Page 8 - Volume 10 Number 9

Schupan & Sons has 13 locations in four Midwestern states. The Schupan Aluminum & Plastic Sales division specializes in a full line of aluminum and plastic mill products and large-scale production runs of technical components or low volume repeating products. (COURTESY OF LUCKYDOG AND SCHUPAN & SONS, INC.)
graduated and began teaching high school history, government and economics while coaching football, basketball and baseball. In July 1974, he decided to take a break from teaching before either going to law school or pursuing a college basketball coaching career. “I agreed to help my father for a year. Three weeks after I started, he died of a stroke at age 53,” he said.
He immediately stepped into the role as CEO and renamed the business Schupan & Sons, Inc. in honor of his father.
Diversification = Growth
“As time went on, we continued to grow and diversify,” Schupan said. “We went from being in the industrial recycling business to the distribution of aluminum, and we also bought a few companies here and there and got involved on the manufacturing side.”
“He was 48 at the time, had four children, two in college, not a lot of money to invest, but he had ambition and wanted to be his own boss.”
Although Schupan worked there during the summer, he did not plan a career in the industry. Instead, he
Schupan Recycling, the largest independent processor of used beverage containers in the nation, in partnership with UBCR, converted its entire fleet of trucks used for pickup service to compressed natural gas.
(COURTESY OF LUCKYDOG AND SCHUPAN & SONS, INC.)
Today the company comprises of three divisions. Schupan Industrial Recycling provides scrap management strategies, collection, processing and sales of ferrous and non-ferrous metals for industry, manufacturing and small businesses. In 2012, the company added
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SEPTEMBER 2016