SPOTLIGHT ON EXCELLENCE

PPath torogress Highway Auto Parts

This up-and-coming young recycler takes the zen approach to

T 66 Automotive Recycling | September-October 2015

auto recycling. BY LYNN NOVELLI

he 20- and 30-something young guns of the auto recycling industry are ener- getic, innovative and determined to succeed. Like 31-year-old Ross Lewicki, co- owner of Highway Auto Parts, Roseville, Mich. Lewicki gained his experience in the industry by working with and observing his father, who owns and oper- ates two recycling yards in Detroit. In 2012, father and son teamed up to pur- chase Highway Auto Parts, previously Don and Hank’s Highway Auto Parts. Lewicki reverted to the business’ original name, which dates back to 1957.

As a first-time yard owner – something that’s been Lewicki’s dream since childhood – he is brimming with ideas on how to build the business. Ultimately, he says his goal is to rebuild the operation into the area’s busiest recycled parts business, as it was for more than three decades under the management of the original owner and then his son. Don and Hank, who owned the business from 1989 until selling it to the Lewicki’s, unfortunately did not recognize the changing industry until it was too late. Inevitably, the business suffered, losing customers and reputation. When Lewicki took over in 2012, he went through the inventory and saved what he con- sidered saleable – a total of four vehicles.

The situation could have been discouraging, but Lewicki was eager to take on the challenge. Armed with four vehicles, an ambitious business plan, indus- try knowledge gleaned from his father and a degree in Religious Studies from Indiana University, Lewicki got to work.

The Religious Studies degree, he explains, was “something I had an interest in. I knew my dad would teach me what I needed to know about the auto recy- cling business so I took advantage of the opportuni- ty to study something I wouldn’t learn elsewhere.” Thanks to the knowledge the senior Lewicki shared with his son, Ross was able to hit the ground running. After installing all new computer systems at