MDNA Member Spotlight: Generation Machine Tools

Exterior of the new Generation Machine Tools facility in Bradenton, Fla.

Generation Machine Tools Owner Matt Schulman

It won’t surprise you to know that a machinery merchant named Generation Machine Tools can trace its history back more than a century.
 
Marshall Schulman and his son, Matt, are the third and fourth generations of their family to buy, sell, and appraise used machinery.  The Schulman business began in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1908 and eventually made its way onto nearby Long Island. It now looks to the future from a new structure that consolidates the corporate offices and warehouse and should open by mid-August in the Sarasota area, on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
 
“We traded snow for sand,” said Schulman of the move to Florida, which came in 2016. “And we have grown steadily.”
 
The Schulmans incorporated as Generation Machine Tools after relocating to Bradenton, Fla.  Marshall has more than a half-century of experience in machinery sales and Matt, now the owner of Generation, has 15 years in the trade.
 
The company handles appraisal, acquisition, and sales of CNC machinery as well as conventional machine tools and fabricating devices.  The consistent growth since the move to the Sunshine State made roomier quarters not just a want, but a need.
 
“It was always my goal to own my own facility,” said Matt Schulman, whose business has been operating from rented buildings clustered in Bradenton, just a mile from the new structure.
 
Generation Machine Tools employs nine people and most of its business in done in the U.S.  The new building covers 20,000 square feet, which is nearly triple the space Generation had in its initial four buildings.  Schulman said he has the flexibility to put another 10,000 square feet under roof on the Generation property.
 
“This building has been master-planned to allow us to grow,” he said. “We bought the property just before COVID, and things are finally happening.”