May/June 1996
In the past two decades, this Quebec-based firm has become a leading metal recycler in Eastern Canada—and beyond. Solid customer relationships, a willingness to invest, decisive management, and dedicated employees have made it happen.
By Kent Kiser
Kent Kiser is managing editor of Scrap.
Sometimes dreams do come true.
For brothers Jean-Guy and Bernard Hamelin, the dream was to build a successful scrap recycling business.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done.
Over the past 23 years, they have built a veritable skyscraper in the Canadian scrap landscape. In fact, their creation—Societe Nationale des Ferrailles Inc. (Laval, Quebec), or SNF—with its seven plants (and counting) and handful of joint ventures, is arguably the largest scrap metal recycler in Eastern Canada. Further, the company’s three dock facilities within Quebec give it a strong footing in the international scrap export market.
The Hamelins—called tenacious, hard-working entrepreneurs by those who know them—built SNF slowly but solidly by seizing opportunities as they arose, investing in the company, forging strong customer relationships, and hiring top-notch employees.
And though the Hamelin brothers have long since achieved their original goal, their dreaming days are far from over. The only difference is that, now, their dream is to continually improve and advance SNF, setting ever-higher goals for it to reach.
Building a Dream
Unlike many recycling executives, Jean-Guy and Bernard Hamelin weren’t born into the scrap business. Far from it. Their family operated a neighborhood grocery store in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, where they worked throughout their youth. And when they came of age, Jean-Guy became a school laboratory technician, while Bernard went to work as a laborer in an auto salvage operation.
In their off-hours, the Hamelins enjoyed tinkering with machinery, especially cars. As part of their hobby, they would occasionally troll the Quebec neighborhoods and scavenge usable automotive parts that people had set out for disposal.
During his lunch break one day, Jean-Guy, then 23, took a load of scrap metal to a local recycler. Upon being paid, he was amazed to discover that he’d received more for that single load than he earned in a week as a technician.
This realization awakened his entrepreneurial spirit, and he and Bernard, then 19, began building a small scrap business in their free time. Soon, both quit their jobs to establish Hamelin Fer & Metaux Inc., which they set up on a rented 4-acre parcel in Laval.
Their timing couldn’t have been better.
It was 1973, a time when the scrap industry was on fire. The solid market gave the fledgling firm the momentum it needed to get started, and it grew steadily throughout its early years.
The company first began to expand in 1979 when it acquired Kenny Auto Parts Inc., an auto dismantling and car flattening operation located next to its Laval plant. Then, in 1987, it truly hit the fast track, purchasing its first shredder and establishing Quebec Metal Recycle Inc., which shares space at the now-45-acre Laval plant with Hamelin Fer & Metaux.
With that move, the company made clear its intention to become a major player in the Canadian scrap market, and other openings and acquisitions quickly followed.
In 1989, the company expanded northward, setting up another shredding operation, Capitale Metal Recycle Inc., in St.-Augustin-de-Desmaures, located near Quebec City. Before long, the company extended even farther north, mostly right along the St. Lawrence River, opening Cacouna Metal Inc. (Cacouna, Quebec) in 1993, Maritimes Metal Inc. (Edmundston, New Brunswick) in 1994, and a few other satellite operations in 1995. To top it all off, the firm also became a partner in two joint ventures, one a shredding operation in Newfoundland and the other a mobile car-flattening business in Quebec.
In other words, in the two decades since the Hamelins opened their small scrap business, they have built a super-regional, horizontally integrated entity, covering all the bases from auto dismantling to car flattening to scrap processing to shipping by truck, rail, and boat. As Jean-Guy, the company’s president, sums up, “We’re a tree that has many roots, not just one. That helps make us very solid.”
Yet, while the firm’s facilities—or “roots”—operate individually, with their own names, they are undeniably part of one corporate “tree.” The Hamelins recognized this early on and decided to unify them under one “family” name. Thus, in 1990, they adopted the umbrella designation of Societe Nationale des Ferrailles Inc.—SNF—to serve as the firm’s over-arching identity.
Taking an Active Approach
When asked what has enabled the SNF tree to grow so large, Jean-Guy answers simply, “SNF has built its reputation day by day over the past 23 years. There is no magic recipe. The company’s success is the result of paying a fair price to suppliers and delivering a top-quality product to every client.”
While there’s nothing wrong with that answer, it doesn’t tell SNF’s whole story.
Looking deeper, it’s clear that one key to the firm’s success has been its ability to act, to be decisive, to capture opportunities when they arose. “If you aren’t afraid to act, you’ll always be a step ahead of the competition,” says Jean-Pierre Belisle, vice president of strategic planning.
This active approach can be traced to the Hamelins, whom their staff describes as “doers.” When starting Hamelin Fer & Metaux, for example, “the opportunities were open to everyone, but Jean-Guy and Bernard saw a need that had to be fulfilled and made the necessary moves,” says Jean-Pierre.
In their business, the Hamelins say they strive to take the initiative rather than react to events and situations. “When we see a development, we can act quickly,” says Bernard, executive vice president. “We try to think a few steps ahead because we know that in a global economy, that is the only logical strategy to adopt.”
Not that the Hamelins are big risk takers, mind you. Nor do they believe in making all the decisions themselves in a vacuum. In their view, the ingredients for effective decision making are a knowledgeable staff (and in SNF’s case, it doesn’t hurt that they’re also young and aggressive), thorough discussion of the issues, and careful cost-benefit analyses—in other words, thoughtful strategic planning rather than impetuous action. “We’re thinkers first, then we’re doers,” says Michel Poulin, vice president of sales. “We’re not gamblers, yet we’re not conservative.”
This take-action philosophy applies not only to seizing new business opportunities, but also to resolving problems as they arise. The Hamelins are big believers in tackling problems today, not putting them off until tomorrow. “If you want to be the leader in the industry, you don’t wait for others,” says Jean-Guy.
As an example, he points back to 1989, when the Quebec government banned the disposal of shredder fluff in landfills due to concerns about the presence of leachable heavy metals in the material. This decision left Quebec shredder operators—including SNF’s Quebec Metal and Capitale Metal—with mountains of fluff on their hands and no other disposal alternative.
“Instead of doing nothing, SNF tackled the problem directly in a practical manner,” says Jean-Guy, noting that the firm established a dialogue with the government and eventually, in 1994, initiated a pilot project with the Quebec Environment Ministry. The one-year project was designed to assess the ecological and environmental effects of shredder fluff under actual landfill conditions.
The result? The company succeeded in having a new provision passed in the Quebec Environment Law that allowed shredder fluff to once again be disposed of in appropriate landfill sites. “By behaving in an imaginative and tenacious way, SNF alone resolved the most serious environmental and operational problem of Quebec shredders,” Jean-Guy boasts.
SNF also doesn’t hesitate to take action in another way, namely in making investments to ensure it delivers the best service and products. “SNF spares no effort or expense in providing the required product and service,” asserts Jean-Guy.
On one level, making investments means purchasing the most modern processing and handling equipment. “If you want to remain competitive, you need the latest equipment,” Bernard says. “The only way you can get into mass production is to become automated. We use the most advanced technologies on the market to produce the highest quality output.” And in its ongoing efforts to continually upgrade its plants and provide better service to its suppliers, the firm plans to eventually hard-surface the operating areas of its facilities.
Beyond processing and handling machinery, SNF also invests in the most modern communications and administrative equipment, viewing it as essential to keep pace in today’s recycling race. Take mobile phones, for instance. Whenever they’re not actually in the office, SNF’s executives seem to be on their cellular phones constantly, keeping up with the metal markets, talking with the office, and remaining accessible to their customers at all times. During lunch one day, for example, Michel fields several calls, then pulls a miniature 20-second message recorder from his coat pocket. He quietly records a reminder for himself, then returns to his lunch. Another time, trader Norman Trottier gets a call as he drives through Laval’s morning rush hour. After hanging up, he says matter-of-factly, “I just bought a load.”
And then, of course, there are computers, which have been de rigueur at all of SNF’s operations for years. The firm, in fact, is currently upgrading its network to improve its interoffice communications and information-handling capabilities. “As you grow, you have a greater need to manage and process information quickly and effectively,” says Bernard.
When it comes to investments, SNF has even taken the extra step of investing in its image—a step that’s becoming more important in today’s business climate, but one that many recyclers may be apt to overlook or neglect. One look around SNF’s headquarters tells you this is a company that places great importance on presenting a professional, modern appearance. Maybe it’s the decorative glass-block partition walls or the tasteful framed artworks or the designer wall lights. It’s obvious this isn’t your ordinary scrap company office. And that’s just the way SNF would have it. As Norman explains, “When you have an international clientele, you don’t want to look local.”
The firm has also invested in its image by producing a slick four-color brochure—a graphic design award winner, Jean-Pierre points out—as well as a professionally produced video of its services, which it uses to introduce business contacts to its company. “We know we need to project an image that corresponds to who we really are,” Jean-Pierre states.
The Importance of Relationships
Any recycler will tell you that the scrap industry is a business of relationships. The Hamelins know this as well as anyone, and they have built SNF, in large part, by forging solid relationships with not only their suppliers and customers, but also their employees.
Relationship-building is important to Jean-Guy and Bernard. In fact, it was part of their upbringing. They came from a closely knit family and observed from the start the personal way their father and mother operated the family grocery store, putting an emphasis on integrity and respect for the customer. Their parents’ example taught them to take a personal approach to business and emphasized the importance of establishing relationships one person at a time.
This relational approach still defines SNF. “The philosophy of the firm hasn’t changed from the beginning,” says Bernard. In particular, that philosophy involves establishing mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers and consumers—whom the Hamelins refer to as “partners”—and growing together. And, Bernard proudly adds, he and Jean-Guy still personally maintain the company’s business relationships on a daily basis.
In a similar vein, the Hamelins have always believed that SNF could only reach its potential if it had a dedicated, motivated work force. “In order to grow as SNF has done, you need good employees and a good incentive program for them,” Michel observes.
While acknowledging the importance of factors such as pay and benefits, the Hamelins say it’s equally important to make employees feel as if they’re members of a family. “Our 300 employees have to work as one person,” says Jean-Pierre. The firm achieves this, in part, by bringing employees together in group social activities, such as attendance at theatrical shows, music concerts, and sports events—on the house, of course.
Employees must also feel confident that the company will be there for them in tough times—during periods of personal crisis, for instance—and they must have a clear, explicit idea of what the firm expects from them in their jobs, the Hamelins assert.
The company’s relational approach to its staff must be working, for it boasts of having many long-term employees. As Michel notes, “We don’t have people leave the company because they’re unhappy.”
Sticking With A Winning Formula
For a scrap firm as action-oriented as SNF, the future is certain to be full of change and growth, which the company views not only as desirable, but necessary. “As the recycling leader in Eastern Canada, we’re open to new ventures and we foresee new ventures,” Jean-Guy says, explaining, “We could stagnate if we don’t keep open to joint ventures and other growth.”
Could the firm’s plans include reaching beyond Eastern Canada into other parts of the country or even the United States? With an elusive smile, all Jean-Guy offers is, “We’re in a position to entertain any proposal within the industry. The door is wide open.”
Whatever happens, however, the emphasis will be on making controlled change and growth, says Bernard, noting, “We intend to build SNF’s future carefully, one step at a time and without haste, always taking a global approach to the scrap market.”
In particular, the company plans to grow successfully by “repeating our good moves, keeping our good formula going,” according to Jean-Pierre. To illustrate his point, he recalls when Coca-Cola changed its tried-and-true soft drink formula with disastrous results, only to return to its “classic” formula in the end.
SNF has no intention of making such a corporate blunder. “We won’t forget our old successful formula,” Jean-Pierre says.
For SNF, however, sticking with its past formula doesn’t mean becoming formulaic, just that it won’t give in to the temptation to fix something that isn’t broken. The goal is simply to apply its previous successful formula in new and creative ways. After all, Jean-Guy asserts, “Some companies stand still and some move ahead. Those that are imaginative will survive into the next century.” •