Page 25 - Vallejo_Chamber_of_Commerce_Magazine_Spring_2020

locations: two in San Leandro, one in San Jose, and
near-identical yards in Stockton and Vallejo. While
they are known for dealing in ferrous and non-ferrous
materials (“ferrous” means mostly consisting of iron),
they are also known as one of the Bay Area’s biggest
buyers and purchasers of non-ferrous metal. Since it is
a registered CRV center, people can take aluminum cans,
glass containers, or plastic bottles that are marked with
the CRV symbol, and they will be redeemed at a “highly
competitive price” (alcometals.com).

“Family owned and operated companies are usually “When the transformer’s components are properly
trapped inside a box. While Alco Iron & Metal Company recycled—aluminum, copper, core steel, and mineral
has established an honorable reputation in and around oil—these pieces create like-new sustainable equipment”
Vallejo, we’re continuing to grow by the day” (alcometals. (alcometals.com).
com). The company strives to continuously help the
community with their services and sets goals, their They also offer demolition services for large-scale items
website stating, “Our family set out to provide our like water tanks or towers, power plants, or other
community with an unsurpassed level of expertise. We industrial structures. On top of that, Alco differentiates
quickly knocked that goal out of the park and moved on from many scrap metal facilities in that it offers
to our next goal.” They also pride themselves in their customized welding services. For people interested in
rapport with their customers. any of these, quotes are free.

“From the moment we opened our doors, Alco Iron and
Metal Company hit the ground running. We wanted to
Alco, Recycling and solve their metal needs. We always aimed to be the best
prove to our community that there was a better way to
and we were amazingly successful,” Alco’s website says.
“Our hard work and commitment to excellence translated
much more! into fruitful relationships with our clients. We may need
to credit the bulk of our success to the values instilled in
us as family. Now, as we stand as the leading full-service
metal supplier in the state of California, we’re out to
prove something even bigger.”

Alco Iron and Metal’s Vallejo yard is located at 321 Azuar
By Nate Gartrell “Our business model evolved from our customers,” Drive, Building #629, on Mare Island. It is open Monday
Manager of the Vallejo yard, Kari Fletcher, said in a through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturday
news release for the German machine-building company from 8 a.m. to noon. Its scale hours vary slightly, where
hether it is from a home construction project, a hobby of saving up aluminum cans, or taking apart Sennebogen. “We build good relationships based on they are operational from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays,
an old car, the problem of having a hill’s worth of scrap metal to get rid of is all too common. When trust with our service and our knowledge and the right with a half-hour lunch break starting at noon, and from
people have metal that needs disposing, one local option that stands out among the rest is to take equipment. Then the customers ask us what else we can 8 to 11:45 a.m. on Saturdays. It is closed on Sundays.
Wit to Alco Iron and Metal on Mare Island. do for them to assist them in their businesses.” For additional information, call them at (707) 562-1107,
or email them at mareisland@alcometals.com. You can
Alco accepts a wide variety of materials at each of their also visit alcometals.com for detailed information on their
Alco has been around for the better part of a century started to see a lot of growth in the company when his sites, and its relatively close proximity to eastern Asia services and all five of their locations that include Vallejo.
(established in 1953 in San Leandro) and has steadily sons took over the day-to-day operations in the mid-to- means that much of the metal it accepts ends up getting
grown. “Alco was founded in 1953,” Company COO and late ‘80s and early ‘90s.” shipped to markets in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, and
General Counsel Michael Bercovich told Business Review Southeast Asia. Nate Gartrell grew up in Benicia,
Magazine last year. “The founder was the father of our Alco is one of many Bay Area-based companies that studied journalism in college, and has
written for a handful of media outlets
current owners, who worked at a different recycling took advantage of Mare Island’s ready-made industrial In addition to receiving and selling metal, the company since age 15. He aspires to visit all 30
location in Oakland, and decided to open his own yard. infrastructure from its days as a US Navy base. The offers metal recycling services—industrial materials Major League Baseball stadiums and to
It started in a small, quarter-acre yard in San Leandro. company now has 220 employees and 41 acres of from appliances, railroads, cars, and the like, as well as hit the trifecta at the horse track.
He ran it for many years, incorporated in 1972, and then warehouse space spread over five Northern California transformer dismantling.

Discover our community 2020 23