Upstate Shredding Acquiring Brenner Recycling

Upstate Shredding-Ben Weitsman & Son has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Brenner Recycling Inc., a scrap metal company located in Hazleton, Pa. The transaction is scheduled to close April 1. Key Brenner executives and all employees will continue in their positions.

In making the announcement, Upstate notes that Brenner has grown from a used auto parts yard to become the largest scrap metal, paper and cardboard recycler in the greater Hazleton area.

Steve Green, Upstate’s vice president, says, “This is by far our largest acquisition, a major facility with a well-established business and excellent reputation. We plan on upgrading the entire facility and the trucking fleet to expand their current market coverage of about a 60-mile radius to well over 120 (miles). We will change the nature of the business from essentially a retailer buyer of scrap metals to one that serves both retail and wholesale dealer business.

In an announcement, Upstate notes that following its other acquisitions, it typically upgrades the facilities. Steps that the company takes may include installing new stormwater systems built to the highest environmental standards, paving dirt yards with asphalt to prevent ground contamination and control water runoff, noise abatement, renovations to structures and adding attractive landscaping.

The announcement notes that Adam Rosenthal, who recently joined as director of acquisitions, was instrumental to completing the deal. This was his first acquisition deal since recently joining the company.

“We are in the process of acquiring another scrap metal business in central Pennsylvania that we will announce shortly. Once we have finalized that deal, we will be focusing 100 percent of our attention towards acquisitions in western New York State, but we are always interested in synergistic opportunities anywhere to build our feeder yard network,” says Rosenthal. “I will advise Adam Weitsman if we should install another mega shredder in Pennsylvania to complement our newly installed 10,000 HP mega shredder in Owego, New York if it makes sense.”

“Brenner has built a solid foundation, but we see the Hazleton location as a base to expand the business there substantially,” Green adds. “In our Syracuse acquisition, for instance, we quickly increased volume 1,500 percent above initial projections during our first year of operation and it’s still growing. From Hazleton we will deploy a new, modern fleet of trucks and roll-off containers to serve a much wider area and a more diverse range of customer needs. We will also be lengthening hours of operation for customer convenience and add new, faster equipment to process higher volumes. Customers like our approach, better prices, faster service and same-day payment.”