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By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
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KALAMAZOO — Marc Schupan is quick to spread praise for his company’s success.

Schupan, CEO of Schupan & Sons Inc., credits the growth of the company started by his father in 1968 with having good people from the shop floor to executive offices.

Schupan and the senior leadership at Schupan & Sons sat down with MiBiz for an exclusive conversation about the company’s history, its philosophy and how that has fed into growth for the company through the recession.

“The smartest CEO is the guy who knows what he doesn’t know and is willing to bring in talent,” Schupan said.

Schupan never obtained a business degree prior to taking over the scrap business after his father’s death 37 years ago. Today, the company operates in aluminum sales, industrial recycling, and beverage and container recycling markets. The company operates facilities across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and in 2010, it purchased Tri-State Aluminum in Ohio, a manufacturer with 30 years experience.

In his demeanor and management style, remnants of his past life as a school teacher and coach bleed through. He seems more interested in getting the most out of his team than winning accolades himself.

“I coached sports and taught for three years. I was in the office the next day. I was 26 and failure was not an option. I didn’t get this job necessarily because I applied for it. I’ve been here 37 years, but I think the real key to our success is that we can sit down together and work together as a team,” Schupan said. “I have a lot of confidence in my presidents and their managers. If they think that this is the right thing to do, I generally know that they’re more conservative than I am on a lot of things. My job is to support them financially and in any way I can.”

Partnerships

The leadership team at Schupan & Sons Inc., from top-left to right Marc Schupan, Michael Gildea, Thomas Emmerich, and Marc Rose, say that opportunities for growth have come out of staying close to their customers. PHOTOS: BRIAN BANKSTON

Business at Schupan & Sons has been focused on creating partnerships, with 5,000 customers spread across medical device, consumer products, and office and outdoor furniture industries. Today the $270 million company employs 350 people while staying true to its core values, valuing its people and customers, working toward partnerships rather than profits at any cost, and sometimes knowing when to say no.

“We are doing quite well. A lot of that is because we are diversified and we have very strong relationships with our customers,” Schupan said. “We’ve partnered with a lot of good people and I think we’ve gotten to a point in our careers and as a company as we’ve grown that we really don’t necessarily want to do business with everyone. We are looking for people who appreciate when you provide value. We understand it has to be mutually beneficial. There is never a good deal with bad people.”

Marc Rose, president of Schupan Industrial Recycling Services, said the division has grown by looking beyond just a manufacturer’s metal recycling needs, but more broadly at customers’ entire waste stream. As companies look to lean and green their operations, Rose wants to be his customers’ source for recycling and reducing their waste costs.

“We’ll audit them from a scrap metal perspective, but we’ll take a look at other waste items such as plastics, cardboard and hazardous waste and hook them up with the right people to help,” Rose said. “These are things that we don’t necessarily have an interest in, but we try to offer customers full service.”

Thomas Emmerich, president of Schupan Recycling, said that the company does not operate with a five-year business plan as commodity markets are constantly in flux, and customer demands might dictate significant changes.

“These are interesting economic times. Nobody is out there growing tremendously right now. Our growth has come through relationships with our customers and the opportunities that come from that. We can then pick and choose which make the most sense for our individual areas of business,” Emmerich said. “When you talk about long-term growth, we don’t have some huge strategy that we’re going to be a $500 million, we’re just looking for the right opportunities.”

Creating ownership

Schupan wants his employees to share in the ownership in the company, from decisions made in the boardroom to those made on the floor of the company’s facilities.

“Nobody ever washes a rental car. Every one of our employees knows that these aren’t rental jobs. I want ownership,” Schupan explained. “Character does matter. Every time we make a hire, we want to grow that position. From that standpoint we have a good value system … our people know that if the company’s successful, they’re successful.

Staying nimble

One thing Schupan isn’t is risk-averse. He frequently quotes Wayne Gretzky — “We don’t go to where the puck is, go to where it isn’t.” By remaining close to customers, the company can stay abreast of changing market conditions and find new niches before their competitors.

“We’ve never had the problem of paralysis by analysis, and over the years we’ve had to compete against people much bigger, much stronger financially than we are,” Schupan said. “We’re not always right. We’ve done some things and tried some things that haven’t worked, but we’ve always learned from them.”

Michael Gildea, president of Schupan Aluminum Sales, said this philosophy, and the willingness of Schupan to invest in new markets, has paid off.

“We decided a long time ago that we were going to let our customers tell us where we were going to be going in the future,” Gildea said. “We’ve always had the resources to buy the equipment, hire the people if we saw that there was an opportunity to do something.”

Working in the commodities market is a slim-margin game, and recent volatility in metal prices have the company looking to manage short-term risks against long-term goals. When contracts are written a year out, and fluctuations of 15 cents or more a pound each day in commodity prices are increasingly common, Schupan looks to play small ball while still looking for the larger opportunities.

“Sometimes you have to be content hitting singles and doubles, sometimes we have to take some risk,” Schupan said. “Over the years we’ve seen a number of major companies go bankrupt. We know we have to be strong financially. We have to pay our bills in a timely manner, we have a fiduciary responsibility not only to our employees, but to our customers as well.”

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• kalamazoo
• marc rose
• marc schupan
• michael gildea
• schupan & sons
• schupan aluminum sales
• thomas emmerich