**Welcome to Built to Work**

**Colin:** Welcome to Built to Work, the podcast that gets its hands dirty, dives into the grit, and uncovers the heart of what makes the blue-collar world tick. I’m Colin, your host, and I’m sitting down with the people who keep our world running. From those tackling the tough jobs no one else dares to do to the HR professionals working overtime to find the labor force we desperately need. Whether you’re in the trenches or behind the scenes, this podcast is for anyone who values hard work, determination, and stories that build the backbone of our workforce. So, grab your gloves, your coffee, or your clipboard. It’s time to get to work. Today, I’m here with Jay Neerhouser. He is one of our awesome employees, and he has been here with Premiere from the start. So, I’m super glad to be hanging out with you today, Jay.

**Jay:** Thanks for having me.

**Colin:** I want to talk a little bit about what you do and I want to learn from you about the torching industry. I want you to teach me everything you know. Pretend I don’t know anything. So, first, tell us about your experience and how you ended up at Premiere.

**Jay:** So, I started in the scrap industry in 1998 doing safety and quality for a local shredder, and that was my introduction to the scrap industry. I came in knowing absolutely nothing other than I had taken aluminum cans maybe a couple of times. So I did that for about three or four years at two different facilities in Indianapolis and I left the industry. Then it was kind of one of those deals that I always felt the draw back to it. So I’d been in and out of the industry a few times and I’ve always come back to it. After I left the first company, the next scrap company I went to was very similar to ours. We had a small shredder and we did a lot of torching, so off-site processing for customers and maybe a little bit of demolition work. I did that for several years and then with one of the founders of that company, we started our own company and that’s all we did was torching. We did a lot of rail cars all over the southeastern United States. We did that for four or five years. I left again. I’ve been in my present role since 2020. So we again do the off-site torching and processing.

**Colin:** Yeah.

**Jay:** And we also provide labor services.

**Colin:** Now, so with the torching, it’s kind of neat because it’s a unique situation that we’re in because we don’t have a yard.

**Jay:** Yeah.

**Colin:** So, we only work for scrapyards or demolition contractors, and it’s an interesting and very unique field. I get to see a lot of different yards, talk to a lot of different customers. So within the industry, we’re considered a service provider.

**Jay:** Yes.

**Colin:** And that’s how we’re classified with REMA, formerly ISRY, the Recycled Materials Association. So, with that, we don’t own any yards.

**Jay:** Correct.

**Colin:** We don’t own the material. We go into other people’s scrapyards, steel mills, aluminum melt facilities, and we work for them, right? So, we provide torching, which not everybody needs, right? That’s our niche, but then we also provide labor too, which is as a lot of people need across the industry.

**Jay:** Yeah. So, Jay’s been here since the beginning. Jay’s been a great resource for us since we purchased the company last year, a year ago now, which is crazy to think how fast it’s gone by. You’ve taught me a lot about this industry because I came into it, you’ve got decades of experience in it. I don’t have any experience in it, so I know how to run a service-based company, know how to provide service. I’ve been fascinated by the industry and you’ve taught us so much. And for people that might not understand what torching is, it’s essentially taking something really big and cutting it down to size, a really big piece of metal. For the recycling process to happen, it has to be melted, and it can’t fit into the furnace to be melted if it’s still a whole rail car or a whole excavator or a bucket or whatever that is. So we cut it down to size. Could you give us a brief summary of the process of torching? How does it work, how does the torch work, and the mechanics of torching?

**Jay:** So, we use an oxygen-propane cutting torch. That’s what we use to get the production that we need. A lot of people think of torching as a small shop torch like a mechanic would have or a welder. Like a little two-foot hand torch. The smallest torches we have are four feet; most of our guys use six-footers.

**Colin:** So the torch is six feet long.

**Jay:** Yes, the torch itself is six feet long. It keeps you safer, puts you away from the heat and the sparks. If a piece falls, you’ve got some distance. It gives you longer reach so instead of with a smaller torch, you’re going to move more often. Especially if you’re cutting like a rail car. With a longer torch, you have much more reach without having to continually move and restart. It’s nice when it’s hot out that you can be six feet away from a big piece of cast iron that holds the heat for a very long time. That extra distance is definitely a plus.

**Colin:** Yeah, especially in the summertime.

**Jay:** Absolutely.

**Colin:** I’m super thankful for our guys that do that work because it’s hot, uncomfortable work during the summer.

**Jay:** It is. I’ve done it; it’s rough. It’s rough doing it 12 hours a day every day. It’s impressive.

**Colin:** They’re tough. Those guys are tough and they are hard workers, aren’t they?

**Jay:** Absolutely. During the winter out here in the Midwest, it’s cold, windy, rainy. They have to wear leathers, hard hats, respirators, visors, boots, and metatarsal protectors.

**Colin:** That’s one thing that we really pride ourselves on, doing more than just what’s required. We require metatarsal guards, we pay for it, and we go a little above and beyond. We spend a lot of money making sure our guys are outfitted properly.

**Jay:** A lot of yards don’t use us, and you’ll see guys out cutting in just blue jeans or lightweight cutting jackets.

**Colin:** Yeah.

**Jay:** And maybe it works, but I think taking the extra steps to protect our guys. One thing we also do is respirator fit tests and lead testing.

**Colin:** Lead testing is testing the blood, right?

**Jay:** Yes. We do that pre-employment and every year for a baseline. We haven’t had issues because we are so good with the respirators, but if it happens, we would pull that person and take the necessary steps. There are companies out there that don’t invest in safety, and that sets us apart.

**Colin:** Accidents are always going to happen, they’re inevitable, but whatever we can do to mitigate those is important. We invest in our equipment as well. All of our regulators are new, and we keep everything in top order. We have nice trailers that go to the job sites. Everybody’s outfitted with first aid kits and fire extinguishers.

**Jay:** Yes. We also check the hoses for patches and splices, trying to maintain them and keep production up.

**Colin:** It’s an added expense, but it keeps our production up.

**Jay:** It was different back in the day. People would be out in lightweight cutting jackets, which would burn up in a couple of days if they worked on big cast iron.

**Colin:** Torching throws off an impressive amount of sparks, especially with cast iron.

**Jay:** Yes. We’ve recently bought a powder torch specifically for cutting stainless. It’s an interesting process. It sprays iron powder that’s at the steel’s melting point, so it cuts through steel effortlessly.

**Colin:** The cutting process is first you heat metal to the point where it gets molten. Propane is a low-pressure gas that generates the flame and heats the metal. The high-pressure oxygen pushes chunks of molten metal away to separate the material.

**Jay:** That’s right. You’re learning fast.

**Colin:** With the powder torch, we add nitrogen, an inert gas that doesn’t combust, to blow the iron powder, making the process faster and efficient.

**Jay:** Yes, you pressurize the powder tank, and it goes along the hose, enhancing the cutting process.

**Colin:** It’s impressive, not everyone knows this service exists. We charge based on material and production, sometimes hourly for specific materials like rebar and stainless.

**Jay:** Additionally, our business has grown beyond torching. We now offer long-term labor services, which is over 50% of our business.

**Colin:** Our turnover is low, only 4%, compared to the industry’s 50% or more. We take care of our employees, provide benefits, and they stick around.

**Jay:** It started with a couple of people helping a customer, and it snowballed from there. Now we’ve grown significantly.

**Colin:** Our employees’ average tenure is over 16 months, while other facilities have high turnover. We train our teams, provide benefits like 401k, PTO, and other services.

**Jay:** I’ve talked to our guys, and they love what they do. They’re thankful for the work. It’s a great service.

**Colin:** It’s been great having Jay, who’s been with us from the beginning. We’ve traveled, visited customers, and even share hobbies. Thank you for everything you’ve done for the company, Jay.

**Jay:** Thank you for having me and for this opportunity to share more about our work and industry.

**Colin:** Thanks for your time today, Jay. Appreciate it.