Behr Iron Acquires Morris Tick Co.

Behr Iron & Metal, Rockford, Ill., has acquired Morris Tick Co., a scrap metal recycling company based in Bloomington, Ill.

Jodi Behr, vice president of marketing for Behr Iron & Metal, says the acquisition is part of the company’s move to strengthen its presence in the Midwest. She adds that after completing the acquisition, Behr will invest time and money to update and upgrade the Morris Tick operation to make it more environmentally secure and more conducive to peddler traffic.

According to a local press report, Tick has been in business for four generations, having started operations in 1898.

Behr, with more than one dozen locations throughout the Midwest, also recently opened a new auto shredder in Peoria, Ill., and will be seeking additional scrap to send to the facility.

As well, the company’s newest facility prior to the Morris Tick acquisition recently celebrated a grand opening ceremony. The plant, in Rochelle, Ill., (pictured above) is located on 40 acres. It includes a former warehouse with more than 85,000 square feet under roof with a 50-foot-high ceiling. The setup has allowed Behr to locate its processing equipment in Rochelle indoors. (A news clip covering the opening ceremony can be found here.)

In an announcement following the grand opening of the Rochelle facility, William Bremner, Behr’s president and CEO, said, “Behr Iron & Metal is pleased to expand its regional recycling footprint with a full-service, indoor, drive-through facility in the heart of Rochelle. It is our mission to operate environmentally sound, clean, and convenient recycling services.”

The facility includes an indoor drive-through nonferrous buyback center that can hold up to 10 cars at a time. Behr Rochelle also processes and unloads car bodies and other types of ferrous scrap, all indoors.