Salvage Direct

An SJF Ventures Portfolio Company

Bob Joyce, CEO
Titusville, Pennsylvania
www.salvagedirect.com

Salvage Direct's CEO Bob Joyce started the company in 1998 and ran it from his one-bedroom apartment. Today the company, which has offices in Joyce's hometown of Titusville, Pennsylvania, has 74 full-time employees and revenues that have doubled every year of its existence -- $0.5 mm (2000), $1.0 mm (2001), $2.5 mm (2002), $4.6 mm (2003), and $11.1 mm (2004).

Inspired by his love of cars, his insurance claims background, and the proliferation of online auction houses, Bob Joyce saw that the Internet could be used to get top dollar for salvageable specialty vehicles, such as high-end cars, motorcycles, RVs and boats, which insurers would normally sell for scrap prices.

Impressed by the company's strong start and promising job creation possibilities, in 2002 SJF Ventures, of Philadelphia, PA and Durham, NC, led a Series B Preferred Stock Round of $1.1 million of which SJF's portion was $575,000.

Today, with the help of SJF Ventures' investment and intensive management support, Salvage Direct has gone well beyond the creative on-line marketing of specialty vehicles to become a full blown salvage management company, with the ability to handle the entire process for insurance companies -- from towing and storing the vehicles to marketing, then titling and delivering them to buyers. The company currently has relationships with three of the six major national insurance companies as well as a number of smaller companies and has built an impressive nationwide network of buyers. From an initial average of 5 vehicle sales per month in the first year, the company now sells more than 2,500 vehicles per month and has monthly revenues averaging over $900,000 per month.

To handle the growth, the company employs 74 full-time employees in a wide range of jobs, from entry-level service jobs to higher skill technology-driven positions, and plans to expand its workforce further in 2005. In a town of 5,000 that lost 1,000 jobs when the steel mill closed in 1990, Salvage Direct jobs are highly coveted for their competitive salaries, good benefits, and employee stock options.

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