Georgia’s Richard Marencin steps up to lead BRD in early development stages

CHARLOTTE--When Richard Marencin, owner of Bumpers Plus, stepped forth to voluntarily lead with the formation of ABPA’s new Bumpers Recycler Division (BRD), it was only a continuation of a service career which began a half dozen years ago, in 2003.

That’s when the 52 year old Marencin, who holds a masters degree in business from Georgia’s Emory University, left his position as a computer company division vice president--with responsibilities for more than $22 million in sales and a staff of 200 in 14 states--to write his own ticket.

He purchased Bumpers Plus which was started in 1997 in Marietta, GA., a suburb of Atlanta, and which with a staff of two covered a small local market.

Under Marencin’s direction, the company has grown eight-fold and now has 16 full time employees and utilizes third party delivery companies to serve remote customers--more than 400--throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

Bumpers Plus now produces and delivers more than 100 bumpers weekly and as a recycling company, picked up and kept in the recycling circle 12,000 discarded plastic bumpers from body shops in 2008.

Marencin figures that his company kept more than 47 tons of plastic from going to the landfills.

Marencin’s business philosophy is simple: deliver the best quality plus the best service. Focused on only reconditioning OEM plastic bumpers, Bumpers Plus is considered by its customers the be the number one rated reconditioning company in Georgia and South Carolina. 

While Marencin recognizes that the management of an independent automotive service-oriented business can be unique, he still relies upon his varied professional background experiences gained in both education and the work place.

This includes a variety of management positions with AT&T, IBM and Computer Associates.  As a management consultant with IBM he was able to leverage his business experience and MBA from Emory University to help medium sized companies address strategy, process and organizational issues to improve their business performance. 

Marencin’s focus on customers and employees lead him to the challenge of building a business like Bumpers Plus where,  capitalizing on his knowledge, he continues to navigate his company through a period of rapid growth and change while satisfying its many customers. 

Marencin is a strong proponent of recycling and sharing best practices, believing that a solid, professional, efficient and ethical industry benefits all participants.

The Charlotte seminar was, in fact, the third which he attended having registered in both Nashville, in 2006, and Ft. Lauderdale in 2007.  Now that he is getting to know more people, he might even bring his wife Jan--they have two daughters Nancy and Jennifer--to future meetings.

He looks forward to the Indianapolis meeting and believes that the new ABPA division is now best positioned to bring together those companies, and individuals, dedicated to urethane and plastic bumper recycling. Through shared experiences, Marencin knows that others can also gain the greatest benefits in their individual operations.

Said the Georgia bumper recycler, “Every year in which I attended one of these seminars, I came away with valuable information which has helped my business. 

“There is nothing better that any of us can do than share our experiences in a formalized setting so that even the smallest among us can grow our companies.  Our new division should help us meet these goals,” he said.

Richard Marencin can be reached at 770-422-7587 or via e-mail: richardm@bumpersplus.com.  ABPA is also restructuring a portion of its main web site--www.autobpa.com--to reflect the activities of this new division.