Nonferrous Nonpareil

摘要

Philadelphia was once the capital of the nonferrous scrap trade, and industry veterans can readily recall how the route from New Jersey to Pennsylvania was filled with scrap processing and consuming companies. "At one time," remembers John Thalheimer, president and owner of Thalheimer Brothers Inc. (Philadelphia), "there were so many generators and consumers of scrap in the Philadelphia area that you could buy and sell your material within a small radius. And if you opened the Yellow Pages, you'd find pages and pages of listed scrap dealers." That has all changed. Today, most of the scrap-consuming operations in the Northeast corridor have closed or relocated. The old days are long gone. Yet, if you visit Thalheimer Brothers in northeast Philadelphia and walk through its huge facility, you could easily imagine you were still in the old Philly. Throughout the dramatic changes in the region and the scrap industry in general, Thalheimer Brothers has not only survived but thrived, thanks in large part to the acumen and leadership of its principal executive, 69-year-old John Thalheimer.