Six Decades in Scrap

May/June 2006

In his 60-year career, Ben Sacco has gained renown as both a scrap processor and an equipment vendor—and his story continues today.

By the numbers, Ben Sacco figures he has worked at least 125,000 hours in and around the scrap industry in his 60-year career—and that's based only on a 40-hour workweek. Knowing Sacco, 60-hour workweeks and almost 200,000 career hours are probably closer to the truth.

The point is that Ben Sacco, chairman of Sierra International Machinery LLC (Bakersfield, Calif.), has dedicated his life to scrap on both the processing and equipment-selling sides of the business. "I've really been in the scrap business, one way or another, all my adult life," he says.

Of course, it's impossible to capture a six-decade career—all the "intriguing things" and "interesting scenarios," as Sacco puts it—in a short profile. Yet even an abridged version of this scrap veteran's life establishes his status as "a true visionary and a true philosopher," in the words of Sacco's son Phillip. Here's an introduction to this man of many hours and even more distinctions.

The Sierra Story
Born in 1922, Ben Sacco lived his first 13 years in the small southern Italian town of Montemurro. In 1935 he emigrated to the United States with his father, settling in New York. There Sacco's father earned a living as a ballroom dancing teacher while Ben completed his high school studies.

Come World War II, Sacco enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served in the air corps military police from 1942 to 1946. He remained stateside for his term of service, stationed at bases all over the country. "I was moved to so many different areas that the boat [heading] overseas never caught up to me," he says.

After his discharge, Sacco returned to New York and considered his career options. Before the war, he had aspired to be an attorney, but he started working and "never followed up on the law," he says. He briefly followed in his father's dance steps, working a short time as a dance teacher. "Yes," he admits, "I taught dances like the rumba, the fox trot, and the Peabody." That career didn't offer enough promise for Sacco, so he decided in 1947 to move to California. He got there by using his military service to fly free from air base to air base. 

At first Sacco worked in the produce business, selling all types of fruits and vegetables to restaurants and markets. He also tended bar at night to make ends meet. Soon, however, Sacco saw better opportunity in the agricultural bag business, so he established Sierra Bag Co. in 1947. He invited a military buddy, Morris Rosenberg, to leave his $34-a-week job at a New York bookstore to become a partner in the business. Rosenberg agreed, and the two forged a partnership that would last almost 40 years. Shortly thereafter, in 1950, Sacco also persuaded his father to move to California to manage Sierra Bag's plant.

The bag business took Sacco around the world—to Hong Kong, India, Lebanon, Egypt, and elsewhere—buying jute and jute bags. Despite its name, the company also handled scrap items such as radiators and batteries. Sacco and Rosenberg formally established their interest in scrap in 1959 by founding Sierra Iron & Metal Co. (now Sierra Recycling & Demolition), which began handling all types of ferrous and nonferrous scrap. As Sacco recalls his early days in the bag and scrap businesses, he peppers his conversation with Yiddish expressions learned from Rosenberg as well as other Jewish scrap dealers.

Over the years, both Sierra businesses flourished. When Morris Rosenberg retired in 1985, Sacco decided to sell Sierra Bag. As that venture ended, though, another of Sacco's business adventures began.

The story goes like this: During a visit to Italy in 1984, one of Sacco's friends asked if he'd like to visit a scrapyard near Venice. There, Ben saw a unique machine—a mobile baler—in operation. "Now, I'm a clock watcher," he says, "so I clock-watched this baler's operation and estimated that it could bale a minimum of 45 tons a day. In the U.S., processors were baling about 20 to 25 tons a day. So what did I do?" He visited the baler manufacturer, Tabarelli/Idromec, which was located near the scrapyard, and he ordered one of the balers for his Bakersfield, Calif., scrap operation.

Back home, a fellow U.S. scrap dealer happened to visit Sierra's plant. He saw the newfangled machine and asked if Sacco would buy one for him. "I called Italy and asked the manufacturer if I would get a commission if I sold one of the balers," Sacco relates. "He said, ‘If you sell two balers a year, you can have the entire U.S. dealership.'" Sacco did a little better than that. In the first year, he sold 18 machines, he recalls with pride.

Thus began Sacco's new career as an equipment vendor, which led in 1987 to the formation of another Sierra entity—Sierra International Machinery—to focus on this new business.

In addition to introducing the Tabarelli/Idromec baler to the U.S. market, Sacco saw great promise in another of the manufacturer's products—a machine that could shear as well as bale. "We introduced the shear/baler to the U.S. market," Sacco boasts. "This is what I'm proud of—we gave the industry a tool that it did not have. Other manufacturers wanted to sell the people two machines instead of one. We sold them one machine that would do the job of two."

The shear/baler established Sierra International Machinery as a player in the recycling equipment market. Over the years, the company has broadened its equipment offerings to include shear/baler/loggers, cranes, grapples, shear attachments, and more. The firm also has expanded beyond its initial U.S. focus to sell equipment around the world. In addition to its Bakersfield headquarters, the company has sales offices in Ferrara, Italy, and Dublin, Ireland. 

Sacco's son John, who serves as president of Sierra International Machinery, credits the company's success to his father's "intuition that these machines had a place in the scrap industry." Ben is more humble, playing up the importance of Sierra's customer-focused philosophy. "We are committed to our customers," he asserts. "We get to know them, realize what they need, and supply the right machinery for their tasks."

To Sacco, Sierra's success also can be traced to its great team of managers and employees, starting at the top with his sons—Phillip, president of Sierra Recycling & Demolition, and John—and extending through the company's ranks. "I could never have made it to this point without my sons in the business and our great team," he says. "Nobody can do it alone."

Whatever the reasons for Sierra's success, the company's track record speaks for itself. Since 1987, it has sold more than 700 machines in the United States, with another 300-plus in operation around the world—a far cry from that lone baler in Sacco's Bakersfield scrapyard.

Keeping Everything in Tune
In his career, Ben Sacco has divided his thousands of working hours between scrap processing and equipment selling, giving him a solid footing in both camps and a unique view of both sides. His decades of experience also give him a big-picture perspective on the industry's key developments. 

To him, "the emergence of sophisticated machinery has been the major change in the scrap industry in the years I've been associated with the business. Machinery has really revolutionized the trade. Today, even a small dealer with the proper equipment can compete as a processor," he says.

Despite his hours of dedicated work, Sacco has always found time for volunteer activities. In 1961, for instance, he helped organize the Italian community of Bakersfield, and in 1968 he established the Italian Heritage Association of Kern County, Calif. For 25 years he served as vice consul for the Italian government in Kern County, and he was honored by that government with two titles—commendatore and cavaliere officiale. In addition, he served on the Kern County grand jury for a two-year term and has been house chairman of the Bakersfield Country Club. 

Sacco also has been a steadfast, longtime member of ReMA and ISIS, one of ReMA's predecessors. In his view, ReMA deserves support because it works and speaks for the scrap industry as a whole. Sacco's dedication to ReMA and his lifetime accomplishments in the industry earned him an achievement award in 2005 from ReMA's West Coast Chapter. His association sentiments certainly have rubbed off on his son John, who has served in many leadership posts for ReMA over the years, including his current position as national vice chair. 

Throughout his life, Sacco's business, community, and association activities have taken him around the world "many times," he says, noting that "the only places I haven't visited are south of the Sahara and east of Moscow." He still returns to his hometown of Montemurro, Italy, once or twice a year to "sit in the shade and philosophize with his old friends and family while eating the best food in the world," John says. Not surprisingly, Sacco's travels have given him friends all over the world who greet him everywhere he goes. "I'm a rich man in terms of friends," he says.

Nowadays, Sacco spends a lot of his time traveling around the Sierra operations in a golf cart. "I still go into my office every workday, six days a week," he notes. What does he do there? According to son Phillip, Ben is always seeking new ways for Sierra to improve its operations or is brainstorming new equipment to sell. "We have to think about the future," Sacco says, "and as a result we have to keep improving our business." Around the yard, Sacco's nickname is Mr. Clean thanks to his reputation for demanding a spic-and-span operation. "I like everything organized, and it's not easy to make a scrap operation look like a drug store," he observes.

For his part, Ben describes his role in the company as an orchestra conductor who just wants to make sure that all the players are in tune. Since 1947, when he first entered the bag business, Sacco and his Sierra enterprises have been making sweet music together, and the symphony seems set to continue for years to come. 

Si Wakesberg is New York bureau chief for Scrap.