Westbrook Engineering Celebrates 60th Anniversary!

Marty Szarek and son Joe at the Westbrook facility in Warren. Mich.

It’s not a journey every MDNA-member business takes, but Westbrook Engineering Company, Inc., has, literally, moved from the basement to the big time.

Westbrook is a used machinery dealership that observed its 60th anniversary in business in 2024.  For most of that time it has been a member of the MDNA, and for every one of its six-plus decades, has operated in Warren, Mich., a city on the north edge of Detroit.
 
Credit Alex Szarek for starting it all. After years selling new industrial equipment — mostly cold saws — for Last Word Sales, he was eager to be out on his own. In 1964 he began selling new machinery from the basement of his home, on Westbrook Street in Warren. Hence the name Westbrook Engineering.                                           
                                                                                                               
Westbrook quickly outgrew the Szarek family basement, so Alex moved everything into the first of a succession of ever-larger facilities in Warren.  His sons, Randy and Marty, helped him expand the business, then took over when Alex died in 1996. In 2017, Westbrook sold its sales division to a friendly competitor. Marty — now Westbrook’s president — and his son, Joe, now run Westbrook Engineering, a used machinery sales company. Approximately 15 years ago, Marty founded Westbrook’s auction division, known as Westbrook Asset Management.
 
Westbrook Engineering joined the MDNA in 1978, a move Marty says has been instrumental in his company's success.
 
“Relationships,” is his simple response to what the MDNA has brought to Westbrook. “It’s meeting great people and making great partnerships. I’ve found that in the MDNA we’ve learned it’s better to partner up and work together than to compete with fellow MDNA members. It’s a unique association.”
 
A business that started in a basement in 1964 now offers a complete line of used machinery, operates from facilities covering 35,000 square feet, conducts industrial auctions, and its customer base stretches across all of North America. Marty says its success has been built on a foundation of “honesty, integrity, and attention to detail. We’re now the largest used-saw dealer in the country. People know we go the extra mile when it comes to refurbishing.”

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