In 1993, brothers Chauncey and Hunter Webster started an excavating company with two old pickup trucks, a $5,000 loan and a dream. Today, that dream is a reality called East Coast Green Inc., of St. Thomas, PA.
The brothers knew when they began their excavating business where it might lead them in the future.
“We always knew that eventually we wanted to be in landscaping,” said Hunter, president of East Coast Green. From their headquarters on the grounds of their 200-acre farm, the seeding and landscape contracting company covers jobs from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, and also south into Maryland, Delaware, and northern Virginia.
Hunter and his brother Chauncey, secretary and treasurer of the company, had only one customer when they began — a friend from Baltimore, MD. Now the company has more than 150 steady customers and a variety of jobs coming from bids. East Coast Green now specializes in many areas, such as large commercial landscaping, erosion and sediment control, turf grasses, reforestation projects, wetlands mitigation and contour shaping.
Some of the company’s biggest jobs from recent years include turf grass establishment at an aviation field in Chester County, PA; seeding and erosion control at a Dominion Power facility in Armstrong County, PA; and landscaping for an outlet mall in Gettysburg, PA. During the summer of 2001 the company completed its largest contract to date.
In February 2002, East Coast Green came to Cleveland Brothers for help with its equipment needs. The Webster brothers were using five Bobcat skid steer loaders, but they decided to trade-in those for new Cat skid steer loaders. East Coast Green acquired one Cat 262, one Cat 246 and one Cat 226 skid steer loader.
Also included in the deal were two new Cat 277 multi-terrain loaders (MTL), which are the new track skid steer loaders. The new MTL’s exert a low ground pressure of only 3 lbs. per sq. in., which is ideal of operating on turf. East Coast Green also was able to keep all of the work tool attachments that it already had in stock because they can be used with Cat’s quick-coupler system.
So far, the machines have approximately 200 to 300 hours on them.
“Operator comfort is great in them,” said Hunter. “What’s more, our operators have not had trouble and were able to adapt quickly to the joystick controls, which actually helps us out because we’re also creating dozer operators for the D5C. (The Cat track-type tractors also have joystick controls similar to those found in Cat’s skid steer product line.)
Easier maintenance on the Cat skid steer loaders also is big plus for East Coast Green because more than 90 percent of its repairs are done in-house. “Everything is easy to get to. It’s simple, not cluttered. That’s one of the main reasons we bought them, that backed with Cat support … our Cleveland Brothers sales representative is at our fingertips whenever we need him,” said Hunter.
Over the past several years, the East Coast Green dream has grown to a fleet of 15 trucks and 10 pieces of equipment and 27 employees. The company has doubled sales nearly every year since 1993, while improving efficiency and service to its customers. In 2002, the company’s goal is for continued growth. Currently it is building a new office, shop and warehouse.
Cleveland Brothers is Central Pennsylvania’s full-service distributor of Caterpillar equipment and engines. Additionally, Cleveland Brothers is the distributor for JLG personnel lifts, Rosco road maintenance equipment, Mauldin paving equipment, Nordberg crushing and screening equipment, NPK hammers, Topcon guidance systems and Trail King trailers. Fourteen facilities are located throughout Central Pennsylvania.
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