Milwaukee's Material Recovery Inc. has purchased a similar industrial plastics recycler in St. Charles, Ill., and adopted its name: Majic Plastics Inc.
MRI said it took the unusual step of assuming its acquisition's name because "Majic" is unique in the business and stands out, whereas MRI led some people to think the company was a materials recovery facility, or MRF.
"Our name was so generic, it was hard for people to remember or recognize. We were actually thinking about changing our name or rebranding, anyway," Randy Roeder, now president of the expanded Majic, said in an April 6 phone interview.
Roeder founded MRI on Aug. 10, 2001 — just one month before 9/11. "It wasn't the best time," he soon realized.
During the two decades since, Roeder said, he often interacted with then-Majic owner and President Michael Costigan. The kindred companies recycled many of the same materials.
He said Costigan enjoyed sales, but not so much all the paperwork involved in running a business.
"He wanted to get out of day-to-day operations," Roeder said. "We had been talking for quite awhile about how we could make it work. He felt he was wearing too many hats, when he really is so good in sales."
The solution seemed obvious. Now, all the administrative tasks are run from Milwaukee, and Costigan is vice president of sales.
The sale took place in September, but other than the name, not a lot has changed overall.
"We hired all their employees," Roeder said. "They've all stayed, management has stayed. … They continue to buy and sell the same materials as we do here in Milwaukee."
Costigan founded Majic in 1995. The 47,500-square-foot St. Charles facility buys, sells and recycles a range of post-industrial scrap, obsolete parts, regrind and virgin resins, both engineering and commodity. It also recycles plastic for other companies.
The 56,000-square-foot Milwaukee site specializes in grinding scrap into flake form and also does toll grinding and baling.