Schupan Asset Management and Valley City Electronic Recycling Announce Merger
Michigan-based recycler Schupan and Sons, Inc. has announced that its Asset Management business unit will form a joint venture with Grand Rapids, MI-based Valley City Electronic Recycling. The joint venture, called Schupan Electronics Recycling, expands both companies’ electronics recycling and IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) capabilities.
“By joining forces with Valley City, we are leveraging our combined expertise, expanding our geographic footprint, and providing our clients with more comprehensive and efficient recycling solutions,” said Marc Schupan, CEO of Schupan.
The Valley City Electronic Recycling team, including founder Jason Kehr, will join the Schupan Asset Management team. The new Wyoming, MI facility will serve as a handling and staging location for materials to be transported to the R2v3-certified, Kalamazoo operations site for additional processing. The Wyoming location will offer a computer refurbishment and resale store, open to the public.
“We are proud to partner with Schupan Asset Management in creation of our shared venture, Schupan Electronics Recycling,” said Jason Kehr, President of Valley City Electronic Recycling. “This collaboration will allow us to enhance the services we provide and deliver even greater value to our clients.”
According to Drew Beekman, Manager of Operations at Schupan, the merger would increase the company’s capability to sell reuseable assets and give the items that were disposed of or recycled a new life.
“There will be a team and facility solely focused on this part of the business,” Beekman said. “This merger comes with a brick-and-mortar opportunity in Grand Rapids, MI, where the new team will operate. Rather than strictly online sales, a physical location also allows for items beneath our current cutline to be considered for reuse/resale since shipping and handling wouldn’t be factors.”
Beekman adds that IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) is an important component for Schupan because it enables the company to provide customers and clients with detailed reports on the assets they’re disposing of. The reports, clients and customers can either compare/contrast with their records or have an initial file of what they are releasing to keep stored on their end.
“It also allows us to give the units a little more use through expanding their lifecycle by testing the units for functionality and then cleaning the units for cosmetic purposes,” Beekman noted. “The best form of recycling is reuse and the ITAD component along with this new merger allows us to direct a sect of our division/operation to focus on that.”