welcome to a scrap life a podcast solely focused on the hustlers Grinders operators and business owners who live and breathe the scrap metal industry every day here is your host Brett eart the first official podcast of uh is 2024 in Vegas I get the pleasure of sitting down with Seth alter Adam Ruben of 74 Alloys which is a tungo family company yes it is um I’m super curious because I come from a business where we do kind of offshoots of the ex the main the mothership what we like to call it right that’s kind of the way we always said it we say like you know we started with United medals and then we built the trucking side and then we built this and that so tell me about kind of how 74 Alloys has kind of came through the system and then we’ll kind of talk about the two of you guys yeah sure uh 74 Alloys actually came up uh about 10 years ago actually 10 years ago cuz we’re uh we’re celebrating 10 years uh this year okay and uh it would really came about from being supplier obsessed at tungko

we uh we just you know tungko was getting a lot of offers of all kinds of different stuff and uh at the time that no one really knew what to do with it highspeed steel nickel Alloys you name it they just they didn’t know what to do with it so they kind of branched out and and made another company called 7 4 Alloys 74 the atomic number of tungsten yeah and uh so everything within the tungsten family uh and so on and so forth so just kind of Grew From there so originally just so I could understand it and we’ll kind of go through the history but tonko is like really focused on just tungsten right I mean car carbide and so that was kind of the main gig and so then you guys just like it’s kind of naturally evolves over the years where you’re like oh what you can you do with this and what can you do with that and people just don’t want to have to deal with one company for each aloy they’re like can you just take all of it uh we want to take all of it

uh yeah definitely um look uh it’s uh it’s you know I mean everyone’s always been calling us and saying you know I don’t want to put a little bit of this stuff on the back of the truck uh can we fill it out with something else well yeah well that’s what we do so you know fill that truck up with with everything just put it all on there and and we can do it all so was 74 Alloys an existing company you guys bought or was it something you started just kind of uh hatched out of tonko it was created in by by tonko in 2014 nice um so I only I only came on in 2016 but uh it was it was there it was kind of you know a little a little fetus at the time uh so you know we kind of you know we kind of you know bring you in to put some gas on the fire yeah a little bit of that little bit that I like it so Seth let’s talk about it I mean you know we I I just want to get everybody kind understand

what 74 Alloys was and how it was related to tonko but at the end of the day like none of those companies exist unless you got the right people good people so obviously we connected over LinkedIn and started shooting the and I’m like you guys seem like my kind of people family business guys right it’s kind of part of the part of the deal so give me a little history on on yourself how how did you end up at um at tonko hang on one second feel good yeah look good feel good yeah no no you’re good I’m like one of those back massage gals like they come in like what you love back massage right you see it on the floor here I was in the in the sports book yesterday Nick and I were in the sports book and they’re like hey you want a back massage I’m like no I just want to be here I like that um so I’m a second gen uh I come from a traditional non-f feris and Ferris background Toronto Ontario Canada uh scraps in my blood it’s all I’ve known uh I used

to wander around a scrapyard as a kid getting into trouble uh climbing up the cranes and and looking into the bers and getting too close to the alligator shears um yeah so this is all I know I came on board to 74 Alloys and the tonko team in 2022 um Adam brought me on I was a supplier to 74 Alloys in tonko uh uh so yeah it’s uh it’s been a great transition and uh he unleashed the beast man like we love Seth we love so you recruited Seth I did I did okay well even long before I was at uh I was at tonko 74 Alloys um I was in another company up in Montreal okay and I was there for about 16 years and even during that time I was doing a lot of business with Seth uh as well so we got to know each other a lot over those years and uh you know we kind of we kind of have a very similar style in how we do things uh you know we’re both not from a corporate uh you know Monster you know we’re smaller companies and uh

doing you know trying to make every penny count man every I mean that’s the beautiful thing about like I I love small business mediumsized business whatever like the big guys they are what they are I mean they have you know they have certain advantages but like the like the real Hustlers the real scratchers like the real like Grinders are found in your small medium side cuz we have like every penny matters right everything you’re you’re always trying to maximize value you’re trying to maximize everything you can and so when you get someone pennies yeah we don’t want talk about Canan pennies you know you so do you guys so you cuz cuz tonko and 74 hours is based out of Kentucky right yes so do you guys now live in Kentucky or do you guys get to you guys still live up in uh Canada we’re we’re satellite guys yeah we were promote oh really yeah complete Road Warriors yeah nice yeah because so and I know just looking through like your guys’ YouTube stuff and kind of and now having kind of made the connection you guys are actually have facilities like in

Europe and so you guys do a lot of international travel as well uh we do uh especially for 74 Alloys well not especially for 74 Alloys but like we we do a lot because we recently acquired uh a company in Germany called HSS recycling uh HSS for high-speed steel uh and that’s one of the main focuses of 74 so there’s great Synergy between what we’re doing in North America and everything that we can do and provide uh over there at uh in Germany so did Cliff find you or did you guys find Cliff or how does that how does that work cff and I found each other I would say yeah uh you know I was when I was working at the company up in Montreal uh I was at the time Cliff’s tko’s number one supplier okay um and uh you know we spent a lot of time together he’s always ticking me out entertaining me uh and it just came to a point where you know I had to move on and uh I think immediately we uh we hooked up and uh the rest is history well so you guys

already been done a lot of business at that point so it made the transition a little bit Yeah I he he KN he knows how I work uh so I mean I there was no surprises uh and you were doing business with Seth Seth so I like it I like that yeah so I mean I’m I’m not that intelligent a guy and I didn’t and I just didn’t know that much about because we just don’t see a lot of like tungsten carbide Alloys in our area I mean we’re just we have very small sect of Machining in Idaho right we don’t have the Aerospace we don’t have the ship building we don’t have the big you know machine Midwest machine shops that you see and even in South now I feel like there’s a lot of Machining going on down there so I was kind of ignorant to like Tong Co I didn’t like I didn’t know that much about and then you and I connected and I was like hey you guys by I’m like hey like I might have something for you like that been sitting on for a while that I

think I could buy a lot more of right which at that with for us that was uh construction like basically drill tip like heads with thead car yeah the road tools with the carbide tips on it right and that was kind of our first transaction but I think where you guys are going where you’re headed is to educate people like even like myself or that don’t really have a understand how much actual tungsten carbides highspeed Alloys are out there that could be basically upgraded no no I don’t think many people know exactly what they have at all these days um you know I when I came in I I mean I didn’t know anything about scrap I just someone said you want to be in the scrap business I’m like refrigerators like stoves them I didn’t know anything about it uh and when I came on you know it’s kind of like they gave me the tungsten kind of Focus thing um but I remember still to this day I got this alloy book from this company and it’s basically chemistry is about everything you know from Inc canels to whatnot and I took

that home every single night I studied it studied it studied it so for me you know like I loved educating myself and and today I I just love trying to educate as many people as possible uh about everything above and beyond you know just to Tung and carbite yeah that’s right so I see you guys’ booth over there you guys got a crazy good looking Booth over here yeah so I assume you guys are anticipating vendors consumers from all over I mean cuz I don’t remember how many countries there I said are represent at this show but it’s like 70 or something something crazy different countries so you guys probably have customers that are coming from all over right to come visit yeah absolutely we have a global footprint right yeah South America Europe Asia I mean we uh we definitely you know we’re not the largest company in terms of size but our reach is is is huge yeah yeah and I mean so what is like when you guys think about you know the larger competitors that you what’s your competitive Advantage like what do you guys what makes you different than

your large competitors whatever it takes it’s a philosophy that uh cliff and his father uh you know really engrained in our in our philosophy with work right it’s do whatever it takes and that’s my mindset uh You’ got to I’m going to show up I’m not going to call you I’m not going to email you I’m going to be at your yard and I’m going to show you the ad value I can bring to you and your organization and I hope listen relationships are everything in this business right% um and uh I feel that’s where what that’s what sets us apart look we don’t want to just be good at one thing we want to be good at everything from a to z i mean that’s that’s our motto I mean that’s why you started 74 outo like cuz you want to just you didn’t want to be just a a Tungsten Carbide specialist you wanted to kind of like diversify and take care of your customers I assume I mean that’s kind of yeah oh I mean that’s that’s the most important thing for us I mean supplier Obsession um that’s that’s one

of the key uh mantras of uh of tonko yeah uh and it’s it’s across the board it’s not just 74 Alloys it’s not just tonko it’s every single one of their companies uh the philosophy is the same so when you guys think about like the future of like when you think about the future of your business where you guys are trying to get to I mean what do you guys see I mean what is you guys got an awesome I’ll kind of take a step back because I talked to Jennifer and Marissa and they came out and went through your guys’ annual um what do you guys call like a stakeholders meeting right essentially and so and so I then I was like okay I got to see so I started watching the YouTube videos and you guys first of all Baran have an awesome company culture near as I can tell which is that’s what this game is about to me that’s why I do this podcast not because I need another job like I do it cuz I love like meeting people that have that are building something like you guys are

building something right together they’re awesome Cliff Cliff I tell you is is awesome like what he’s done with company culture um look I came from another company that there was not really much company culture at all yeah and and I would say it’s it’s a lot like that at many companies you know you go in you do your job you go home and uh and that’s it but like here you know they’re constantly keeping you engaged uh they’re bringing you different places they’re teaching you they’re cross trining people I mean it’s just you know I mean he’s not your typical CEO you know he’ll have you over to his house and and and we’ll just be drinking tequila till 1:00 in the morning so uh you know I mean there’s a lot there’s a lot or maybe bourbon as well or maybe maybe our special edition 74 10th anniversary bourbon there we go introduce yourself go ahead go ahead please please I’m Amy Amy yes what do you do Amy talk to us supply chain officer for the company I thought you keep these guys bbon bourb pour for today yes yes yes

well wouldn’t it be a good podcast unless we had something to drink at least to sip on okay Cheers Cheers thank you Amy appreciate you here thank you guys for taking the time I like it yeah sweet yeah you can taste the 74 in there that’s that’s Kentucky right there right like that’s bourbon country it is it is I was listening to uh I was talking to Cliff and he was kind of talking about the how tonos you know when his his role tonko and how it kind of got started and how he started to grow grow the business and I started thinking about kind of my journey but I think that the biggest thing that’s been that’s allowed me to have any success I’ve been able to recruit good ass people like that’s what I think any business like is your ability to recruit people and recruit like-minded people but people that they’re like-minded but they’re willing to stand up for what they believe in and kind of their route I mean I mean look I mean same for him I mean I come from Montreal it’s French Canada I mean

I never in a million years would have thought I’d be like working at a company in Kentucky let alone even go to Kentucky yeah so uh you know I think my my my view on Everything Has Changed aot lot over over the last few years um you know uh I think the people in Kentucky are fantastic people I mean everything they say about southern uh Hospitality it’s it it’s there it’s there and they uh and they treat us that way absolutely T so before you guys before you had went to uh um work with TKO had you already had you been down to the facility spent time down there I did actually by chance I did um I went in about 2015 I was I wanted to immerse myself in the tungsten Reclamation industry like in the recycling business I wanted to know more yeah and I actually went down to tungko and I met uh the team and uh it’s crazy how my story my journey I ended up back there now working for uh for Cliff and the team so your journey your second generation so your dad was in it I

assume my dad have his own yard okay absolutely he uh this is his 53rd year in the business uh he he bought a business that was established in 1926 oh wow great history seriously contaminated land okay right um yeah I mean 1920 is a different time man let acid batteries crack them open right I mean I I mean I we’ll get back to it but my biggest thing with that is people expect in in 1920 the rules were different and you want people to kind of go in and like fix something that in 1920 was okay to do right I’m not saying that today you have to operate different right but it’s not necessarily in 1920 that was okay you know we we know better now right but it’s not I mean to go and P penalize today’s today’s operators for what was going on 1920 seems counterproductive and that’s what happened that’s what happened ahead City uh expropriated the land due to that the due to the contamination really um so essentially yeah penalizing my old everything’s even different from 2000 from today very so they so they basically took the they said

this is what it’s worth uhhuh take this take care we’ll go we’ll place you up north in a in a suburb that’s more industrial yeah and uh he had no choice when the city comes in and says that just got to you know adhere to whatever it is yeah so uh that land today is probably worth 60 70 million uh so but it is what it is it is what it is um but yeah so that’s uh that’s my up my journey uh so is he still in operation he still is he we always say my brother and I he’ll die on the floor that’s who he is and that’s the way he’s built and you know what I I so your brother still works with him my brother yeah okay yeah my brother still works for him so I I’m excited like I’m going to do a podcast in uh on Wednesday with J benovitz right and my dad oh great two guys that like did it very differently and you know Jay had a family business on the on the East Coast and his dad still runs it to this day with

his with his brother and his dad’s 90 or whatever I I mean he’s like he still goes to work every day right and he’s and he always said he’s like your dad’s my hero cuz he just walked away he just said I’m out you know and he goes and Jay left his family business to go to alter right and help the Goldstein build alter right so I I think about that story and I think about your story and I feel like there’s got to be some similarities right like you’re you know there’s a family business and they’re operating and and his brother’s up there your brother’s up there helping right but it doesn’t mean like that’s the path for you it just means like um you’re going to you have a path and you’re going to attack that path and maybe it’s to help cliff and his family build tonko and 74 Alloys and and build that out right nailed it nailed it couldn’t have said it better I um I treat tungko as my second family they brought me in and uh complacency s that’s not who I am I’m going to give

I’m going to give it my best every single day I’m I’m a scrapper at heart hey it’s the Canadian way a really no you you got your stars and bars on your hat there I mean we should have probably come and worn our our Canadian flags on our on our heads you should have truthfully I’m ready to defect man I’m ready to defect well you know that’s another story but we probably all are well yeah I feel like the reason people wanted a effect is because of politics right not because because you don’t love your country it’s just the way that it’s being maybe yeah the politics sucks and 53% taxes do also so yeah that’s what I’m saying I think the same thing like the reason you get like the you know even the United States people get upset is it’s not that they don’t love it it’s just that the politics suck you know and you’re like golly so we I’m not this isn’t a show to get into that so we’ll we’ll back that off but that’s funny you say that about your your story and your dad because I just

like that’s something I plan to discuss is like when you look across the landscape and you say that there’s just it has to be you have to follow in your Father’s Footsteps and you have to do this it’s like if that’s not the path for you to me like I that’s just not the path like I always knew what I was going to do but I think there’s plenty of people that add a tremendous amount of value that grew up in a small family business that bring a whole lot to a you know another table and say like I can I can I know this industry and I’m willing to like put put the time man 100% my dad’s my mentor and uh he taught me well but he said to me he implored he said you take this job I’m clipping your wings you go fly and that’s what I’ve done nice I was shocked he took it but I’m happy he did yeah tell you to be honest I bet on him but I also bet on that guy yeah and I knew I haven’t met such a sharp dude and I

went out for lunch about 2 years ago this uh convention uh when it was back in Vegas with and I knew I’m like I’m betting on that guy super sharp you’re betting on people man like you’re not betting on the markets you’re betting on people that are going to that are going to take care of you when times are tough and then when times get good that they’re willing to do the same thing and I think hey look uh Co when they in Canada when they buried us you know for like 2 years uh I was worried you know I was worried I was like I couldn’t get out of the country I couldn’t get out of my house yeah uh and Cliff stuck with us and uh you know he he was behind me the whole time so uh you know you know family does that you know regular people just just don’t do that for people well I think you know people get family sometimes construed too and I mean like family just means that’s where you came from but it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the people that are willing to

take the the most best care of you right I mean a lot of times you know you’d like to think that they they will and but there’s often times I feel that it’s you know like there’s people out there that maybe even have your best interest in mind because they’re willing to tell you like you’re up or you know they want to be more upfront with you instead of just let you kind of get away with way with I hope everyone tells me if I’m up but also they’re also the ones that Pat you on the back and be like you’re you’re doing it right you’re crushing it you know yeah so what do you guys looking forward to at the show anything specific I mean anything that just kind of I mean connecting as usual with with our suppliers and hopefully some new suppliers I mean we’re doing a cabana uh uh H hosting a Cabana on Wednesday from 11: to 3:00 so uh everyone should pop by and have some drinks and have some smiles and List have some sun it’s going to be nice weather right I mean Vegas is

that’s one thing about this time of year in Vegas it’s hard to beat I mean I don’t know what it’s like you know in Canada this time of year I can only imagine it’s got to be you know early Innings early Innings spring it’s it’s it’s still I mean even Idaho still yes yeah we’re like mid 70s this week but I think it’s it’s cool down a little cold front coming through but the weather is pretty hard to beat so the command will be nice how about you Seth anything you’re looking forward to listen this is maintaining building relationships for me at this this conference um and uh to all my uh competitor competitors excuse me out there I’m coming for you I’m coming for all of you this is my show I love it I love it how many competitors you got here who knows uh not many handful yeah but I’m I’m coming it doesn’t matter right I’m coming yeah I love it I love it well let’s end on that kissing babies and making friends right let’s end on that if you’re not here to do business and you’re not here

to like to compete yeah like you got kids that play sports I’m sure you guys both played Sports I don’t know do you have kids that play sports I I I dance I’ve got two girls okay you have girls so mean but they compete it’s still competitive right like if in the scrap business is competitive and it’s not going to get less competitive there’s less scrap today than there was 3 years ago right and if you’re going to get scrap you’re going to get it from somebody else like tungsten we’re not yeah like your high speed Alloys ferah scrap nonfer scrap you name it like that ain’t going to the landfill it’s going to another recycling facility right so if you’re going to get more you’re going to get it from somebody else so if you’re not here to compete what are you here for that’s right complacency kills right all right all right good so shoot little dry huh yeah can we order uh no I’m good I’m good can we order a little bit of food as well or just a little bit she wants to cap us off all right thank

you appreciate you cheers thanks for everything here’s to a good uh 2024 show in Vegas health and success y thank you