C.A.P Recycling is a female owned family business located in Sioux City, Iowa. Cora Parr independently owns the business and her husband Amos is one of five full-time employees. Prior to opening the business, Amos had over 20 years of experience in the aggregate recycling industry and even won recycler of the year. His experience, paired with Cora’s desire to be a successful business owner, made the couple the perfect duo to start C.A.P Recycling.
Cora and Amos heard about the SBDC, and the resources they had to offer, from a number of other clients. They went to the SBDC with the idea of starting their business in June of 2013. Their counselor, Todd Rausch, helped them finalize a business plan and assisted them with finding financing for their business. From there, it took a couple of months to get their project financed and up and running. In September of 2013 they were officially confirmed by Heritage Bank as a startup business.
“The experience with Todd and the SBDC was great. Without Todd’s help we could not have done it. We encourage everyone to use the SBDC,” says the couple about their experience with the SBDC and their counselor Todd.
C.A.P Recycling is a recycling company for aggregate products (concrete and asphalt). They serve as a free dump site for clean concrete and asphalt which can be brought in by anyone from public works departments, to the general public. Everything brought into the plant leaves the plant as a reusable product. Their main focus is to aid in eliminating these materials from the local landfills. C.A.P will work with you to help determine the best application of their products to meet your specifications.
Currently, C.A.P Recycling does a majority of its marketing via word of mouth. Thanks to Amos’ years of experience, he knows almost everyone in the area involved in the concrete and asphalt businesses. As soon as word spread throughout the Sioux City area that they were starting a business, most of the local business just came right away. They bring in their refuse and have it crushed, sorted, and cleaned. They then pick up and pay for the finished product for future construction projects. There is a variety of sizes of crushed concrete and clean fill dirt.
When asked what the most surprising aspect of starting their own business, the couple replied, “The work hours have been a lot more than we anticipated, but that is because we try to meet every customer’s needs. There were also a lot of legal and financial hurdles that had to be overcome in the beginning.”
In the future they plan to expand from their current 14 acre site to have another site in the near future. They also hope to operate as a family business and pass it on to the next generation. They will continue to keep up with technology and the various uses of the products. They fully believe that as they are scalable to any major market, the sky is limit for the possibilities of their company.
Cora’s last words of advice are, “If you have a dream go for it, dreams do come true. Take the opportunity.”
For more information on the Parr’s and C.A.P Recycling’s services contact Cora at cora.parr@yahoo.com or give Cora a call @ 712-870-0243 or Amos 712-870-4856.
Written by: Jolene Schaefer
