California Family Business Grows, Diversifies

Wed March 06, 2024
By Sharon Swanson

Sandwiched halfway between the affluent neighborhoods of Silicon Valley and the high-end resorts of Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula lies a somewhat less glitzy success story.

While a scrapyard and recycling business in Castroville, Calif., might lack the name recognition and star power of its neighbors to the north and south, it is nonetheless making a name for itself in the growing recycling and demolition industries.

A&S Metals, Recycling and Demolition is a third-generation, family-owned recycling business. Founded on April 1, 1969, by father and son, George R Silva and Stanley G Silva. The company is celebrating its 55th anniversary this year and is now managed by the next generation under the direction of Stan Silva Jr., who serves as president and CEO.

The company has established itself as a leader in scrap metal recycling, demolition and concrete aggregate crushing. The recycling business keeps each of the company's eight locations and their 170 employees busy as they process roughly 10,000 tons of recyclables per month. There are drive-thru facilities for aluminum cans (CA CRV) and plastics at each location, as they "strive to bring a world of cleanliness that is environmentally friendly for everyone that visits the facilities," according to Stan Jr.

A&S is a family owned and operated business in the truest sense. Behind Stan Jr. is the next generation of Silvas, including Stanley Silva III, Stan Jr.'s niece —Shealynn Bianchi — and Stanley Silva IV. Stan Jr. and his sister, Danette Silva, currently run the business on a day-to-day basis since the senior Silva's passing 16 years ago.

Don't let the familial nature of the business fool you. The company is prospering under a strategic and aggressive growth plan put in place in the early 2000's.

Diversification, Ingenuity

Five of A&S' eight facilities are full scrap recycling and demolition operations. The others serve as feeders for the larger sites.

Most people would not know the extent of recycling that takes place on the property because of how things are spread out, organized and clean, according to Stan Jr. He said the company takes pride not only in keeping the grounds clean and organized, but also in taking diligent care of the huge fleet of equipment the company has assembled over the years.

"It's hard to keep things clean and organized, I mean, we are dealing with everyone's junk," Stan Jr. said. "We try to be efficient in what we do and have pride in our equipment.

"If you don't take care of the equipment, your employees won't respect that piece of equipment and they won't respect you for what you are doing," Stan Jr. added. "So it's like a double-edged sword. I work hard on keeping them painted, keeping windshields in place, fenders, counterweights painted, etc. because then it helps employee have more pride in what they're doing."

Along with the recycling facilities and maintenance operation, trucking has become integral to the company's success and long-term strategy. Not only does the company haul its own scrap metal in to the various facilities and haul the processed materials out to its customers, it offers hauling as a service as well.

"It's important that we have a company that is also for hire, we do a lot of heavy haul … we like to be diversified to do everything and anything that we can to be a self-efficient company," Stan Jr. said.

Over the years, the Silva's have developed onsite fabrication facilities to answer unique equipment challenges they face.

"I've designed all of our own dumps [trailers], all of our own roll-off trailers," Stan Jr. said. "It's always about being light and efficient. I built my first in-dump in 1989 and they have built about 30 more since and have a few others in process. It is very important to me to be self-reliant; I never want to see one of my pieces of equipment behind a tow truck."

Resisting Rental Trend

Finding the right equipment partner has been vital to A&S' success, said Silva, and 75 percent of its equipment has been purchased from Bejac Corporation over the last 12 years.

"We try not to rent equipment and if we need a piece of equipment, we go and buy it or we have it," he said.

Silva's operations utilize Link-Belt and Liebherr machines almost exclusively for their lifting, demolition and material handling needs. Both brands are supplied by Bejac.

"We started buying Link-Belt products in the early 90s and then bought our first Liehberr material handler in 2001. Since that time, we have purchased approximately 25 more Liebherr machines and approximately 30 additional Link-Belt excavators and material handlers," Silva said.

Both lines of equipment are important to his operation and fill unique needs in the recycling process, Silva said.

"We really like the Liebherr material handler for its hydraulics and lifting abilities," he said. "Our first Link-Belt machine was a 2700 excavator back in 1991. We still buy the 160 model today and really like light weight and fuel efficiency of the machine. Plus, we can haul it with no permit."

For heavier recycling needs, Silva said he prefers the LH30 material handler from Liebherr for its dependability. They also use Liebherr's compact 924 with the Genesis Sheer for their daily material sorting needs.

Stan Jr. added that he "loves working with Bejac and our rep, Mike [Smith], mostly for the convenience and the ability to work with a local company that can service our equipment. I have a great relationship with Bejac. They follow through with what they say they are going to do."

Symbiotic relationships like this are important between the dealer and the customer, according to Smith.

"Silva has a direct line to Robert Cycon, chief operating officer of Bejac, and Ron Barlet, president and CEO of Bejac," Smith said.

"It's not like we're doing business, it's more like taking care of them," Smith added. "He happens to buy equipment from us and we take care of him. That's the way it should be. We help each other out."

Silva agreed, "It's not a mentality of what have you done for me lately, it's a case of what we can do together to make each other stronger."

In addition to handlers and excavators, A&S purchases dozers and wheel loaders from Bejac, Smith said.

Family Values

Stan Jr. reflected on his dad and the lessons he learned, one of which was, "he taught me how to work with people and how to be a part of their companies, because it makes us all stronger, that's a huge undertaking for us, as well as Bejac to have that kind of relationship."

He values long-term relationships with his employees, too. Alfonso Guttierez has been with the company for 46 years; he also has four brothers that have been there for more than 30 years.

"Alfonso watched me grow up in the company," Stan Jr. said. "I used to sit on his lap, my son sat on another guys' lap and now I've got a grandson doing the same thing. So not only are we family oriented and customer related, but we partner with companies like Bejac. It's these long, long relationships that make us stronger."

The Castroville headquarters started out on three acres and has grown to 26 acres today. They plan to continue growing and are buying other facilities.

"This is all part of the growth plan and so between my sisters, myself and my son, we have a pretty good direction because we had a pretty good teacher," Stan Jr. said, referring to his dad.

The Silva's are looking forward to the future, future generations and additional locations as the need for clean recycling continues to grow.

About A&S

A&S Metals is a full-service scrap metal recycling, demolition, and concrete aggregate crushing contractor based out of Castroville, Calif. In addition, it provides demolition services for a range of projects, providing safe, efficient and affordable demolition services while also offering recycling on all recyclable materials upon the job's completion.

About Bejac Corporation

With more than 65 years of history, 13 locations throughout California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, and now a central warehouse in Visalia, Bejac Corporation continues to expand to meet the needs of its customers with a promise to hire the most competent employees that are capable of delivering the Bejac experience. Bejac supplies equipment for the construction, composting, demolition, forestry, grinding and shredding and recycling and scrap handling industries. CEG