As a landscaper, Anthony Iazzetti has a “green thumb.” As president of A-1 Landscaping and Excavating, Iazzetti has a keen business sense. The company was founded by Ronald Iazzetti, Anthony’s father, primarily as a landscaping enterprise that included mowing lawns, designing landscapes, snow plowing, building retaining walls, patios, pond construction, black topping and tree work. When Anthony became active in the company in 1991, it was focused on landscaping and trucking. Over time, the company did some work for builders in the Rockland and Orange counties of New York, and became exposed to excavating and earthmoving equipment. As a result of this exposure, Iazzetti decided to broaden A-1 to include earthmoving services. Currently, A-1 is working on a large number of building lots in the Tuxedo, NY, area. It has scheduled 49 lots on which it will be performing foundation and sewer work. To handle the increased site preparation work, the company recently purchased a New Holland 675E backhoe and a Volvo EC150 excavator from John O’Keefe, of Westchester Tractor, Goldens Bridge, NY. A-1 has been operating the New Holland backhoe since April and appreciates its many features. “This was our first machine with an air-conditioned cab and that has been great. The machine has a lot of power, probably more than we expected and it’s a very good looking machine,” said Iazzetti. “At first we rented it to make sure that is was going to be the right machine for us. During the rental period, I also was particularly impressed with the great visibility from the cab. John O’Keefe with Westchester put this purchase together well, by allowing us to first rent the machine. The rental helped us assess that the New Holland would really meet our needs. But, the bottom line is, the price was right,” Iazzetti said. The Volvo EC150 excavator also was a perfect addition to handle A-1’s new projects. “The excavator is 32,000 pounds and is the largest machine that we have ever purchased. Initially what drew us toward purchasing this machine was the name, Volvo. There is something about that name, Volvo, that signals strength, durability, reliability and safety. Once we test operated the machine, we were not disappointed,” explained Iazzetti. “The machine is comfortable with a very roomy cab and offers a very fast cycle time. We also were particularly impressed with the selection of various operating modes for different machine speeds and stability depending upon the operating conditions,” he said. In addition to liking its New Holland backhoe and the Volvo excavator, A-1 likes doing business with Westchester Tractor. “These two purchases are the first time that we have done business with Westchester Tractor,” said Iazzetti. “John cold-called us on a job site one day and continued to follow-up. He kept after me until I paid a visit to Westchester Tractor, where I first saw the Volvos and, frankly, we were immediately impressed,” Iazzetti explained. “John was very diligent in matching up the right machine for our operation and he was insistent that we should add a thumb to the excavator setup. This thumb has allowed us to build larger rock/retaining walls and do other jobs much, much faster,” he said “The Volvo excavator is stronger than we had anticipated. We are now able to lift and place septic tanks on our own. We are starting to do work for local utility companies, handling water main breaks, etc., and with the combination of the New Holland backhoe loader and the Volvo excavator, we have yet to run into a utility job that we can’t handle,” Iazzetti said. A-1 now has a fleet of two dozers, one rubber-tired loader, one backhoe, one excavator, and one paving box and one roller to handle the various projects it has and will undertake. If the company continues to grow as it has, Iazzetti said that he will be looking to purchase a new, larger Volvo excavator from Westchester Tractor. In addition to adding equipment to its fleet, A-1, of Tuxedo, NY, has added Patricia and Thomas, sister and brother of Anthony to its staff making it a family with green thumbs and keen business sense. For more information, call Westchester Tractor at 914/232-7746 or visit www.wtractor.com. This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.
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