Page 7 - BusinessWest July 7, 2025

“The auto
recyclers get
competitive
pricing on these
scrap vehicles
and can make a
fair margin for
themselves. But
then two good
environmental
things happen:
the vehicle is
recycled to a very
high degree of
sustainability,
and the engine is
retired.”
dream as well, if only in that he gets to work every
day with his father.
“This was just an open field with 50 cars,” he
told BusinessWest as he pointed out the large lot
where many of hundreds of cars now sit, at vari-
ous stages of recycling and parts resale. “We take
between six to nine months to see what the car
has yielded in terms of profit. If it’s worth saving
because of the type of vehicle or the parts still left
on it, maybe it’ll sit longer on the lot.
“Once it comes to the end-of-life stage, we pull
it out of storage from out back and put it in our
holding lot for crushed cars, and that’s when we do
the penny pinching,” he went on. “Every piece of
wire comes out of it, and we separate those metals
accordingly; copper goes in one bin, aluminum in
the other, whatever we can sell. We pull the dash
out to just try to get that last bit of money off of the
car.”
The market for reselling parts ranges from peo-
ple repairing fender benders to young people buy-
ing their first used car and wanting to save a buck,
as well as repair shops, the collision industry, and
even yard-to-yard sales. “There’s other recyclers like
us that do the same thing. So if they don’t have a part, they’ll buy it
from us. And we do the same thing to connect our customers with
the proper part.”
Both Bachand and his father serve on the board of directors
of Automotive Recyclers of Massachusetts, which advocates for a
more sustainable, eco-friendly industry. And the business stays con-
nected to the local community in different ways; for instance, it will
host a training exercise for local firefighters this fall by lighting an
electric vehicle on fire.
Meanwhile, Westover’s sustainability efforts extend to a planned
solar canopy that will one day cover the vast parking area, generat-
ing power for a low-income housing project in the planning stages
in town.
Brian Bachand with his father, Paul Bachand, who started the
business 31 years ago.
Staff Photo
Westover employs around 25 people, Bachand said, and perhaps
his son will one day be among them. “He’s here in the summer. He’s
10 years old, but he wants to pull cars apart, so I’m taking time to
train him.
“We’re a small, family-owned business, and that’s what we
remind ourselves,” he added. “As big as we want to grow, we still
want to take care of each individual person. You’re buying into our
experience. We’re here to take care of you.” BW
Business W est << FEATURE >>
JULY 7, 2025
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