Driving Force

Pictured from left: Jerry Morris, Neil Morris, Bill Standridge. Photos: Sharon C. Capps

Jerry Morris and his son Neil of Morris Scrap Metal Co. Inc. look back at the past several decades and point to “a lot of hard work and a lot of hours to get where we are now.”

Morris Scrap Metal, based in Kings Mountain, N.C., which is about 40 miles west of Charlotte, was started with a focus on auto salvage by Jerry’s father, the late Earl Morris, in 1931.

Scrap metal processing is now the primary activity at the 12-acre location in Kings Mountain, but the Morris family has not neglected its auto salvage roots.

About 30 miles southeast of Kings Mountain, in Rock Hill, S.C., Palmetto Recycling/Carolina Salvage/U-Pull-It is co-owned by the Morrises along with Billy Standridge, a former NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) driver who has been in the auto salvage business since his high school years.

Together the three men oversee several companies at three locations that combined handle several thousand end-of-life vehicles and tens of thousands of tons of scrap metal each year.

Auto-Centric
Charlotte is home to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and one of racing’s marquee tracks, Charlotte Motor Speedway. Keeping cars running and improving their performance is a traditional pastime in the region, which helped sustain Earl Morris’ auto salvage business when he founded it in 1931.

The business evolved as Earl’s son Jerry became more involved. “In the early 1960s, as my dad got more involved, the business really became geared more toward scrap metal,” Neil says.

As the company Earl founded began buying and selling more scrap, Jerry began to establish relationships with customers in the Charlotte region that have helped the company survive and thrive. “We maintain a lot of personal relationships with our customers,” Neil says. “We trade favors and we sit down to lunch or dinner together.”

As well, increased tonnage and revenue eventually helped Morris Scrap Metals upgrade and automate its operations. “Back in the day, my grandfather would burn auto hulks or use sledge hammers to take stuff apart—he didn’t even have a cutting torch,” Neil recalls. “When I was a kid, I’d cut the valve stems out of inner tubes to separate the brass from the rubber.”

Jerry says, “We didn’t know what truck scales were at the time. If it was too big to fit on our platform scale, we had to guess at the weight.”

The Kings Mountain location now appears much different than it would have in the 1950s. “In 1995, we bought in a 300-ton Mosley shear—that was an important upgrade for us,” says Neil. In 2006 the company bought a 730-ton GS7 shear made by Harris, Tyrone, Ga., which is a workhorse in the company’s ferrous scrap processing operations.

Among the other pieces of equipment on site are 75-foot truck scales, four Liebherr scrap handlers and several Komatsu material handlers equipped with Genesis mobile shears.

Neil says the Morris Kings Mountain location now handles between 2,200 and 2,500 tons per month of ferrous scrap and 150,000 to 200,000 pounds of nonferrous scrap each month. Jerry adds, “We handle ferrous, nonferrous, high-temp—the whole spectrum. I tell my customers if it’s made out of metal, I’ll buy it.”

The company owns some 250 roll-off boxes to serve industrial accounts, and Neil estimates that “probably 80 percent of my volume is industrial and probably 20 percent retail.”

The Kings Mountain location also is home to a new steel sales center. (See the sidebar “Something Old, Something New,” below)

The growth of Morris Scrap Metals ultimately helped Neil Morris return to his family’s roots in the auto salvage business, buying in as a partner with Billy Standridge in Carolina Salvage/U-Pull-It in early 2009.

Full Service
Standridge says he enjoyed his years as a stock car racer, which included driving at the sport’s highest level in the 1980s and 1990s in NASCAR’s Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) series.

Even while racing, though, Standridge says he never fully parted from the auto salvage business. And when he was finished racing in 1999, he delved back full time into managing Carolina Salvage in Rock Hill.

“I worked in a salvage yard when I was 17 and pretty much started a business even before I graduated from high school,” Standridge says. “Even while I was doing the racing and was a crew chief, I kept my salvage yard going.”

Standridge planned well when he located his business on 33 acres near Interstate 77 in Rock Hill. (He also owns a second location, Standridge Auto Parts, in Shelby, N.C.)

The sizable parcel of land in Rock Hill has allowed Standridge to develop his business there into three companies situated side by side by side. (The current configuration was the result of a “remodeling” effort in 2010.)

“The left-hand side is the full-service auto parts company, Carolina Salvage,” notes Standridge. “On the right-hand side is the U-Pull-It self-serve parts business, and the scrap operation, known as Palmetto Recycling Services, sits in the center between the two.”

Palmetto Recycling is able to serve retail customers and also draws a steady stream of scrap from the adjacent salvage yards. “We can pull in cars from either side and we can scrap them in the center,” Standridge says.

Having become a 50 percent partner in the Rock Hill businesses in 2009, Neil says he has enjoyed working with Standridge to capitalize on ways the auto salvage and scrap processing locations can work together efficiently. “We’re buying 25 cars per day; we’ll scrap 25 per day to make room for the 25 we’ve got coming in,” he notes.

When the 2011 Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) convention was held in Charlotte in October, an optional tour of the Rock Hill location was offered to attendees. The Morrises and Standridge say they received many compliments from those who toured. “People came from all over the country and they said they were impressed,” Neil says.

Standridge says, “People from competing yards have come in and looked and then tried to set their yards up similarly.” While that could be a source of concern, Standridge adds, “They have a long way to go to catch us.”

Past and Future
Although much has changed in Kings Mountain and in Rock Hill, the principals of the companies point to some fixed philosophies they have adhered to.

“Our company is well-respected in our area and we are known for our honest, straightforward business practices,” Neil says.

The scrap industry has changed in the Carolinas, Neil and Jerry say, pointing in part to the presence of large national competitors active in the two states. “We’re surrounded by shredders, which means we have several companies we can sell material to. They’ll buy our shredder feed, but they’ll also call on our industrial accounts,” Neil says.

The stiff competition can erode profit margins, the Morrises say, but they have managed to hold on to much of their business. “I think we still have an advantage,” Neil says. “When our customers deal with some of these larger companies, they’re a number. My customers are also friends; we go out to eat. One industrial company we work with closely has a relationship that traces back to my grandpa Earl.”

Jerry says he has never thought of doing anything else for a living but working in the scrap industry and serving customers. “I don’t know anything else. My office now was the home that I was born in,” he notes. “I’ve been spending time here for all of my 70 years.”

The industry has been good to Jerry—who no longer lives on site but rather has a 170-acre farm with what he calls a couple of well-fed head of cattle. He is quick to credit his son Neil with having moved the business forward in big strides.

“I would have to say with the new man at the helm here, it has really grown in the last 15 years,” Jerry says. “I’m really proud of what Neil has done.”

In turn, Neil credits his father for having provided him with a solid foundation. “The main thing I learned from my dad is being honest,” he says, “and to treat your customers the way you want to be treated. You may not always have the highest price, but if they know you’re honest, they’ll keep coming back.”

Neil has assumed most of the management duties at Morris, while Jerry spends a couple of hours in the office in the morning followed by an afternoon spent doing what he likes to do best on the job: “I like to get into one of the Liebherrs and run it—that’s part of my retirement.”

Neil says he has emphasized having good managers and crews in place. “We have a good crew here in Kings Mountain. We can leave the premises and there will be smooth sailing—although I like to be here.” He adds, “In Rock Hill, things have been running great since we did the remodel back in 2010, and we have three good managers down there.”

Following up on new opportunities and growing the businesses will remain an important focus, Neil says. “I’ve got more processing equipment in mind for Kings Mountain, and in Rock Hill we’ve got plenty of land and plenty of room for growth. Right now, I’d say we probably have an inventory of 3,000 cars down there, but we still have seven acres in the back to add another 1,000 to 1,200 cars if we wanted to.”

Neil reflects on the company’s history with pride and looks forward with optimism. “I grew up here and drove the trucks and ran the shears—there is nothing here my employees do that I haven’t done before. There is a lot of history here, and I think I know everybody in the scrap business in a 50-mile radius. We plan on being here for a good long time.”

The author is editorial director of Recycling Today and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.