NEW YORK — Upstate Shredding LLC-Ben Weitsman & Son Inc. has hired four new managers at its New York and Pennsylvania locations from competitor Sims Metal Management Ltd. as it looks to build its team amid the company’s expansion.

"Our third quarter was the best quarter in our history," company owner Adam Weitsman told AMM. "We’re going to take this opportunity ... to recruit the talent pool that’s available."

Luis Ruiz, formerly foreman/supervisor of nonferrous metals at Sims in Newark, N.J., has joined as nonferrous production manager of Upstate Shredding and all 10 Ben Weitsman locations in New York and Pennsylvania.

Kevin Freehill, previously yard manager for Sims’ Liberty (Ferndale) facility in New York, has been named general manager of Ben Weitsman of Liberty.

Taking the post of assistant port manager of Ben Weitsman of Albany will be Brian Henderson, who was most recently the quality superintendent for Sims’ Claremont Terminal in Jersey City, N.J., while Sergio Amorim, formerly a scale clerk and dispatcher at Sims’ Newark operation, has been named the new logistics manager of Ben Weitsman of Albany, the company said.

Weitsman said plans for expansion have driven its hiring wave.

The Owego, N.Y.-based scrap company has announced aggressive expansion plans over the past year, including a deepwater port in Albany and an aim to set up operations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Weitsman said. Its reach outside of upstate New York will bring it into direct contact with larger scrap recyclers, he said.

"I like to win and I like to fight," Weitsman told AMM. "It’s not exciting fighting the little guy. I like to take on the biggest guy in the room."

Upstate Shredding expects to process more than 1 million tons of ferrous scrap metal and 200 million pounds of nonferrous scrap metal in 2013, it said.