🔒Recycling entrepreneurs buy former Rex Forge complex in Southington to fuel next phase of growth

Twenty years ago, electrician Josh Trudeau piled scrap wire in the garage of his Meriden home, trying to squeeze a little extra value from leftover material after jobs.

In July, the businesses he and his cousin, Daniel Cotnoir, built from that modest beginning — Meriden-based scrap processor Cable Management Recycling and its sister company, Cable Management Equipment — paid $1.25 million for the former Rex Forge manufacturing complex in the Plantsville section of Southington, betting the long-vacant property can fuel their next phase of growth.

The 106,710-square-foot, multi-building campus sits on about 17 acres along Atwater Street. It once housed Rex Forge, a nearly 160-year-old manufacturer of precision steel forgings for the automotive industry. The complex became vacant after the company abruptly closed in early 2025 following the loss of its sole customer.

The property is in rough shape. Loose pieces of sheet metal creak in the wind, and daylight shines through holes in the exterior walls. Some of the buildings are well on their way to ruin without significant investment.

Trudeau and Cotnoir said they expect the property will require more than $500,000 in environmental cleanup, along with extensive roof repairs and other improvements. Even so, they see the neglected complex as a long-term investment in the future of their businesses.

“We always wanted to have our own place and not pay rent and to build equity in our own property,” Trudeau said.

Today, Cable Management Equipment designs and builds industrial recycling systems sold across North America and Europe, while Cable Management Recycling processes scrap metal collected from thousands of Connecticut contractors.

Both companies currently operate from about 60,000 square feet of leased manufacturing space in Meriden.

Building a business

Trudeau’s entrepreneurial journey began with a simple observation he made while working as an electrician in his 20s. He realized many electrical contractors had to accumulate hundreds of pounds of scrap wire before a trip to the scrapyard made financial sense.

With that in mind, he launched Cable Management Recycling in 2007, picking up wire from contractors across the Meriden area before processing it into small copper sections that could be sold in bulk through brokers to manufacturing mills. The service made it much easier for contractors to cash in their scrap.

The business spread quickly through word of mouth, generating roughly $800,000 in revenue during its first year.

Within six months, the company had outgrown Trudeau’s garage and moved into a leased 2,500-square-foot space. Cotnoir, who was also working as an electrician, initially joined the business on nights and weekends before later becoming a co-owner. As the company grew, it relocated to a large Meriden industrial building, where it has expanded its footprint over the years.

At the company’s outset, the partners bought machinery that stripped plastic insulation from wire and chopped copper into salable pieces. But Trudeau grew frustrated with equipment that frequently broke down and couldn’t efficiently process the material. So, the cousins began building their own machines.

A YouTube video Trudeau made so his father in Canada could watch a prototype unexpectedly launched a second business.

“Someone in New York saw the video and asked me where I had bought this from,” Trudeau recalled. “And I said: ‘Well, we didn’t buy it. We built it.’ And he asked me if I would build him one too. And that’s how we started building them.”

Today, equipment manufacturing accounts for about 60% of the companies’ combined annual revenue of roughly $10 million, Trudeau said.

Cable Management Equipment designs the machinery, has steel components laser-cut and formed by Connecticut manufacturers, then performs welding, painting and final assembly in-house. Its systems process everything from copper wire and lithium-ion batteries to rubber shoe soles and other difficult-to-recycle materials.

The company’s custom equipment has also found specialized applications. During an Ebola outbreak in Africa, Cable Management designed heavy-duty shredders for medical waste after hospitals became concerned that pill bottles and other potentially contaminated materials could be reused by scavengers sorting through open-air landfills. The machines shredded the waste into material with no resale value.

Energy costs setback

The combined companies’ workforce peaked at 42 employees in 2022 before a sharp increase in electricity costs forced painful layoffs. Trudeau said monthly electric bills had averaged between $15,000 and $18,000 before skyrocketing.

“We got a bill in December for November (2022) for $44,000 for the month,” Trudeau said. “That was a shocker.”

The partners initially thought the increase might reflect a clerical error by their landlord, who submetered the building. When the higher bills continued through the holidays, they began laying off workers. Today, the companies employ 22 people.

The experience changed how the partners viewed their future, setting them on a course toward owning an industrial property where they could better control costs.

Innovation center

The former Rex Forge campus will allow Cable Management to move much of its equipment manufacturing operation out of leased space in Meriden while expanding its recycling business into new markets, including scrap steel and large household appliances, the owners said. The cousins also plan to maintain part of their Meriden location as a contractor drop-off site.

“It’s going to provide us opportunities for new streams of income,” Cotnoir said. “We’ll be able to expand our scrap side ... and automatically have a new scrap retail location.”

Trudeau and Cotnoir said they hope to move much of their equipment manufacturing operation to Southington by December, although the timeline will depend on environmental cleanup and building repairs.

They plan to renovate about 50,000 square feet first, then gradually restore additional portions of the complex.

The partners also envision installing rooftop solar panels to help reduce one of their biggest operating expenses.

“We want to be in control of our property,” Trudeau said, “and eventually, I want to be in control of our energy as well.”

Over decades, the Rex Forge property evolved into a patchwork of additions, some built around rail spurs that once served the factory. Today, the Quinnipiac River borders the rear of the campus, which Trudeau and Cotnoir hope to gradually restore for their own operations and additional industrial tenants.

Eventually, they hope to create an environment where manufacturers and innovators can share flexible industrial space and collaborate on research and development projects with schools, universities and startup companies.

Cotnoir also sees the project as an investment in the people who helped build the business.

“I look at it as, among other things, we’re providing hopefully a good life for a bunch of guys’ families,” he said. “It’s kind of cool.”