July/August 1998
Nonferrous processor Jack Engle & Co. has the best of both worlds—the richness of a traditional family-owned scrap company and a thoroughly modern, youthful approach to business and technology.
By Eileen Zagone
Eileen Zagone is an associate editor for Scrap.
The offices of Jack Engle & Co., a Los Angeles nonferrous scrap processor, buzz with the latest technology: Computer software allows office employees to share and access information about everything from quoted prices to billing information with the click of a mouse. Cellular telephones keep the company’s truck fleet in constant communication with the dispatching department. Digital photographs of scrap and other information can be sent instantly via e-mail around the world. And with the touch of a computer key, employees can immediately access the latest Comex and LME price and inventory information.
This thoroughly modern company is, at the same time, thoroughly traditional in that three generations of Engles—founder Jack, son Alan, and grandson Jason—work side by side like family scrap businesses of yore.
Together, the Engles feel they have built a business that combines the best of the old and the new: the traditions and values of a classic family-owned and -operated business with current technological and business sophistication to keep it competitive with the changing times of the scrap industry.
Building on Integrity
The history of Jack Engle & Co. begins not in Los Angeles but in Ohio, where Jack was born and raised. His father was a scrap peddler in Youngstown, and Jack learned the scrap trade at his father’s knee, accompanying him on his rounds to pick up whatever scrap materials were available.
After Jack married, he and his wife decided to move to Southern California in 1947. “It wasn’t exactly the land of milk and honey,” he recalls, but it offered new opportunities for him to continue in the only business he knew: peddling scrap. As his peddling business gradually grew to include a number of significant industrial scrap generators, Jack joined up with a partner to form J&J Metals Co. Inc.
The partnership continued until 1964 when Jack decided to put some of his ideas about the scrap industry to the test as owner and operator of his own scrap processing company. “My idea was to maintain a customer properly and not think of each transaction as just a one-shot deal,” he explains. “I wanted to develop a relationship with the customer.”
He started his new business—aptly named Jack Engle & Co.—in 1965. “I tried to think of the future, and I thought that developing a company around customer service was the best way to ensure a strong future,” he says.
The firm’s nonferrous focus came about because, in contacting various mills throughout the country, Jack discovered that there were only a few other processors in Los Angeles handling nonferrous scrap. “I wanted to try to do a better job,” he says, noting, “if you build a better mousetrap than your neighbor, you’re going to catch more mice.” His customer service philosophy was unique at the time and earned Jack Engle & Co. the chance to service some of these nonferrous mill customers. As a testament to the soundness of his philosophy, Jack can boast that his company still has “about 70 percent of the customers I started out with.”
Integrity is a word that comes up frequently when the principals of Jack Engle & Co. are asked about the keys to the firm’s success. “Jack built the company on the principle of integrity above all else,” says Andrew C. Hyde II, an industrial scrap buyer for the company, who adds that “it’s extremely enjoyable to work for a company whose combination of customer service and integrity is a cornerstone of its foundation.”
Jason echoes the importance and value of the company’s reputation for integrity. As he notes, “My last name gives me recognition to others in the industry who know my grandfather and father,” describing it as “an immediate feeling of gratification to know that I work for a company that’s so well-respected.”
The Extended Engle Family
Jack Engle & Co.’s reputation for integrity has been earned not only by the Engles, but also by the company’s employees, who have been given equal responsibility from the beginning to maintain the firm’s high-caliber quality and service standards.
With characteristic humility, Jack considers the firm’s employees to be its most important asset, stating that “our success in this business is because of the people who work for us. They’re the most important factor. Everyone who works here has a hand in pleasing our customers, and without customers we have no business.”
Jack Engle & Co. boasts low turnover in its union work force of around 60 employees, with several employees having worked there more than 20 years. “It sounds kind of corny,” says Alan, “but everyone who works here is part of the Jack Engle family.” Jack adds that he’s always tried to treat all employees the way he would want to be treated. “They have good benefits here and they’re entitled to them,” he says, because they work hard and are good representatives of the company.
Part of treating employees like family is being open to ideas from any and all of them, says Paul Segal, operations manager. “We want to bring out the best in every employee,” he says, adding that the company’s management maintains an open-minded philosophy on all employee suggestions.
Tom Camperos, the company’s senior buyer, can vouch for the firm’s open-minded approach. Even though he’s not a member of the Engle family, he notes, his ideas are given equal play with those of the three family members. “Here, the lines of responsibility aren’t as clearly drawn as in a typical corporate workplace,” he says, noting that everyone wears several different hats and has input in different areas of the business.
After more than 20 years with Jack Engle & Co., Larry Proetel, transportation and import/export manager, echoes Tom’s sentiments. “More than anything else, I enjoy working in an operation where I feel my input has a direct effect on the course that the business is taking,” he says.
Proven Quality and Thoughtful Service
For a perfect example of how Jack Engle & Co. gets its entire employee roster involved, Jason points to the company’s pursuit of ISO 9002 quality registration.
Though none of Jack Engle & Co.’s consumers required the firm to pursue ISO registration, “we could see the writing on the wall” that quality will become a bigger issue in the future, Alan says. And even if the writing wasn’t on the wall, he states, the company would still have been interested in ISO because of its potential to make the firm “a more efficient operation.”
Jason is leading the ISO charge and recalls that when he was selling his father and grandfather on the idea, he suggested, “Let’s get all the guys involved: They know how we’ve been operating for a long time, quality is already part of what they’re doing, and their input is invaluable. We just have to document it.” While the mountain of documentation required to earn registration isn’t complete, Jason expects the company to achieve the goal by the end of the year.
Jack Engle & Co. believes in its quality standard so much that, if a consumer questions the quality of a shipment, it takes full responsibility rather than trying to push the responsibility back on its suppliers. Alan explains that once the company accepts material, it also accepts full responsibility for ensuring that the material meets the consumer’s specifications. As physical evidence of this commitment to quality, Jack Engle & Co. stamps its initials—JECO—into its briquetted products. “When we put in our first machine,” Jack says, “I made sure our initials were stamped into the briquettes so the customer would know where the material came from.”
The company has always had a solid reputation for quality, says Alan, pointing out that it was an integral part of the company’s founding philosophy and has been one of the foundations of its ongoing success. “Some people in the scrap industry don’t put quality first, and their customers don’t insist on it,” he says, noting that some consumers may prefer the lower prices of lower-quality material. Jack Engle & Co., he explains, is more interested in developing a symbiotic relationship with suppliers and consumers and showing them how its service and quality can be beneficial for all.
Jack Engle & Co.’s buyers spend a good bit of their time, in fact, educating suppliers about the scrap they’re producing and how they can get the most value out of it. For instance, the purchasing department recently worked closely with a supplier to develop a complex scrap collection system from which both companies would benefit. In other cases, it may have been 10 or 20 years since a scrap processor assessed the supplier’s scrap, and the value of the material may have changed significantly in that time. “I enjoy going into a customer who isn’t knowledgeable about their scrap and showing them how we can offer them better service and better price,” says Tom.
Jack Engle & Co. understands clearly what its suppliers are trying to achieve: maximum revenue for their scrap with the least amount of hassle and labor.
The Next Generation—Motivation and Modernization
As the adage goes, the only constant in life is change. That’s one truth that Jack Engle & Co. has taken to heart in its business. As Alan notes, “the scrap industry is changing and becoming more modern,” with more emphasis on professional management approaches, information technology, and higher-tech processing and handling equipment. To face the future, the company strives to grow younger—not older—with age, he says, counting the firm’s combination of youthful and experienced employees as an important key to its future success.
At only 23 years old, Jason is the youngest member of the Jack Engle & Co. management team. He came on full-time a year ago, in addition to working at the plant part-time while he was growing up. Along with his educational background in psychology and environmental science, he brings fresh ideas and motivation to the business, says Alan. “Having a younger mind here stimulates my thinking and keeps the business new,” he explains, adding with fatherly pride that Jason has great business instincts and skills and that he’s continually impressed with his motivation, communication skills, and eagerness and ability to learn. “It’s exciting to see someone who wants to learn, grow, and change things,” he says.
Jason and Meron Taffesse, the company’s controller, have been the driving forces behind getting the firm on the cutting edge of technology. The firm’s new database software allows instant access to customer information. Every time a staff member contacts a customer, it’s noted in the database so that thorough information is available immediately during subsequent interaction. Jack Engle & Co.’s computer system also allows for satellite tracking of its truck fleet.
Another example of the firm’s technological savvy: If it’s trying to sell material to a buyer, in addition to describing the metal by phone or fax, the company can send a digital picture of it via e-mail for immediate evaluation. And if Jack Engle & Co. has a problem with received material, instead of taking a Polaroid or developing traditional photos of the material and then sending them overnight to settle the differences with the customer, a digital photograph can help clear up the confusion immediately. This digital approach saves time, which can be incredibly important, says Alan.
Thinking Ahead
The company’s vision doesn’t stop with the latest technology, however. “Our business has changed a lot in the last few years and we’ll continue to evolve,” says Alan.
What sorts of changes does he see coming down the pike?
Whatever happens, he says, the goal will always be toward increasing efficiency and the quality that has earned the company its reputation. He can imagine its operations becoming more mechanized and its equipment roster continually improving to feature the latest state-of-the-art processing and handling machinery.
For his part, Jason hopes that the scrap recycling industry will become more well-known among the general public as a recognized part of the chasing arrows symbol they’re familiar with now. “I think buying products from a company that recycles will become more important in the future,” he says, and therefore the scrap industry’s role will become more important and it will get the credit it deserves. “Everyone says recycling is one of the best things you can do for the environment, and I agree,” he says, “but I’d like the public perception of what we do to reflect that.”
As for the consolidation trend, Alan asserts that the current buying frenzy will alter the industry considerably and, in general, will “shake a lot of acorns from the tree.” While none of the Engles rule out expansion through acquisitions of their own in the future, their current focus is clearly on making their one operation as good as it can be and growing from there only as it makes good sense.
Nor do the company’s principals seek to be acquired by one of the scrap recycling behemoths. Though the idea of “having someone come in and offer you a lot of money for your business is kind of nice,” Alan says, “to be honest, I’m having too much fun right now and I look forward to seeing how we’ll grow and change with the future.” •
Nonferrous processor Jack Engle & Co. has the best of both worlds—the richness of a traditional family-owned scrap company and a thoroughly modern, youthful approach to business and technology.