not I’m not doing anything yeah so you know went in there and opened it and it was uh you know I I like instantaneously love loved it because it was kind of like it’s kind of like the wild west of businesses like I mean you know you can anyone who comes in you’re shooting the with um you know it’s it’s every customer from you know Peddlers up to

you know really well buttoned up manufacturers and on the retail side is you know really learn I think um just all the little ins and outs of the uh retail business so like you know starting out sweeping floors and unloading trucks and driving forklifts you know I love that aspect of like the physicality of the industry you gotta Kind of Love A Little Bit of dirt right in Greece like there has to be a a component of you that as a kid you were the kid in the sandbox with the dump truck and the and you like to play in the backyard or you like to to be outside or somewhat in the in the in the grind you know yeah and it’s not you know it’s not a business that’s like you know making a widget and you’re just repeating the same process over and over it’s like it’s so true in the sense that like every transaction is unique I mean it really is nothing comes in perfectly which is funny I’ll get into this later when I got into sales the big disconnect between sales and operations but um but yeah

no so like you know processing and we were slow in the beginning so like you know I’m taking like grass valves and a little alligator here and like breaking them down and cleaning it like you know you’re looking at the difference between red and yellow uh you know die cast and cast and you know you’re touching and feeling everything boxing it you know getting it ready for outbound sales and all that uh running the scale and then you know just did that for a couple years and you know I was really ready to step up to the uh you know to the big leagues in the commercial yard yeah and uh at the time there were some older uh scrap buyers the two guys who were working there for you know decades were approaching retirement and I kind of noticed how old were you at this time uh I started getting trained by them I was probably about 30 okay um no no no I was about 25 sorry when I started getting trained by them I’d say I was 27 actually okay so that’s when you know talked to the owner and I

was like I really want like you know I like to talk to people I’d love to just get out there and see if I can do any good you know bringing in material to the yard and so rode around with those guys which was a hilarious experience in itself and you know I won’t get into the millions of stories but I’ll tell I will tell you one one account we uh we went into he’s like hey I’m gonna stop by here I call on this guy I’ve called on him once a week for the last seven years and I was like Jesus you literally walk in there once a week for seven so we go in there and uh I mean you know we walk in this guy’s pretty elderly at the time so he’s really slow moving or whatever we walk in I see this guy literally like get down underneath the desk and like and he’s like hey is uh is Evan here and then she’s like no Evan’s gone or whatever and I was sitting there like I was like what the and so like we ended up leaving I didn’t

have the heart to tell him anyway long story short when I was on my own I pulled back in there and I was like can you tell Evan I will not stop by once a week for the last seven years that he got out from under his desk he’s like okay sit down we’ll talk I haded up long stories like picking up the account but yeah we had like fck laughs about that but um not to get off track you know just meeting with all the different manufacturers but how how much really quick just because I have a I mean how much did those old guys teach you though I mean oh yeah it’s tremend mendous amount I mean and so I have a similar experience like when I when I graduated college I came I came back home to work and I I did everything I mean we did a big demo job right out the gate and then I did a uh um uh I ran the scale R the office and then I kind of got a year into that and I was like man I’m GNA get out on the

road and we had a guy his name is Greg Brown and Greg Brown was from the glass manufacturing industry years and years ago super smart guy but he was an older guy he had retired from the glass industry and my dad had hired him so he had already been retired so he was like probably at that time like early 60s and but he had like been working for my dad while I was while I was in uh College he was there on the commercial on the buy side he was just a talker man that guy talk to you about anything all day long and uh he pretty much helped me cut my teeth like as a buyer like that’s what he kind of showed me the ropes to spend a lot of time with that old man and he taught me a lot you know I mean here I grew up in the business like I grew up around this my whole life and he still taught me a just a gigantic amount of just how to talk to people how to you know how to manage the account how to you know smooth

people and so my hat goes off to to that guy so when you started saying telling me that story I just it kind of reminded me of how I how I did the same thing yeah yeah yeah no so that was invaluable riding around with those guys for you know six eight months something like that and then uh yeah hit the ground running and I was like you know when I got on the commercial side that’s where you really see the uh you know the vastness I was talking about earlier like the the tangible scrap that you’re selling so you know if a company’s doing a couple hundred million in sales like that translates to an obscene amount of scrap so just watching like you know grapples like stuffing like you know rail cars and trailers like I could stare at that all day long so versus individual valves of brass versus like yeah a bag of cans you know yeah it takes all kinds to make our world go around so like chewing the uh cheing the street walker girls it takes the big guys the big accounts all the way down to

the individual you know um yeah grass so yeah so I like I just I went like I was just like I did you know I went elephant hunting is what I called it and so like I I wanted the biggest accounts on the planet so I mean I just basically kind of adopted the Marshall Rosen technique was who the old guy who taught me what I know and like I was very polite and courteous but I was like you know I showed my face like consistently for years at a lot of these places and then eventually somebody’s going to drop the ball and it’s like well this guy’s got to be reliable he won’t stop knocking on my door So eventually you know you get in you get conversations and you know anyway long story I did have success on you know on this Mill bind side scrap bind side so um did that for like eight years um you for that same company that you started with right yeah I did I did go over to a nonf feris place for a year um but that was you know that felt more like

kind of the retail style operation which you know I was just more on that like you know I landed I remember when I landed my first like tier one OEM um it was a 247 operation I mean for the first two or three weeks like I would sleep in my car at that parking lot just to make sure because like if the boxes fill up and you don’t switch them the whole press line shut down I mean it’s crazy so like in the beginning I’m sitting there I’m just walking for like you know to like 4 5 o’ in the morning like making sure we’re switching everything out right and everything so I think you know I think I had I I I had good success because I truly did care about like you know taking care of our customers and what on a little side note what one thing people kind of forget about those big accounts like those big customers like it’s one thing to chase them I always think it’s like a it’s like hunting big game right like you let’s say you get your shot and you take him down

it’s now the real work begins right it’s not the the Chase and the Hunt is like to be honest like that’s kind of the fun part like in my opinion but the the dressing the animal right like putting that getting that thing skin and putting it cre making it into a meal like that you can eat is there’s a whole there’s a whole host of steps and a whole host of capital investment that goes along with that too that people kind of forget like the boxes the the TR the trailers the drivers the commitment to the service the 247 operation I mean you want to really go through it on those larger accounts I mean that’s not for everybody you know not everybody it’s a very select few people that that can actually service those effectively and efficiently yeah it was a good learning experience to do that with uh a bigger company at first CU I mean again it wasn’t easy even when you’re used to handling accounts like that so because like everyone’s different and like when you’re handling an account of like those sizes um you know no one’s calling you

for switch outs you know what was your strategy for I mean what did you implement that you feel that you could share that kind of enabled you to service those and keep those accounts once you’re actually able to to take him down I would say I mean for me I just I just remain highly involved for the first I would say six months on the operation side you know because you’re the one setting up the account you’re talking to everyone you’re doing all the plant tours you’re meeting with the plant managers all the way down to you know whoever’s managing the scrap Bays um you know none of your truck drivers have gone through that like long sometime five year process you know sometimes sometimes a lot quicker sometimes not and uh yeah communicating that with the operations team and the drivers is like you know that’s Paramount and then I think being present like through that process is also Paramount because inevitably there’s going to be some growing pains and some issues transitioning those accounts but yeah you know if you’re there and in good communication with both sides of you know the

servicing of it I think uh I you know it usually will run a lot smoother you mentioned that in uh the notes we were talking about you’re just your differentiator as a company is your basically your burning desire to take care of the customer right and I think that that’s kind of transitioned to your to your team and whether that comes from you or some other leaders within your team that it’s that’s that can’t be fake you know you can fake it for a month but can you fake it for you can’t fake it for three years right and I think you you mentioned that and I think that’s that that to me is a big part of it you kind of alluded to it there towards the end that that is kind of what you’re one of your big differentiators right uh yeah yeah totally I think like you know like I genuinely care about these people you end up dealing with someone so much I mean you know you have no choice but to learn a lot about each other you eventually like you know you have a connection you know more

on a personal level than just on a business level and you know you don’t like for me like yeah I don’t want to see I don’t want anything to go wrong but like inevitably like most businesses especially in scrap you know there’s there’s going to be things that come up and and different deals and stuff like that we’ve got several uh customers numerous times we’ve done things we don’t make a dime but it really helps them out you know yeah and and and we’re okay doing that I think if you communicate with your customer too and I want the reason I want to bring this sub just the biggest one of the other reasons I like do this podcast is to hopefully give somebody some value as they listen to it um to take back to their business but I think if you communicate with your customer openly out the gate and you say hey there it’s not going to be perfect there’s going to be some things go wrong what I need you to do is keep me in the loop and I need you to help me identify those early and then

let me work through them with you because those that’s how we’re going to be good a year from now right and that’s how we’re GNA be able to beat anybody on the service end is if you allow me to work through the mistakes as long as you know I’m not here to screw you I’m not taking weight I’m going to pay you the price I quoted you but there’s going to be some some miscommunication there’s going to be this and if we treat those like an opportunity to get better versus like us not doing our job or vice versa now if it happens over and over again then we a problem right but if it’s a Nuance if it’s a certain if if it’s a new customer a new relationship allow me the bandwidth to make it right and allow me the bandwidth my team to learn and I promise you it’s like it’s like a marriage like that first year you’re just kind of learn how to fight like to where you can kind of agree to disagree but once you kind of get over that hump all of a sudden it becomes

a lot easier to have tough conversations because you know both of you are in it for the right reason and I I think that’s what I’ve had a lot of success with you know on the customer side it’s like hey I’m not perfect I’m going to make a mistake I just need to know about it so I can we can work through it together and you’ll know you’ll realize I’m I’m really here for both sides to win sure well yeah and I mean I I think remaining like you know extremely visible in the transition process because you know a lot of times you know by the time an issue makes its way to upper management like a lot of damage has been done I would say so like you know dealing with all levels through the uh you know the you know of employees through that different company is is important for me so you know like if if we land a big account I don’t just communicate with like the purchasing agent you know or you know the owner or the CFO or whoever like I try to get to know all of

them and then I try to you know really get to know everyone below that because like those are the guys if like if something’s happening they catch it first and if they call you instead of someone else you know by the time you hear it it could be three days later could even be two hours later but you know like time is pretty critical in a lot of scenarios so yeah I think so let’s kind of so you you you’re you’re handling buying you know purchasing agent for the bigger company right knock down you know elephant hunting if you will um so what’s the next what’s the next step well so after after that I’ll I’ll I’ll fast forward a little bit you know we uh the you know the guy I worked for for many years he passed away and uh their kids took it over and uh you know uh I’ll leave it there but I will say uh you know they were looking to sell to a like larger you know mback group um which is fine but I you know at that time I really wasn’t interested in falling into

like kind of that more corporate structure um you know I didn’t love the ideas of just meetings to have meetings and you know I was kind of a run and Gunner and you know throughout the years I’ve been pretty entrepreneurial myself anyway I’d started some businesses in the past um they didn’t perform that great different Industries and uh you know it spit in the back of my mind forever all all throughout the time working there like God I’d love to you know start my own deal yeah and uh so you know that was like an interesting window of opportunity and you know at that age at that time uh we had had our daughter you know we had a girl young girl at the time um you know it’s it’s getting increasingly difficult to go make some big risky move and lay it all in the line but you know talk to my wife about it and we decided like this would be probably the like one shot you know because as you get older if you have more kids blah blah blah it’s just it’s you know it’s it’s harder to do I

think so yeah yeah we decided to do it and you know one of the biggest issues was uh you know I didn’t have any money so that’s a problem yeah that creates a that creates a problem was your wife working uh she was she was a commercial real estate uh leasing agent okay um and you you had you had to have somebody had to have income right yes yes and that was pre 08 so that that’s industry was pretty good um but anyway we uh you know we decided to go for it I think I had 140 140,000 or something in my 401k so we just emptied it and that was painful because it turned into like 80 or something with yeah taxes and penalties and all that then it was like okay here’s 80 you know my wife’s like all right you get one year if there’s nothing left like we gotta really get back on track here so um well good for her for giving you a shot I will say like that’s a that’s a good woman to uh to say all right you got a year let’s go right

yeah yeah so you know so yeah you know decided to try it it was just me um you know I knew how to buy a scrap I wasn’t sure what to do with it at the time but I was like I know if I could acquire and control the flow of a decent quantity of scrap metal I will find homes for it it inevitably would be profitable so that was kind of my focus so I started just power dialing people and hammering doors and you know within three months my wife’s like oh I’m pregnant again and I was like ah Jesus so you know so really really a lot more motivation Fel on the fire to uh you know to keep keep driving the ball down the field and uh you know the first year was it was uh didn’t make a lot of moneyy but it was uh it was essential because you know when you talk from a sales standpoint about like filling the funnel and all that I mean I probably had you know 50 or 60 active like legitimate opportunities on the table so I can I ask more of

a technical question so when you start that first year and you’re call people and say and you’re you’re trying to basically essentially acquire their scrap right how are you ser in the account when you don’t have trucks and rolloffs and anybody out there with that question there’s the big balancing act right there so um so essentially I had to partner with a with a large yard in town okay and you know once I had you know a good solid handful of accounts I was pretty sure I could I could certainly land um that’s when I had a conversation with somebody and they decided to you know essentially back me as like almost like this hybrid broker at like this you know the unprepared buying level so that was like okay fine we’ll give you the cost for the trucks you can use our equipment obviously everything goes back them so like you know they had to pay a little more than they probably normally did for material but you know matal I was going to bring you material you’re not currently getting I’m obviously not going to go call in your accounts you know

ask buy it back for me so uh so yeah it started working we uh you know grew really quickly and uh you know through the middle of year two you know I was I was like was starting to really explode so and then I was a total disaster because you know I don’t have an accounting background you know I’m not like an admin guy so like keeping up with that side of it was really difficult um and in order to really you know go from there had to figure that piece of it out so uh that’s where a good friend of mine wife moved back from Chicago and her husband was looking for something to do and uh you know we kind of hit it off and uh you know he was intrigued with what I was doing at the time and you know one conversation led to another and then essentially um you know I was like you need to come on board and work with me I can’t pay you anything but like here’s what I can offer I was like if you believe in like the future in me whatever you

know come on board work for free help me stay organized and uh you know you can have equity in the business after that year is kind of how we did it so you know year two was our big growth year and uh I mean we’ve you know starting from zero we’ve really been on a pretty aggressive trajectory since since day one but after that first or second year um he came in and took like I’ll give you a quick little example of like you know how this was a very pivotal point in the starting out of our company he comes into our office like day one he’s like all right where do I get started I was like I don’t know look around see what you you know let’s start there he starts opening drawers he looks at my top drawer and he he finds like four checks and he’s like why aren’t you casting these checks and I’m like oh they’re like1 $200 checks from like some local yards like I’m just waiting till it accumulates and he’s like that is the most insane thing I’ve ever heard in my life so so

like just obviously I needed a lot of uh lot of help in that particular area but yeah he came in we put together you know he built his own database uh in terms of like Logistics tracking scrap management software essentially created himself um did you go looking for because the people component of our business is is is really important did you go looking for somebody that had certain characteristics you didn’t have or did you just look for somebody that you thought be a good person and you just let them kind of fill it in like what was your well this person yeah like obviously if we’re going to be working together in an office we have to connect and get along and have the same share the vision and all that and uh he yeah he just also happened to be you know Finance background um just you know very organized total opposite of me you know really dialed in once to sit down and focus on work where I want to be out and just bouncing around talking to people meeting people um putting together deals like that’s like that’s my passion you

know that was kind of his so it was a perfect marriage in that sense um good and so you know and then after the second year like we really needed someone to take a lot of the actual data tracking and uh uh logistical management off of his plate so he could focus specifically on finances lending um you know typical traditional CFO type stuff so that’s when uh my old babysitter not my old baby my kids’s babysitter she just graduated college and she was awesome and she’s someone who like she had like a team of other babysitters working for her so like she man I like it she was oh totally she was getting babysitting jobs and then setting other babysitters there and I was like that’s insane love that love I was like so are you you know and then she was like she said it was a pain in the ass she wanted to get out of it I was like oh my god well you gotta come work here and then so anyway she came on board uh third and uh she’s been here ever she’s great I mean she keeps all

of this running very smoothly from like a you know truck scrap logistical tracking standpoint and oh you’re you’re getting tired of babysitting real kids like now come babysits adults like let’s go exactly exactly um so at that point throughout this journey you know I’ve had a lot of uh uh relationships with uh like larger demolition companies National guys so with conversations with some of them like you know the biggest most frustrating thing for a lot of these guys was truly like the waist stream management piece of like their projects especially big ones like you know coordinating you know 300 truckloads of CN D waste you know at the right time along with you know getting a great price for your scrap and having that picked up in a timely fashion yeah along with transparent tracking payments on a weekly basis like it’s a huge huge job full-time job for anybody in that industry so anyway we had the bandwidth and didn’t know about CN D but you know I was like dude I’m your guy I know everything about CN D so sometimes you got to like little fake until you make it

but I knew like we kind of had the infrastructure set up anyway for the scrap side of it so we just applied that to other wayist streams and then kind goes back to you had some of the building blocks in place that allowed you to leverage your existing blocks into into basically being able to service the customer a little bit better than maybe a guy that was just buying scrap or only wanted to deal with one component you took your blocks you already had and you said okay I only need one more block to complete the the building I can do that right totally yeah we had we had the bandwidth to do it and you know we I just looked at it as a straight service like a sales piece where I’ll do that we didn’t make one dime off of it because it was just I you know I didn’t really know how to make money off CN anyway not that I really wanted to but it was more of like a service side to get in the door so um that really helped and what that did too was accomplish a

couple different things was you know those guys led us into pretty much every scrap market around the country so we’re able to start developing relationships out of state into a lot of different areas um which inevitably led to managing smaller you know maybe demolition companies who know from these guys what we’re doing for them so you know we really rode that way for a little while and then that you know essentially while handling that they have enough scrap to you know theoretically send it to Mills on certain quantities and and grades of material if they want to prepare it so that that’s really what pushed our like brokerage side so after we started moving a lot of demo weight into Mills um a few in particular we started getting some preferential pricing and with the preferential pricing you know I’d be out there I would just start stopping into like smaller yards or you know anyone who might have smaller quantities of material to move into a Mill and that’s where I’m like you know let me throw you a number and one thing led to another that’s how we acquired like a lot

of uh you know like mill brokerage accounts so that was kind of that deal of it and then um we just kept you know expanding and like you know part of the you know back to the local like scrap poing for manufacturers like you know it’s all like you know like the honeymoon phase when you when you do business with someone is great but like as we’re growing like the amount of equipment and trucks we’re using from these other people it’s like start they like all right like come on now like can you do any of this yourself so like we had to you know and we’ been thinking about that become more independent anyway you can’t be totally relying on one person um and that would even be good for the customer as well so at that point we started taking all of our money and buying rolloffs you know uh really nice new like epack rolloffs and just slowly building our Fleet I think we got about 120 of them now uh just in like this cinnati Northern Kentucky Market Nice um and they’re so goddamn expensive but I mean totally necessary

I you know I I’ve said it before and you know if somebody asked me how if I was to start from scratch if I was to build a recycling company what how would I start and I’d say I just I’d get a few rolloffs and some trucks and I would I wouldn’t even have a yard I just start figuring out how to service existing right but it does that doesn’t come without a a c an Associated cost you better have a good home for them rolloffs and it better be you know because they’re not cheap and that bill comes due and you know you better be able to to move them and you know they’re just s they’re sitting in her yard it’s not a not a great thing but um but yeah so then that you know we one of our big customers we worked with in ciny uh demolition rigging company uh had a whole Fleet of rolloffs so we struck a deal with them to start hauling our rolloffs so that’s how we tackled that without getting into the trucking business right out of the gate along along with the rolloffs

which well sounds like just throughout your process you’ve been able to like find a way right and I think a lot of business is just trying to figure out a way to get something done you’re gonna have there’s a lot of creativity that goes along with not having a lot of money or a lot available you know capital and I touched on this at the scrap Expo as like I’m a big if there’s a will there’s a way guy right and and it feels like that’s probably why you and I probably see eye to eye on a lot of stuff as you dive into your story deeper is like you were just a guy or your team whatever that you’re like there’s a way we can do this like I don’t figure it out right like we’re g to partner we’re GNA team up we’re going to buy a TR roll off we’re g to find some you know trucks like some me have the the power units and we’re just going to like find Opportunities and then find a way to to expand upon those yeah yeah so uh that’s exactly right was

just kind of you know like I think I had the destination in mind and I think I had the drive and you know the the desire to get there but yeah you do have to figure stuff out along the way um and you know like so we were able to essentially move everything you know under more under our umbrella so we weren’t tied to one yard which which helped for which helped our customers tremendously because you know it put us in a position now where we could direct a specific grade with specific time ages through a certain yard and you know different people are better at different things so we could start picking and choosing like you know where’s your bushling go you know where’s your cut grades go where you shipping all your shred to blah blah blah so we’re able to start like really getting creative with that and finding you know the best Avenues there which benefits our customers and us we can pay them a better price and still make money um so yeah that that eventually led us to Landing a uh a really large aluminum producer and so

that required us to make another partnership with a company out of Daton um essentially to Toll House mag and low dump trailers because I mean you know they were doing they do like five 600,000 pounds of you know a 6,000 series every month and uh you know that’s you know an aluminum’s a little easier because you’re not there 247 s days a week but um still very important large Stamper so but that was like a big you know a really big step up for us was to be able to manage that which we’ve done you know knock on wood really well for many years now um and then through that was like you know kind of organic networking where they told their friends out in Tennessee about us um I won’t I won’t use names but a really large Stamper wanted us to come in and evaluate you know how they were doing things and so on and so forth but you know long story short we ended up getting that account through you know about a year and a half of conversations and planning week showing up once a week hey

I’m here uh that was well they were they were out of town so it was once a month but okay um no yeah we we ended up creating a really good program for them um and that required us to you know in that particular area middle of nowhere you know how can we service this plant that does you know 2,000 plus tons of bush a month you know another three 400,000 pounds 6,000 aluminum a month and like roll offs the whole nine so we ended up partnering like so I went out there and just started like looking around ended up meeting this uh husband wife owned uh essentially like you know more of a landfill kind of a deal they’re about three miles away really good people and I was like I have a crazy idea you know well and before I even got there we were just bullshitting kind of hit it off you know they were saying they wanted to get out of the residential trash hauling business and you know here’s the I got a crazy idea what if you service and account for me it’s three miles

away it’s going to require about 10 switch outs a day six days a week um you know so we started that conversation and you know eventually what it led to was you know we poured a uh you know 10,000 squ foot concrete slab we put barrier blocks up made bins and Bays put a kamasu with a MAG up there um uh we bought 25 uh new rolloffs for that particular location and you know then we just started servicing the account they would bring it back there uh we put a wheel loader up there so they would essentially load our dump trailers you know they basically service the account bring it back scale it dump it in the whatever bins the aluminum they have to mag through it constantly to make sure whatever steel Village and all that yeah um and then they’d wheel load dump trailers you know multiple every day going to a mill in Arkansas and then uh the aluminum wherever we go and yeah we’ve been dealing with those guys for like three and a half years now that’s great that was like a that was like one of my

most favorite projects I think we ever set up because it was it was a crazy thought initially but I was like we’ve got to be able to figure this out so creativity man it’s it’s small business it’s Hustlers have create they’re creative they find they find a way to figure out and I that’s one thing I love about our industry as a whole is you’re probably dealing with some of the more creative people around right because I mean there’s some that are college educated some that AR you know some that are you know they come from other Industries and they’re like man this suits me well because I can make deals I can find a way to do stuff that maybe isn’t exactly traditional but I can you know I just I feel like that’s one of the the coolest things about our industry is you look around which is why no scrapyards the same why know nobody it’s just a bunch of you know it’s everybody’s kind of got their own way of skinning and whoever can be the most creative and and I want this to be like on record like I

think it’s whoever can be the most creative also creates themselves the most opportunity in this industry because just because somebody’s doing it one way doesn’t mean that has to be the way you do it it just means that’s how they found it to be successful but there’s another way and and Kudos on you for figuring out you know and being willing to talk to people and ask that crazy question what do you think about you know like well it’s funny because I yeah I I sometimes have to remind the husband sometimes when I first asked him he’s like no who are you anyway get the off my property guys I was like no no no a good thing I’ll make it worth your while but yeah no that was uh yeah that was a good one and like they’re great people they love the work now so it’s like you know so it’s that that’s a great great setup out there so so tell me the transition so you’re basically broker and scrap you you now now you’ve got your own you know your own uh equipment to a certain extent as far as

rolloffs and whatnot now you get your lay down yard so then the big the power move of not yet not yet so that Us One More Level One More Level so uh you know so we’re sending four to six dumps a day into a right and yeah you know you’re looking at how much money you’re spending on that each year I was like why don’t we start a trucking company and at least put one dump trailer there you know and then maybe two and just like you know see if we can figure this out ourselves so you know we had to learn the whole you know none of us like our CFO and I have a you know we never ran a trucking company like so we had to figure all that out which was you know starting from scratch and getting your do number MC numbers Insurance you know then you got to start buying power units which you know yeah we up big time on the first one that’s so what was the up just can you save anybody uh well the up was I was like dude that looks nice and

it’s cheap do not do not buy a truck based on looks I’m gonna tell you that right now okay good it looks good sitting in a yard we’re probably going to scrap it soon but um but I I don’t know I might even keep that thing as a goddamn reminder yes um not to do that again but uh so no that’s how we ended up getting set up from you know from the trucking side which uh which I knew we evitably needed to do inhouse especially locally in like the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky uh Dayton areas um so inevitably we got that set up um a lot of Kinks to be worked out but you know after a year or so I think we had we had it fairly well dialed in um you know we went through a lot of different insurance carriers we got our cost down um we found some good units and then uh you know we just started buying triaxle rolloff trucks um in preparation of the yard which that fell in our lap I mean I’ve always been dying to get one but yeah you know we just had

uh I got a call from one of the yards we do a lot of business with and he’s like he’s like hey you got a couple million bucks you uh I’ve got a scrapyard for you to buy I started laughing I was like well send me their info I want to go look at it so we went and looked at it and it was uh we are probably like the eighth person to look at it they were all kind of Wheeling and dealing for it so like I looked at it and I I got an environmental team out there within 48 hours and made him an offer technically within 72 hours of looking at it and then we closed in like four days or something like awesome and the only way like and and we got it at a discount um and in fact the reason we got the discount was so we were walking through the yard and you know the guy we’re buying it from if he hears this well sorry my friend but uh you know we’re walking through the yard and he’s like well you’re going to have to deal

with this massive Dirt Pile over here and I look at it and this is from 60 years of scraping scrap metal into the dirt and I was like all right well if I’m gonna have to dispose of all that like we’re gonna have to knock something off the price so we ended up you know negotiating whatever the price was and uh long story short we ended up pulling like 145 truckloads out of that dirt pile I think that’s a crazy pile man thought it was crazy and it was so I mean like because you’d stand there and look and it’s just I was like I don’t even think it’s that much dirt I mean did you screen it did you like have a screener how’ you do it yeah we uh we partnered with someone who brought in a screener so screener mag Frane loader just screen and screen magged it and then ultimately just loaded High sides and shipped them out and it was just like months of that two months of that straight every day just I was like this is a beautiful thing so yeah um but that’s how we ended

up like you know the yard was a really fast decision which kind of goes with that whole you know smaller companies like you can do stuff like that so we were able to do like the gut instinct like we needed another yard because we’ve got another place in Northern Kentucky that is a lay down yard um but really wanted the next place to be a scrapyard and that kind of fell in our lap and you know we went we closed on it in January opened it in May of this year and we’re we’re about six months in and we had our first uh uh 200,000 pound day yesterday so that was very exciting that’s awesome man is huge for retail it’s a different animal right in a good way you know I think that’s that’s what I that’s that’s you know I I it’s it’s not a you’re not broker and scrap you’re you’re bringing it through you’re handling every ton every pound you know it’s a different Beast I have a ton of respect for The Brokerage side because it’s something I’ve never really been a part of right like I don’t

buy scrap from scrapyards I just don’t it’s just not my wheelhouse I run physical facilities physical yards collection you know we the trucking company and some other companies that we have but um that’s my sweet spot that’s what I’ve always been comfortable with that’s that’s where you know that’s that’s my that’s what I like but yeah you know so I love talking to people like yourself and I said you had an interesting story where you kind of went reverse all you backed yourself in way into a a yard versus the other way like a lot of guys like myself they’ll have physical yards and see like oh we’ll start a brokerage and we’ll broke because we have customer account increase your pricing on your end which makes sense yeah no I mean honestly if I could have pulled it off and body yard right out of the gate I would have definitely went that route I think yeah um not that I regret any of the ways we’ve gotten to where we are in fact it’s you know like most I mean everything else we do is essentially what makes us money right now

like the yard is like you know we’ve got the vision and the dream for that and I think we’ll get there um but yeah I mean that was like that was the obvious next step in our business now if you talk to uh you know David or CFO I think he’s aged two years in the last six months with the amount of compliance and on that end of it I’m like just get it figured out the doors open in May all right yeah it’s another Beast it’s it is a beast in and of itself but I feel like the physical locations there’s going to be an exodus and we we’ve touched on this already you know via you know previous conversation but there’s going to be an exodus of people in our business that stay third generation second generation whatever that don’t want any part of right I mean there’s there’s a fair amount I mean just in my area I could point out a few yards that are going to go away right yeah and because they and and they’ll probably get turned into some commercial deal or somebody will come in and

buy them and consolidate them out right um and across the nation that that’s happening so I feel like Whoever has the the bandwidth or the i’ say kind of like the stomach to deal with the compliance stuff and all that through a physical location I feel like you’re going to be at an advantage before for too long just because you you can have a spot to bring material too like the advantage you have really is the flow and understanding how float works so you’re you know ability to now put a yard in and then be able to bring float to it sort it separate it redistribute it I think there’s you know it’s it might not be the worst way for somebody to get into our Industries because start with looking for flow then know that there’s going to be people out there that are going to retire and they’re going to need someone to come by that yard so if you got a geography in mind do a little research go see what’s do in the zoo I agree I agree I couldn’t have I don’t think I could have started any way

any other way personally but yeah it was a nice you know it was a good way to get into it and you know once you end up here you know we we’re not even directing like this massive flow of material to the yard like we could turn everything that way if we want wanted to and one day I think we probably will but like you know just through relationships and politics and uh you know getting more efficient up at the yard and you know Logistics and location like yeah I think uh I think that yard is going to probably be the first of many and uh you know I look forward to doing some other interesting deals with uh you know like larger larger manufacturers some of the really tough ones that are hard to service I think are uh you know there’s it’s simplistic in the sense that you don’t have that much competition it’s very hard to do but yeah that is the positive of it you know what ises the what does the future look like for Milbridge uh you know I I think it’s it’s it’s good we’ve uh you

know we we’ve probably grown I would say you know I’m sure now that we’re at a certain level this will not continue but we’ve grown anywhere from like 1 to 300% almost every year for like 10 years so you know now that now that we’ve hit a certain point you know we’re already looking at the numbers and I’m like I need another 200% but that’s not that’s obviously not realistic but um no I mean I I I love the trajectory we’re on and I like you know I like the I like the diversification that we have because you know there’s there’s times where demolition management brokerage is just raging and then there’s other times where you know uh like our commercial account side of it really needs to like shoulder the uh the workload so to speak for the company and then there’s times where they’re all kind of hitting so you know one thing we’re trying to do you know after the yard we’re now we’re actually looking to buy three more rolloffs by drivers and uh and we’re g to really put an emphasis on you know getting that uh yard location

really humming and uh you know we really want to be we try to be really uh proactive versus reactive which is like a you know something I learned a while ago and it really does make sense because like if all of a sudden you land something and you’re just you’re so strapped for time you can barely keep up it’s really hard not to hire the first person that comes along just because you need help you know so I think like you know if you believe in you know your destination I just think you have to put things in place before you get there and then once you get there you’re just ready for it so that’s you know that’s kind of the process we’re at I think reorganizing at this point another thing I’ve kind of just just listening to your story now you guys have not been afraid to invest back in your business right I think oh it all goes back in I think that’s something I want people to to here as well throughout this story and I I operate in a very similar manner you know I I I haven’t

taken a distribution I don’t even know I just I mean I I don’t even I don’t even know distributions exist it would be nice it would be nice there will be a day I tell people this like I’m not saying that this is the forever way right at least at this point there will be a day and you’ll see it and you’ll know cuz let you know um there will be signs yeah there will be signs but I also want it the opposite to be true right there will be signs when I’m not because you’ll see like what we’re doing today right like we’re investing in a whole another business right we’re going to build a monster of a of a tire recycling company I mean we’re in the process of it right now I got another couple that I’m that are in the cooker um that I’m just steaming on right now and and the reality of it is that’s because I’m just Full Speed Ahead if I make a dime I put you know I find a way to put 11 back in right that means I put my dime or I

put 15 I go borrow five more so I can put it back in and build that and and it’s not because I ever want to be the biggest of anything I don’t have any Grand visions of being you know 120 yards or or you know the next king of scrap of I I just I I because I like a little bit of differentiation I just have I have a thing that if I make money and we can put it back to work and we can keep people working and we can get ahead of it we’re playing offense always right like I’ve heard it said I think like Gary V like I want to win 117 to 110 like defense like if it works great you know but I want to win because I rang up the scoreboard you know yeah because I just kept staying on offense and it feels like that’s what you guys are doing you’re just on offense you’re you know you’re playing offense like you said get ahead of it look for people now you may not need three rolloff drivers now maybe you only need two but if you

can get three quality ones right now because trucking’s slow or this industry is slow and you can get them in the team and get them going then when the time is right like you’re going to be positioned equipment wise peoplewise can actually capitalize on the opportunity that’s presented to itself while everybody else is looking for people looking for equipment trying to get figured out you know yeah it’s uh yeah no it’s a good point you make there because yeah throughout every year you know if you really if you do want to grow you want to keep adding to your company like all of the money you’re making like you have to just I mean it’s going right back into it and uh and that’s fine I mean you know we’re I’m not in a position where like yeah I feel the need to whatever I think I’ve seen some of your posts where you’re like here’s my new Ferrari and it’s a hrb Bor or something like that andari red and go very fast yeah we just you know we had to you know we just bought a brand new triaxle for close to

300 and I’m like well there is the Ferrari right there but you know I I enjoy I enjoy this like I enjoy building this infrastructure especially starting from zero and like just seeing how you know what we can really do with this thing over you know give us another 10 years and let’s see what it looks like you know so have you had a hard time um or an easy time getting your team to commit that same philosophy to it as far as you know financially saying yeah like we we believe in the vision we believe in what you’re doing and you know it’s to to be willing to kind of keep going all in with you has it been a mutual decision oh yeah yeah yeah I mean they everyone has been fully on board I like from day one they kind of know my uh you know delusions of grer I would think which is you know the vision on where I’d like to see this company one day and there’s yeah you know you’ve got to take steps to that every single year and yeah everyone’s fully fully on board and

supportive and uh yeah cuz and you know and and I do try to listen because there are like there’s times I’ll come in and I’m like here’s what we’re doing like whoa whoa whoa whoa you gota at least sleep on this you know but yeah um but yeah no I think uh I think there’s you know it’s interesting too I think like you know growing with a startup company too there’s like a lot of energy and excitement around it plus you know when you accomplish some of these things and then and it works it’s very rewarding and I don’t ever want our guys to lose our team I just don’t want them to lose that startup mentality right that’s why I’m always like to the next thing is like when you’re building a startup like I don’t pretend to be smart enough to be a tech startup guy um but any sort of startup like a business from scratch there’s just that hunger that passion to see what you’re you’re capable of you know and and there’s a certain level of confidence that comes along with I think that was my post this morning

I wrote about was you most you know I dreams die of lack of confidence not competence you know and that’s how startups go right that’s how you you know you get to that point is but you have to keep that mentality and that’s like basically staying on offense they think they go hand inand is startups are always on offense they’re like what are they doing over there or what is my customer need need that I can build or do or or fix or be better at than the next guy like right now like all throw all hands on deck like let’s go build that thing let’s be better right we do it for cheaper we’re just trying to get get reps get get practice get you know our foot in the door you know and opportunities and like that type of mentality if you’re able to maintain that for an extended period of time not five years not three years not 10 like you can if you can maintain that startup mentality for 2030 it’s crazy what you can build yeah no I agree crazy what you can build but it’s a it’s a

it’s a I think you have to have that mentality because it is that hard like and there are like if you don’t have that mentality like you know the stress alone would probably Crush you you know because it’s like when you go all in enough times like you better believe in yourself or uh yeah it’s probably not gonna out in the end so I remember when I bought I bought a business in Indiana I bought a pipe reine company and I didn’t know about reine pipe and uh take it till you make it right yeah I’m like I’ll figure it out you know and long story short I my my wife looked at me one day and she’s like like when is enough enough you know and I was like I don’t know like I just I don’t know like I said it’s I love the you know and like I love the kill don’t as much as I but that that hunt that is that that thing and you know trying to get that business going and figured out and started back up and distributing pipe and you know looking you know selling

distrib other Distributors all over the country I’m flying all over and my wife’s like don’t you have enough like just at home that to keep you busy and I’m like yeah you know and here we are with two young kids and I’m can you imagine what this could be yeah I’m like you see like what I see and luckily you know and here my CFOs like golly you know U we got all this pipe on the ground like and and so long story short my competitor called me like hey like we see what you’re doing and uh do you guys want to sit down and have a conversation and my bullheadedness was like nope like I got you right where I want you oh we got him where we want yeah and but my wife in the background and my CFO like hey take that meeting you should probably hear him out yeah yeah yeah so I did and I end up selling it to him We’re Partners now but I end up selling that business to my my competitor um and it was a good deal we made a good deal but a

lot of it was like I sit there and think man if I could five more years at that thing I could have you know but at what expense you know there is there’s there’s a balance in there I see you have a picture of your kids behind you you know the other side there is a balance in there to what we do I mean you’ll find most people in our industry are family driven people that’s why we are what we are but you know I just I can’t help but think you’re you’re you’re cut from a similar cloth uh yeah I think uh it sounds like it you know yeah you know you go you go in and it’s uh you know let’s let’s make sure everything’s okay and then what’s next I mean that’s it’s kind of so I want to end I like I want to end this but I want give me someone that’s been one of the you know real influential person in your in your career over there well two things I I got two questions that’s my first one and I got another one I want to end

on gotcha uh I would say I mean as far as influential and like you know in any aspect really learning about the business too it that would have to be I’d give a shout out to Larry buer on that that one um he he passed away years ago but um yeah just like a legendary scrap dude like old school the guy operated out of a trailer on his property like this old little construction trailer you know smoked cigars the guy bought and sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of scrap a year out of that little trailer and like and I mean could have built a palace if he wanted to you know but like just like totally that style and uh knew everything there is know about scrap and you know got being able to learn from him and see his methods and uh how he conducted himself I would think was definitely the most impressionable thing that’s awesome out of anyone I’ve met in this industry so when people think of Milbridge and they think about your company I mean what do you want them to like what what do you want

them to know uh really just you know customer service it’s it’s really our you know it’s our main focus every day um I would I would like to argue and say that like you know we’re probably the easiest people to get a hold of especially if there’s a problem so you know that’s that’s that’s probably the biggest thing I hang my hat on is is is you know if you call me at you know if there’s a plant issue and I get to call at three in the morning like my wife will be pissed but I’ll answer the phone uh but yeah no I think we’re uh we’re easy to work with we’re very Innovative um you know we we went like with you know all the rolloffs here that we put into manufacturers we put uh GPS and cameras and all of them so we can monitor right here at the office boldness levels if there’s any you know whatever if any sort of non-conforming material makes its way into a container that would be a massive downgrade you know we can be proactive and send the pictures ask them to remove

it if they want to and you know things like that so um you know we just purchased a new scrap software program um you know we’re really trying to uh move along with the times I would say so as we grow we want to be as technically sophisticated um you know as well as not forgetting who our customers are probably the main message I love it man well I appreciate if somebody wants to get a hold of you how do they get a hold of you Matt what’s the best way uh best way is email or phone just Matt Millbridge medals.com and then uh phone you can call I’ll put it out there on mine call mine it’s 513 259 5426 don’t call me at three though if we have yeah unless you’re my customer yeah unless you’re an existing customer we’ll talk but it better be good yeah if you’re just asking me Sur price of HMS this month I’m gonna voicemail your ass can I get an extra five bucks that’s right all right man I appreciate you sitting down having this conversation may you guys want to get a hold

of Matt and uh I I hope you guys have a great rest of your month and we’ll uh we’ll talk soon pleasure all right take care see you brother all right