ReMA Member Spotlight: UCB Founder/CEO Shares Advice and Strategies for Business Owners

Marty Metro, Founder and CEO of UsedCardboardBoxes, is a firm believer in learning from your mistakes. In 2002, he launched Boomerang Boxes, a chain of eco-friendly retail stores that bought and sold used moving boxes, but after three years it became clear his attempt was premature, undercapitalized, and had major logistic flaws.

"I was a corporate guy that started a company and failed miserably," he said. "And instead of going back to the corporate world, instead of trying something different, I tried the same exact thing again in a different way."

After revising the business plan, raising capital, and launching a scalable, tech-centric model-UsedCardboardBoxes.com grew to a national reuse and logistics firm, working with some of the largest companies in the country.

ReMA News had the chance to chat with Metro about his experience, his relationship to the recycled materials industry, and advice for other business leaders.

Tell me about your journey to create UsedCardboardBoxes.com.

I thought if I took my background in technology, logistics, and the supply chain, I could build a website that matched people who were moving into a new place with people who were about to move out. That was the beginning of Boomerang Boxes. And it was a failure.

I had people in New York with boxes, people in San Diego that wanted them. So, what do you do as an entrepreneur? You try to get to this concept of critical mass, where you have enough people in New York and enough people in San Diego to make that match. So, you spend more money on advertising. Now, you have people in San Diego with tons of large boxes, but the people in San Diego need medium boxes. So, now you spend even more money on advertising, but you still don't have a match.

Then you find someone in San Diego with large boxes and another person in San Diego who needs large boxes. So, you think, 'Finally, I'm going to make a match!' But the person that has them needs them until Thursday, and the person on the other end wants them on Tuesday. That's not a match.

I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising and I couldn't even make a dollar because the logistics were so much more complicated than I thought. So, now we have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. And I had to shut all that down.

But I got the opportunity to try it again and we created UsedCardboardBoxes.com. In 2006, UsedCardboardBoxes.com quickly became the number one hit on Google for "used boxes." We took that initial software concept of wanting to match Ms. X with her 17 moving boxes that she just unpacked to Mr. Y who's about to move next week. We just did that same thing, but on a massive scale.

We purchase quality used gaylords (bulk size boxes that allow for the shipment of products in a large, single container or on a pallet) and boxes by the truckload from large companies who are unpacking their supplies and would otherwise throw them away or recycle them. We take many of those boxes and assemble low cost, eco-friendly moving kits, which are delivered nationwide in 2-3 days with free shipping-offering a cost-effective, sustainable alternative for anyone moving.

That part of our business (now about .05% of our overall revenue) is still going strong. But it's the B2B that exploded. We now buy tens of millions of used boxes, mainly from food and beverage manufacturers, as they are unpacking their supplies. These are the gaylord totes (ingredients come in) as well as shipping boxes (plastic bottles, caps, cups, lids, etc. come in).

How does UCB's process work?

The process begins with box manufacturers that buy corrugated cardboard sheets, cut, print, glue them into new boxes, and then ship them to businesses across various industries. Manufacturers purchase these boxes to package their products, palletize them, and ship them to other manufacturers, distribution centers, or retailers. Once the shipments arrive, the receiving manufacturers unpack the products, and remove them from their boxes. Instead of throwing away the empty boxes or even recycling them, they flatten and stack the boxes, as boxes, for collection.

UCB buys the flattened boxes and sorts, inspects, grades, and inventories them at regional processing facilities, ensuring only high-quality boxes are resold. In many cases, UCB reduces labor and freight costs by teaching its clients how to prepare the boxes for direct-ship to customers.

There are three ways we give the boxes a second life:

• Wholesale Boxes: We sell truckloads of quality used boxes at a lower cost to businesses that need shipping solutions, helping them save money while supporting sustainability. This is the largest part of our business, and we supply to most of the largest e-waste, scrap metal and retailer companies in the US.
• Closed-Loop Reuse: Some boxes are returned to their original vendors, reducing their need to buy new boxes, and supporting a circular supply chain.
• Moving Kits for Consumers: We assemble and sell eco-friendly moving kits, which are delivered nationwide in 2-3 days with free shipping. This was our original business model in 2006, and it's still going strong!

The company has continued to grow, and we are now the largest processor of used gaylords in North America. One of our biggest customer bases is the recycled materials industry. Not because we have a recycled material (but we do!), but because metal recycling and plastic recycling industries need cheap containers to sort and transport materials. Our used boxes are those containers!

At the end of the day, we're a software and logistics company that's applied our software to the used box industry. So, we can provide used boxes and not only give them another life but provide them to other companies that need them. We buy for more than recycling rates, we sell for less than wholesale prices, and when we manage the logistics properly, we profit!

What was one of the reasons UsedCardboardBoxes was a success?

During the days of Boomerang Boxes, I was all about press and publicity. But I didn't know what I was doing. When you get press and PR, but you don't have an engine to generate something from it, then it's not only a huge waste, but also a distraction.

For UsedCardboardBoxes, our approach has been to "just shut up and do your thing." Buy boxes and sell them to someone else for a profit. Create value for the person who's selling them to us and create value for the person buying from us.

As a business owner, you need to look at your business from top to bottom and left to right. Top to bottom is revenue to profit. But you also need to look at the business left to right, which is as the months go by, volume goes up, and as your business grows things get much different and more expensive.

And once you get to selling a million widgets, you as the business owner are probably not selling the product anymore. You're probably running a business. You've got to work on the business, not in the business (that's Michael Gerber's advice, but I use it).

Also, many people will tell you that press and publicity are free. But the best press and marketing in the world will get you nothing if you don't have a profitable engine that's working top to bottom, to benefit from it.

How did you learn about ReMA? How did you decide to become a member?

I heard about ReMA about 15 years ago. A client called and said, "I'm a metal recycler and I need gaylords." We said, "Okay, that's great." And they asked if we were going to be attending the ISRI convention. That was the first time I learned about the association.

I was asked to speak at a (then) ISRI convention in Vegas several years ago. The speaking engagement was great but at the time the company wasn't where we wanted to be to effectively service large, recycled materials companies, like ISRI members. So, I put it on the back burner.

When I heard about ReMA's rebranding, I thought it was a great decision to align with what the organization really does / focuses on. I also realized a lot of ReMA members are already our customers. Attending the ReMA conventions is a great way to meet customers in-person, which we don't typically get to do because they now purchase entire truckloads, online.

Once we started attending ReMA events, it was clear, as my wife likes to say, that I "found my people". As I've been spending time with leaders in the recycled materials industry, I realize that we're providing a very valuable part of their business, the used gaylords, but I'm also a recycled materials CEO. So, not only can I provide a lot of value to ReMA membership, but I'm also one of them!

Photos Courtesy of Marty Metro.