Brannen Yutzy spent months trying to get the business of a large tree service company.
Finally, Stumps & Roots, the stump grinding company Brannen runs with his father, Merl, got a trial. It was for a large double stump where two oak trees had grown together. Brannen did the job in two hours, and Stumps & Roots has had the tree service as a customer ever since.
“That job sold them on using us because of the speed in which we were able to get it done,” Brannen says.
Stumps & Roots began operations in 2004, when it branched off from the full tree service company Merl started in 1973. It serves the Tampa, Florida, area, and it uses the speed with which it can get a job done to differentiate itself from its competition.
Much of its business comes from tree service contractors, and the Yutzys’ goal is to finish their job while the tree service crew is still on-site, saving that company the time and expense of making a return trip once the stump grinding is done.
Despite being the sole employees of Stumps & Roots and often working separately from each other as one-man crews, Merl and Brannen are usually able to meet that goal. Brannen gives a nod to their Vermeer SC1152 stump cutter.
With a 110-horsepower (82 kW) engine and the ability to fit through a standard 36-inch (91.4 cm) gate, the machine gives the Yutzys the power, speed and agility they need. The four-wheel drive and the ability to cut 25 inches (63.5 cm) below ground also have proved to be superior to models from other manufacturers they’ve tried in the past.
The Vermeer SC1152 also outperforms other stump cutters whose messes they’re sometimes called in to clean up.
“We work for people who already have tried to dig the stump on their own, or maybe they’ve even hired somebody else with a small stump grinder that didn’t do a very good job on it,” Brannen says. “And we can go out and we can get the whole job done sometimes in 20 to 30 minutes, and they’ve already had another stump grinder there for a couple of hours.”
Brannen also credits the SC1152 for helping them complete more work solo than a typical company can with larger crews.
It has significantly decreased our labor costs and at the same time increased our production and the number of jobs or size of jobs we’re able to do in one day,” he says.