Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Company

Leaders in Recycling and Processing of Metal, Paper and Plastic

Padnos Celebrates 100 Years of serving Holland, MI

From 'Mom and Pop', company has grown to almost 500 workers.
By Roel Garcia staff writer
Amid hundreds of employees at his family company's annual picnic Friday, Seymour Padnos remembered when the company had just two workers -- his mother and father.
"My mother did the books and had the purse and my father ran the operation and drove the trucks" said Padnos, 84, chairman of Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Company.

CELEBRATION: Members of the Padnos family, from left, Shelly, Mitch, Seymour and Jeff, celebrate the family's 100th year in business during the employee picnic at Windmill Island Friday.
  Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Company employees and their family members play games and ride rides Friday at Windmill Island for the Padnos employee picnic. The Padnos Company celebrates 100 years of business8/19/05

Sentinel/Dennis R. J. Geppert
  The company held its annual picnic at the Windmill Island. It was a fitting place, since Seymour participated in the group that brought DeZwaan to Holland, and his father once did business a few blocks away from the site of the current Holland Post Office.

Amid hundreds of employees at his family company's annual picnic Friday, Seymour Padnos remembered when the company had just two workers -- his mother and father.

"My mother did the books and had the purse and my father ran the operation and drove the trucks," said Padnos, 84, chairman of Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Co.

From its humble beginnings in 1905, Padnos has grown to nearly 500 employees and the company, which deals in scrap metal, paper and plastic, now owns 12 scrap yards throughout Michigan.

The company held its annual picnic Friday at Windmill Island in celebration of 100 years in operation. It was a fitting place, since Seymour Padnos participated in the group that brought DeZwaan to Holland, and his father once did business a few blocks away at the site of the current Holland post office.

The company celebrated in a big way Friday -- bringing in a Ferris wheel, various children's rides, music, a car show, games, food and ice cream for the affair.

Jeff Padnos, president of the company, who was helping to serve food along with other members of the family, said his grandfather and even his uncle and father never expected the company would grow as much as it has during the past 25 years.

Louis Padnos left Russia shortly after the turn of the century at the age of 13, during the Russian-Japanese War. He was considered an adult then because he'd had his bar mitzvah and was eligible for the Russian army, where he could be made to serve up to 25 years.

Louis Padnos then made his way to the Netherlands, where he remained for eight months, securing work to earn money to make his way to America. He had siblings living in Chicago.

"He worked at a peddlers' market and earned his way up to having a horse and wagon, trading hides and furs," said Jeff Padnos, 56. "He had learned to speak Dutch and Friesian while in the Netherlands.

"While in Chicago, someone said there was this place in Michigan where a lot of people spoke Dutch. He left by ship and landed near Kollen Park."

After securing a location near where the Tower Clock building is today, he left to fight in World War I. After returning, he settled on dealing with scrap metal.

It was during the Depression that Louis Padnos and a brother made a deal to create a dock on Lake Macatawa where the company's present Holland facility is located on Pine Avenue, between Fourth and Seventh streets.

"Back then it was marshy land there," Jeff Padnos said. "They had sheet piling put in and when the lake was dredged, they had the dredged material placed behind it. It filled it in."

But it wasn't until about 1970, Jeff Padnos said, that something was actually placed on that piece of property -- a car shredder, which could shred about 250 cars a day.

Bill Clay, who retired in February after 35 years with the company as vice president of operations, said that when he joined the company, it had only the Holland facility and it had 72 employees working at the time.

"When we put in that car shredder, it put us in a larger industry. At that time, cars were being discarded and we were able to purchase them to be shredded," said Clay, 62.

"We now have two shredders -- one in the Holland facility and one in Grand Rapids -- that shred 900 cars a day."

Clay said that what has helped the company throughout the years is the diversity, since it deals with scrap metal, paper and plastics.

"You have to be able to move wherever the market is," said Clay. "If car shredding wasn't right, we'd go into something else."

The Holland facility employs nearly half of the company's workers and produces about 25,000 tons of raw metal per month.

With the number of employees skyrocketing in the past 30 years and 11 more scrap yards opening up, Seymour Padnos is happy that the business is still family-run.

"I'm a traditionalist," he said. "I like to see family businesses continue."

Contact Roel Garcia at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or (616) 546-4219.