Upstate Shredding - Ben Weitsman & Son Appoints General Manager

Scott J. Collins has been named general manager of Owego, N.Y.-based Upstate Shredding - Ben Weitsman & Son. Collins assumed management responsibilities for all of the company’s operations at all locations Jan. 1, 2011. These include Upstate’s mega-shredder and high-tech metals separation facility in Owego, company trucking and container fleet and Ben Weitsman scrap metal facilities in the New York cities of Binghamton, Ithaca, Jamestown, Liberty, Owego and Syracuse as well as in Towanda, Pa.

Collins joins Upstate after nine years with Tracey Road Equipment, where he was vice president of sales and marketing. Tracey is a leading new and used construction equipment and truck dealership in Upstate New York with facilities in Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Binghamton and Watertown and annual sales of more than $100 million.

Commenting on Collins’ departure, Jerry Tracey, Tracey Road Equipment CEO, says, “Scott was very instrumental in developing new product lines and new industry segments for us, which has been a major contributor to our growth over the past years.”

Adam Weitsman, president of Upstate Shredding, says, “I’ve known Scott for several years and during 2010 we became Tracey’s largest customer with new equipment purchases in excess of $6 million dollars. While working closely with Scott during these transactions, I realized that his work ethic, relationship-building capability, management style and experience in the heavy equipment and scrap metal industries were an ideal match for our growth strategy.”

Prior to joining Tracey, Collins spent 12 years with the Ingersoll-Rand Co., where he rose to become district manager for the Northeast region construction and mining division and managed seven distributors with 26 locations and 75 retail sales representatives.

“I am very excited to be joining a dynamic company like Upstate Shredding – Ben Weitsman and looking forward to help Adam achieve his goal of $1 billion dollars in annual debt-free sales,” Collins says. “That’s impressive from a private company standpoint.”

Collins holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial marketing from Clarkson University, is a board member of the New York Association of General Contractors (AGC) and a member of the Empire Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). He lives in Fayetteville, N.Y., with his wife and three children.  

Upstate Shredding LLC – Ben Weitsman & Son processes more than 700,000 tons of ferrous and 100 million pounds of nonferrous metal per year.