I received an email from a man who told me he was retiring after 45 years in business. He's closing his shop. He's giving me the opportunity to tour his company before it closes down for good. It's all about the food industry. So, I'm all in!

I'm visiting the Equipment Exchange Company of America, located in Lake City. Owner Bob Breakstone is at the wheel as we take off in a golf cart. It's a great way to view the kind of equipment that is exchanged here. I see some very large machines used in the food processing industry that Bob's company has acquired, refurbished and put up for sale again.

"There's maybe six or eight companies in the country that do what we do. Very few. And with the refurbishing, not even that many,” says Bob.

Anyone who looks at these machines can easily figure out how enough food can be produced each day to satisfy the demands of large supermarket and restaurant chains. Bob shows me a ground beef and sausage blender that holds 5,000 pounds of meat. You think your food processor at home does a good job? I’m looking at one used for sausage that holds 3,600 pounds. Bob also shows me rapid cookers acquired from the Heinz Company in Pittsburgh that cook 10,000 gallons of soup in about an hour. On display is a finish grinder that blends lean ground beef with beef that has a little more fat content. It puts out 25,000 pounds of beef an hour. It boggles the mind!

"It does. It does,” says Bob. “Most people would never even begin to fathom that meat is produced at that level."

The Equipment Exchange Company was founded in 1975 by Lester Breakstone, Bob’s father. Bob has been in charge since Lester died in 1989. The company was first located in Erie and moved to this location in Lake City in 1999. Bob says it's now time to retire. An auction will be held at the shop on Friday, June 20. The company will close after an amazing history. Over a thousand large food processing items have been refurbished here and sold to companies all across America, including Philadelphia.

"Chances are, if you have eaten a cheesesteak sandwich, we've had a hand in that,” says Bob with a laugh.

Bob is well-known as an appraiser of food processing equipment. That work has taken him to every state in the union as well as Canada, South America, and Europe.

Friday’s auction will be held beginning at 10 am, Friday, June 20, at the company headquarters at 10042 Keystone Drive in Lake City. Over 700 items will be auctioned, mostly equipment that was used in the refurbishing shop. Some large food processing machines on the property will not be auctioned. The auction will also be live-streamed on bidspotter.com. For more information, contact auctioneer Mark Tanenbaum at 814-434-0687.