A lasting legacy

Family-owned companies have long been a cornerstone of the metals recycling sector, creating legacies that extend across generations.

The subject of this month’s cover story, San Antonio-based Monterrey Metal Recycling Solutions, owned by the Vexler family—Jack, Jordan, David and Jeff—is in its fourth generation and celebrating 110 years in business. CEO Jordan Vexler says it’s a legacy she realizes is growing rarer as the industry consolidates.

As is the case with many other U.S. scrap companies that have reached the century mark, Monterrey’s lineage includes an emigrant, Abraham (Abe) Vexler, as its founder.

Jordan told me the story of her great-grandfather, who at 16 years old left Romania in 1887 to escape social and political turmoil. Instead of arriving in the U.S. as he expected, his ship actually was headed for Montreal, where he worked as a stevedore. Abe saw value in the objects other people were throwing away and began collecting bottles, rags and metal for repurposing and recycling in 1895.

In 1908, he set off for Texas. Abe thought an opportunity existed in moving scrap from Mexico into the U.S., so he traveled to Monterrey, Mexico, which later gave rise to his company’s name.

While there, Abe was aboard a train that Francisco “Pancho” Villa highjacked in 1912. According to family lore, the American men on board were taken hostage and likely killed, but Abe, having a Canadian passport, was spared, Jordan says.

He found his way to San Antonio in 1916, and his company took root there.

The ability to see value in people’s discards and build businesses that support not just their families but also others is the legacy of emigrants like Abe who founded metals recycling businesses in the U.S.

“All of the family-owned metal recyclers still very much feel connected to that ingenuity and humility,” Jordan says.