From junk dealers to “urbanminers”  Four generations of a Winnipeg business succeed through   the Great Depression and today’s recession.  

From junk dealers to “urbanminers”  Four generations of a Winnipeg business succeed through   the Great Depression and today’s recession.  

 From junk dealers to “urbanminers” Four generations of a Winnipeg business succeed through the Great Depression and today’s recession. For Immediate Release: Winnipeg, Manitoba ‐ September 28, 2009 On the cusp of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, Adam, Mark and Haderra Chisick launched a brand new scrap metal business in Winnipeg and have seen nothing but progress ever since. But succeeding despite a bad economy is not new for the Chisick family. In the early 1900s Mark’s grandparents launched their scrap metal business in north end Winnipeg and shortly after had to weather the Great Depression. Their persistence through that period and every decade after has stood the test of time for 100 years and is the foundation that Urbanmine Inc. stands on today in the face of this recession. The youngest member of the family, 27‐year‐old University of Manitoba graduate Adam Chisick has adopted the family business and made it new again. On October 1, 2009 Urbanmine celebrates its second anniversary in a new facility with a growing staff. _________________________________________________________________________________________ At age 27, Adam Chisick has adopted the wisdom of his grandfather’s time and retooled it for his socially conscious generation. With his father and grandfather behind him, he’s turned the family junk business of the 1900s (founded in north end Winnipeg) into “urbanmining” of 2009, with a metal recycling warehouse (in the south end of Winnipeg). Although there are 60 years between the elder Max Chisick and his grandson Adam, the two share a passion for finding value in things that other people consider waste. When Max, 87, was working for his parents’ scrap metal business during the Dirty ’30s he was a boy, but he remembers how fortunate he was to be making a little bit of money when many Canadians were going without. Fast forward 80 years and his grandson Adam Chisick creates jobs, solves a growing waste problem and tries to make a difference for the environment during a recession. “Somewhere between my grandfather’s time and mine we became wasteful. Maybe it was the post‐war generation and the baby boomer economy, but people got careless. Their standard of living went up and they could afford to dispose of things. Today we realize we have to get back to being more frugal – partly because of the world‐wide recession ‐ but also because climate change demands it,” said Adam, the head of marketing relations for Urbanmine. “In my grandfather’s time they called it “scrapping”, today we call it “urbanmining”. Part of our job is teaching people that metal of all kinds, lead acid batteries and electronic waste should not go to a landfill. Instead they can bring it to Urbanmine and in most cases get money for what they might have thrown in the garbage or let pile up in a corner of the yard,” said Adam, an Asper School of Business graduate who has studied in England and Brazil. Bridging the two generations in the family business is Mark Chisick, 53, who grew up working for his dad, Max, at Chisick Metals on McPhillips Street and Logan Avenue in Winnipeg’s north end. “Back then tradesmen working on construction sites would pick up pieces of pipe or wire that were no longer of any use and put it in their lunch boxes. On Saturday they’d be standing in line at my dad’s scrap business to turn that bit of metal into a little extra income,” says Mark, President of Urbanmine. Mark Chisick left the family business in 2004. Three years later he, his wife Haderra and son Adam launched Urbanmine. “We operate a completely different business than the one I grew up with,” Mark says. “Our plant is clean, our workers friendly and our pricing always fair. You couldn’t always say that of the scrap metal businesses of the past or even of some of them today.” “But we know that there’s a different kind of clientele out there that really understands the economic and the environmental value of recycling metal and they expect to be treated differently. We’ve created Urbanmine – with them in mind,” Mark says. Today, Urbanmine clients range from backlane “urbanminers”; to a LEED green builder who recycles on construction sites; to lean manufacturers who are looking to be efficient in their operations. “They all want to reduce the material going to a landfill and that helps their bottom line,” says Mark. Urbanmine’s bottom line has done nothing but improve since it opened its doors two years ago on Oct 1, 2007. Mark, Haderra who is Urbanmine’s controller, and Adam bought an existing metal brokerage firm operating at 410 Madison Street in Winnipeg’s west end. After letting the company get established at that location, Urbanmine expanded to Winnipeg’s south end at 72 Rothwell Road off Kenaston Avenue. It offered better truck and rail access and included a 35,000 square foot warehouse sitting on five acres of property. Since moving into the Rothwell location six months ago they have doubled the staff from 10 to 20 to manage the five‐fold increase in traffic year‐over‐year. “This is a very competitive market in a very tight economy and for us to experience that kind of growth exceeds our business plan,” says Mark who attributes the growth to the way Urbanmine differentiates itself from other scrap dealers. Even Mark’s dad – Max, 87, knows times have changed for the better for his son and grandson. As the decorated WWII veteran walks through the Urbanmine warehouse, Max is amazed and very proud of the business that’s grown out of four generations of scrap dealing. While he’s only a visitor at Urbanmine, having retired years ago, he can still name every metal in the warehouse and in the large yard. He easily identifies the various grades of metal that were once agricultural implements or auto parts brought in by farmers and Hutterite colonies. He explains how bins filled with wire, cable and tubing brought in by contractors, plumbers, and pipefitters will be processed for copper content. Bits and pieces of new‐looking “ready‐to‐paint” steel is scrap from a manufacturer’s assembly floor. And in another corner he points to piles of batteries and old wheel rims from auto mechanics. Curiously, brass banisters that were once in an old hotel have found their way to Urbanmine. Some of it has come from Winnipeg businesses or as far west as B.C., as far east as Thunder Bay, as far north as the northern mining community of Flin Flon and as far south as the North Dakota and Minnesota. Max shakes his head in amazement at the endless piles of metal being packaged ready to ship to smelters. It’s hard to fathom that all of this started in the Great Depression with his parent’s small junkyard where a pile of scrap metal the size of a bus would be considered a small fortune. “Look at this,” he says as he waves his hand over the tonnes and acres of metal. “It is amazing, really amazing.” For more information, interviews, still photos or stock video footage contact: Adam Chisick, VP Marketing Relations, Urbanmine Inc. www.urbanmine.ca 1 (204) 774‐0192 [email protected] Added by the Asper School of Business: Adam is a 2004 U of M Business Grad (Asper School) B. Com. Hon. He lived in London, England and studied business there as part of his Asper studies and he also lived and studied in Sao Paulo, Brazil as part of his business education (also through the Asper School). Mark Chisick, President of Urbanmine Inc. graduated from the University of Manitoba with a BA in 1976 and B. Com. Hon in 1979.