Fifteen years ago, Josh Brongo was working for his father’s land-clearing business, BC Excavating, Inc., in Rochester, New York, when he decided to take a leap of faith and branch off on his own. Brongo recognized there was an unmet need for tree care contractors who could take on smaller, residential removal projects that fell outside the scope of the BC Excavating land-clearing services.
Today, Brongo’s Tree Service performs commercial and residential tree care work around the Rochester area. Brongo says what sets his company apart from local competitors is his crew’s willingness to tackle difficult tree trimming and removal projects — like power line clearing jobs.
“I like working in the tree care business because every day is a different challenge, and there’s always a different way to tackle it,” says Brongo. “I push my crew to get the job done efficiently, safely and professionally.”
According to Brongo, one of the biggest challenges facing his business is the competitive local market.
“There are a lot more tree care companies out there today than there were 15 years ago,” says Brongo. “It hurts us a little, but the quality of work that we do has earned our company a good reputation. We get a lot of repeat business and referrals. We’re good at what we do, so we stay busy all year round.”
Brongo is currently running one five-person crew, eight to ten hours a day, six days a week. They squeeze in some vacation time in December and January, but otherwise, Brongo says they are “full bore, every day — rain or shine.”
Brongo Tree Care expects to add a second crew this summer to help meet demand. The only thing holding Brongo back is finding individuals who are qualified to climb and operate the equipment.
“It’s hard to find good help — to find people who really want to work hard and have experience climbing,” says Brongo. “There is a lot of skill and risk involved with tree climbing. You can’t just hire someone to hop in a tree and take it down. You have to really interview people and make sure they’re qualified to do the work.”
Brongo relies on his Vermeer tree care equipment to help the crew maximize jobsite efficiency.
“We own the Vermeer SC852 stump cutter and one Vermeer BC1800XL brush chipper, and they are both great machines,” says Brongo. “My crew loves them. They are very powerful and, production-wise, we’ve been very happy with them. Whatever size stump you put in front of that grinder, it just eats it away.”
Brongo admits that he has demoed other machines but nothing compares to the Vermeer equipment.
“As a tree care contractor, I highly recommend Vermeer,” says Brongo. “It is top-quality equipment. Good service. Good salespeople. They always stand by their word. If anything happens, they’re there to fix it.”