LANDSCAPING CONTRACTOR DELIVERS IN TIGHT TIMELINE
Working from the back of a pickup truck in the summer of 2009, Brian Stanis began mowing lawns on Long Island’s east end following the completion of his junior year in high school.
When he went off to college the following year, Stanis tried to continue the enterprise from his dorm room, but it didn’t work out the way he had hoped.
Faced with two options—continue with school or go to work full-time—Stanis chose the latter, and Hampton’s Grounds Care (HGC) was formally established in 2012.
“We purchased a machine that needed an engine,” he recalls. “It was my first piece of equipment, a Cat® 303 Mini Excavator. I worked at night installing a reman engine purchased from the Cat dealer in Holtsville, H.O. Penn.
We loved that machine, it performed great, and things just grew from there.”
Over the last 10 years, word-of-mouth referrals have helped build the business to the point where Hampton’s Grounds Care has 16 employees who service clients across more than 25 miles from Southampton to Montauk on Long Island’s east end.
“We’ve never spent a cent on advertising,” Stanis says. “I was raised to work hard and do right by people. I’m out in the field every day with the crew. When people see me in the field as an owner-operator, they feel more comfortable. And in the end, they seem to like the finished product much better.”
“It’s really just applying consistent hard work and providing the best product that you can and keeping customers happy—that leads to more clientele and word spreads fast out here,” he adds. “I’ve always believed if you do something good, word spreads fast.”
HGC is based on the premise that a customer can make one phone call to receive multiple home care services at a level of workmanship above that of big-name landscaping companies.
“We strive to deliver the highest quality services and develop lasting relationships with our clients by treating their properties as if they were our own,” Stanis says.
“By overseeing each and every project from start to finish, we want customers to feel that working with Hampton’s Grounds Care is like working with a part of their own family.”
Year-round service
Stanis’ business serves residents of The Hamptons, a string of seaside communities known as a summer destination for affluent residents of New York City. Located on eastern Long Island’s South Fork, the area is marked by long stretches of beach, interior farmland, and towns and villages with 18th-century shingle buildings and estates hidden behind tall boxwood hedges. The towns were settled by the British, and named after the city of Southampton.
Working in this setting, HGC provides grounds care, landscape design-build and property maintenance, and also handles snow removal during the winter months. HGC operates its own nursery—a competitive advantage—and provides all grounds care services to match each passing season. This includes preparing and opening a property for the season during the early spring months, maintaining its beauty throughout the summer, and closing it down and keeping it clean throughout the fall and winter months.
These services include:
When it comes to the design and execution of a landscape project, it not only takes organization and skill, but it also must be done in a manner that complements the surrounding environment, Stanis says. By following these guidelines, HGC is able to create elegant landscapes that its customers can enjoy for years to come.
The landscape process starts with a meeting to discuss ideas and potentials for its clients’ properties. From there, HGC designs a landscape that caters to each client’s unique needs and preferences. Once winter passes, landscapers have a very short amount of time to get things done, Stanis says.
“We go from zero to 100 in about two weeks,” he says. “A lot of clients give us pretty strict timelines. Our jobs need to be completed by Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. The season is essentially a three-month period that people are actually here, and then this place empties out. But for the most part, we need to have everything completed by the 4th of July and be out and fall back behind the curtain.”
Cat machines do the work
Once the ground thaws in mid-March, Stanis and his crew have 10-12 weeks to complete six months of work. “We cannot afford any downtime, and that’s where the outstanding reliability of our Cat machines come in,” he says. Stanis relies on a fleet of Cat Mini Excavators and Compact Wheel Loaders. The fleet consists of 908 and 914 Compact Wheel Loaders, as well as a 926M Small Wheeler Loader. It has two mini excavators (301.5 and 303), as well as a 312 Small Excavator.
“A lot of what we do involves finish work and operating in tight backyards,” Stanis says. “So we have the same types of machines, but at different sizes. Our 301 mini that we picked up this year has the retractable undercarriage. I always thought it was a rather silly machine until we bought it. What it has given us the ability to do this year has been insane. We can access places I never thought were possible with one of our machines.”
For bigger jobs, HGC uses the 303 and 312 excavators. All three machines exert lower ground pressure, which is a valuable feature, Stanis says. “The Hamptons has a very high standard to meet of not leaving behind any damage caused by our machines,” he says. “It needs to look like we were never there. So having the low ground pressure is crucial for our application.”
The 914 and the 926M Wheel Loaders are used on new construction projects, primarily to move large amounts of topsoil, Stanis says. HGC operates a nursery where it grows trees that are transported to clients with a burlap sack tied around the roots. The 926M’s primary purpose is moving large trees—anything ranging from a 36-inch root ball to a 15-foot root ball. The Cat Wheel Loaders are also used for snow removal.
“The machines do everything we need,” Stanis says. “My guys appreciate the ride comfort, which is crucial when we’re roading from one job to another. Most of the parking lots that we clear aren’t in a central area, so when they’re riding down the road, the ride control and the suspension seat—having all those comforts and even the heated seats for that matter—are a real plus. If you have happy operators, they will be more productive. Any features that keep the operators happy is what’s going to give us a good product in the end. And my operators are beyond happy with all of our Cat machines.”
Stanis also values the timely parts availability from his Cat dealer, as well as the support he receives from his H.O. Penn sales rep, Brian Carroll.
“After a machine delivery, Brian came here and gave us a tutorial on how to better use our wheel loader. He showed us how to switch between different drive train modes for operating in ice and snow, and it definitely makes a difference.
“Brian has been super helpful. I can just send him a text, and he gets right back to me on any question we have. We’re not just a number, and it’s really nice to have that type of working relationship you can count on.”
