Bridges commonly represent transition. For Jason Stephens and Vince Fabrico, co-owners of BlackBridge Investments, Huntington, New York, the company’s name and logo serve as constant reminders of the type of company the partners want to build: an iconic business known for its innovation and commitment to service.
Starting out
The duo first met in 2001 when they were freshmen at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. While both men were public relations majors, their jobs out of college were not in this field. Instead, Stephens began working for a trader who specialized in polyurethane foam, and Fabrico joined a recruiting firm as an account executive.
While both men had the benefit of strong mentors during the early years of their careers, they also had family histories of entrepreneurship and an ultimate goal to start their own business. While they discussed various business ideas, their discussions kept coming back to recycling, particularly trading. Then one day, Fabrico put $500 on Stephens’ desk, buying into the business that would become BlackBridge Investments.
The business partners recall their first meeting, which was at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, beneath the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. That initial meeting proved to be a valuable learning experience for Stephens and Fabrico.
As they were reviewing the meeting immediately afterward while standing outside of the pizzeria, they looked up at the Brooklyn Bridge. The icon was a source of inspiration for Fabrico and Stephens, providing the name of their business as well as its logo. It serves as a reminder of the stable, honorable company the business partners were determined to build.
With that meeting, BlackBridge Investments was christened Jan. 6, 2011.
Today, in addition to Fabrico and Stephens, the firm employs two account executives who work from offices in Huntington and in Neptune, New Jersey.
Stephens and Fabrico say BlackBridge Investments’ mission is to work as a liaison between buyers and sellers, meeting both parties’ needs in an “unprecedented” way through the use of modern technology. They also strive to bring more transparency to their transactions than typically is common of brokerage firms, the partners say.
BlackBridge Investments currently serves some of the largest companies in the recycling industry, moving millions of pounds of recovered plastics, polyurethane foam and paper annually.
Stephens says that in 2015, BlackBridge Investments has brokered roughly 60,300 pounds of recyclables per day. That compares with roughly 50,500 pounds per day the company handled in 2014.
While Fabrico says he considers BlackBridge a startup, he adds, “We are seeing about 20 percent year-over-year growth, and we expect to end 2015 with over 15 million pounds of recycled product bought/sold for the year.”
Keeping connected
Stephens, who serves as president of the company, says BlackBridge Investments’ goal is to be a modern technology-driven firm. “We started BlackBridge Investments with the goal of reinventing the recycling business by serving the needs of scrap buyers and sellers with smart technology to work faster and fulfill the needs of each transaction more efficiently,” he says.
Putting ideas into practice
Jason Stephens and Vincent Fabrico, co-owners of the brokerage firm BlackBridge Investments, Huntington, New York, say they believe in investing in their business and in the ongoing training of their sales staff.
When it comes to the latter, the business partners regularly select business books to read and discuss with their staff.
Fabrico says he and Stephens along with their staff read one chapter from the selected book each night and spend time the next morning discussing how they can apply what they learned.
One of the books they read recently that made an impression on the duo was Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success by Ken Segall. It offers a lesson that the business partners took to heart.
“We are big advocates of keeping it simple, or as a recent book we read as a team taught us, ‘hit it with the simple stick,’” Fabrico says.
The suite of business tools the company uses embodies this ideology. “In an environment of constant variables ranging from quality of material, trucking, pricing swings and unforecasted errors, BlackBridge relies on technology, specifically things that keep things constant,” Stephens says.
Fabrico adds, “Our company is all about innovation and using modern technology to be a differentiator in the market.”
Among the tools BlackBridge Investments uses are an internal chat system, custom load tracking software and a cloud-based storage system that houses all of the documents and photos associated with its transactions. “We don’t look at each tool as concrete,” Stephens says. “It’s a concert of tools that all work together.”
He adds that these tools allow the company to be “flexible, quick and agile” whether its staff is in or out of the office.
“If you’re late on any deal, you may miss out,” Fabrico says. With the technology BlackBridge Investments employs, he says, “We are always on and in a way that helps both of our customers in a transaction.”
In competitive markets, speed is definitely an asset, Stephens says. “There are a lot of brokers in our industry, and being ready to solve a problem for a buyer or seller at a moment’s notice is critical,” he says.
Additionally, Fabrico says, “We use technology as a tool in order to increase the productivity of each employee, decrease mistakes and improve communication. Our goal is to increase productivity to a level that is much higher than that of the average employee.”
The company’s flat organizational structure and collaborative approach also help to ensure quick responses to client requests, the business partners say. While certain responsibilities fall to certain people within the company, Stephens says, BlackBridge Investments can respond more quickly because of a lack of red tape in the organization.
“I think it gives us a competitive advantage,” he says of the way the company does business. “I don’t think a lot of our competitors work this way.”
Fabrico recalls a deal the company recently completed with a new client that took 24 hours from start to finish. He says, “The end user said, ‘We don’t usually work this fast, but this is exactly what we are looking for.’” However, for BlackBridge, that pace was slower than it is used to. “We close most deals faster than that.”
Fabrico continues, “We have an internal motto, ‘BlackBridge: We work fast,’ because we are shocked sometimes when others take five times as long as we do to get purchase orders, get a response, execute a contract or even send us an invoice.”
Technology improves the efficiency and transparency of transactions. “We are always exploring new technology to keep customers in the loop,” Stephens says. “Even the logistics companies that we work with can see the quotes we’re getting.”
He says the company’s technology reduces the drag on transactions and increases BlackBridge’s profitability and scope.
Building relationships
Taking a closer look
Vincent Fabrico and Jason Stephens, co-owners of BlackBridge Investments, Huntington, New York, say the company’s staff looks at each transaction as a learning opportunity, with the goal of continually improving its process.
“Every aspect of our business can and always should be improved on a daily basis,” Fabrico says. “Whether we are working on our relationships with customers or implementing a new system for dealing with freight, it is the job on an organization to continually improve.”
Stephens adds that such changes don’t have to be drastic to be effective. “Big change is often the aggregate of a lot of minor adjustments, and at BlackBridge we are continually making changes to improve our organization.”
He says, “We are fully invested and vested in every deal that we do,” adding that it’s the company’s job to ensure its buyers and sellers enjoying doing business with BlackBridge Investments.
The company’s focus on continual improvement is an extension of its approach to customer service and communication throughout a transaction. It’s not unusual for Fabrico to be on-site when material is loaded at a generator’s plant and unloaded at the consumer’s facility. In addition to helping generators dress their bales, Fabrico says he will ask consumers how the bale broke and what can be done to improve the quality of the material in the future.
“That is how we get premiums for our customers, too,” Stephens says, “by providing feedback to suppliers. Communication is important to have across the board with vendors and consumers.”
The business partners say they understand that BlackBridge Investments is in the service industry, which makes responsiveness important. Equally important, however, is addressing their clients’ problems.
“We do move hard-to-move materials,” Stephens says, “but we also find premium pricing for traditional plastic grades.”
This type of service becomes more important in the current market, with its depressed pricing and demand, Fabrico says. “We pride ourselves on still doing deals, even at a bare amount of profit, to keep our customers happy,” he says. “We don’t shut the door; we’ll figure out how to make the pricing work.”
Stephens adds, “Brokers get a bad name because some try to make huge scores on material. We are here for the long term. We are not looking for home runs; we are looking for singles. We are in the service business and are here to help you in the good and the bad times.”
BlackBridge Investments offers its clients a diversified lineup of buyers, Stephens says. “MRFs come to a brokerage because we spend our time diversifying our buyers,” he says. “We do the hard work for them. They have one contact to call. Our only business is making sure our end uses and suppliers get the best price they can.”
Fabrico says the diversification that BlackBridge Investments offers extends beyond buyers to logistics companies.
When dealing with BlackBridge, he says, all the company’s clients see is “really good service” because the company has handled all of the details. However, BlackBridge is transparent about its transactional costs, including freight, Fabrico adds.
While deals can be “more cutthroat” in the plastics sector, Stephens says, BlackBridge Investments’ consistency and honesty ensure repeat business, even if the company can’t always get the best price for a client. “Having a partner that can guide you and coach you in any given market is an asset that you can’t replace,” he adds.
Planning for the future
Stephens says BlackBridge has “very ambitious” short-, medium- and long-term goals. “Growing at an average rate of 20 percent year over year, we plan to increase the rate of expansion at a controlled pace.”
Fabrico says the firm plans to round-out staffing at its New Jersey office in the short term, hiring several sales representatives for the vertical markets it covers.
“Once this office is complete, we plan to expand to a Chicago and West Coast office,” Stephens says. “Having these offices would expand the time that BlackBridge operates on a daily basis, allowing us to increase our competitive edge by having more work hours than our competition.”
BlackBridge also says it has plans to further develop its proprietary software. “We’ve had a skunk works (research and development) project for our own proprietary software that tracks, manages and simplifies the trading business for brokers, logistics teams, back office and owners,” Fabrico says. “Ultimately it would allow each party involved to streamline their business and create transparency throughout all steps of the process.”
Stephens adds, “We plan to invest in the R&D part of our business as we believe that big data and technology will play a critical role in exposing opportunity that may not be apparent on the surface.”
Fabrico says, “Our goal is to operate more efficiently and faster than any other broker in our industry, and technology will be the tool that allows this to happen.”
Of the company’s overall growth, Stephens says, “We need to make sure everything is done the right way. It takes a little longer, but we want to make sure it’s done the way it should be done,” adding that BlackBridge Investments is interested in sustainable growth.
A niche in foam
BlackBridge Investments, Huntington, New York, began in 2011 by offering brokerage services to material recovery facilities (MRFs) and other generators of postconsumer plastics. The company soon found itself marketing these facilities’ recovered paper as well as excess roll stock from other generators.
Jason Stephens, president of the company, says, “In 2014, BlackBridge made a push into a new vertical when an opportunity presented itself to BlackBridge in the polyurethane foam market, and we aligned ourselves with the largest end users in the industry.”
Among the companies BlackBridge markets material for are furniture makers and bedding manufacturers.
The polyurethane foam BlackBridge Investments markets is separated into several grades, including prime foam, molded foam, mattress foam, rebond and automotive trim, Stephens says.
Stephens was not unfamiliar with this sector, having worked for a small foam broker based in New York shortly after graduating from college.
“Within two years, we have diverted millions of pounds of scrap foam and are one of the largest recycling brokers in this vertical market,” says Vincent Fabrico, director of business operations for the company.
The author is managing editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted via email at dtoto@gie.net.
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