BRANCHING OUT


Expanding Geographically Helps Build Tree-Care Business


For the past 18 years Pittman Tree & Landscaping Co. has focused on building a successful tree-care company one customer at a time, mostly in utilities and transportation. Its expertise in these two markets has allowed the company to regularly add customers in the same businesses.


This formula, developed by the father-and-son ownership team, Walter and Calley Pittman, is still working today; however, the crews are having to go farther and farther away from the company headquarters in Front Royal, Va.


“We go wherever the work is,” says Scott Koenig, director of operations. “Right now we have crews in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Maryland and around Washington, D.C. Finding the right personnel in these away-from-home locations is a challenge. Our goal in each case is to have local employees that work for us and go home every night. That helps us keep expenses under control.”


So, too, does having local mechanics available to maintain and service Pittman machines in each area (the company has more than 300 pieces of equipment).


“As soon as we move into a new area, we develop a list of local mechanics that can service our equipment,” says Koenig. “If we send a mechanic out from our shop who has to travel 10 to 12 hours round trip to fix something that takes an hour, we are losing money. A good local mechanic is very valuable.”


12 | vermeer.com


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