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(L-R) are Peter Varone Jr., Equipment East territory manager; Tim Elliot, Dracut branch manager/light compact equipment and attachments sales manager of Equipment East; and Michael Distasio of M. Distasio Excavation.
M. Distasio Excavation based out of Tewksbury, Mass., was founded in 2019 by Michael Distasio.
Distasio took a familiar path in building his company.
"I started out as a lawn care service, and I found that it really did not hold my interest, so I diversified into a landscape and hardscape company," he said. "It wasn't long before I realized that it wasn't what I wanted to do, either. In 2019, I started moving into water and sewer projects and began using heavier excavation equipment. That's when I found my groove and things really started to grow from there."
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The first piece of equipment Distasio purchased was a skid steer, followed shortly after with a mini-excavator. Today, the company has a significant equipment fleet, which predominantly consists of DEVELON equipment.
"The bulk of our work is projects that would include residential excavating, including water services and utility services for new homes, utility repairs for existing homes, doing water main repair and new installation for municipalities and towns, and we also get involved in building small roads and we have built some subdivisions with multi-housing units," said Distasio.
Distasio has built a reputation for having created a solid company in just a few years. When asked what his secret is, he replied, "There is no real secret, it's just long, hard workdays, early mornings and late nights.
"I surround myself with a team of really good employees," he added. "They are qualified, they know what they are doing, they bounce ideas off each other and they get a lot accomplished. The people who work for me are a lot like my family. They need to be, we are together more than 12 hours a day."
According to Distasio, the COVID pandemic played a part in the company's fast growth.
"We were deemed essential very early on and there was a high demand for our type of work, and the economy has been strong ever since," he said. "We are very competitive with what we do. We may bid our work a little bit cheaper than the next guy, but we work harder, and get it done faster, and are able to take on more work, making up for the aggressive bid.
"Down the road, we are looking to stay heavily tied to the housing market. We have several good, significant housing-related projects to move on to as soon as this one is wrapped up, one of which is in the town of Lynn, where we will be breaking in the neighborhood of 35,000 tons of rock, so there will be a lot of hammer and crushing work on that project."
The equipment he uses also is a part of Distasio's success.
"My fleet is almost entirely DEVELON," he said. "Locally, the DEVELON dealer, Equipment East, has a great reputation for service.
"My first DEVELON machine was a DX140LCR, a 32,000-pound excavator that my crew really appreciated, and it held up very well in New England's tough digging conditions. It wasn't long before I made my second purchase from Equipment East, a DEVELON DL220 loader. That machine was so good that I made up my mind that I wanted to build up my fleet around the DEVELON brand.
"I really like our Territory Manager Peter Varone, and I like the quality of equipment and the support that I get from the dealership. My next two purchases were DEVELON 235 and 420 sized excavators. A year or so later, we purchased DEVELON's first entry in the dozer market, a DD100, and most recently we purchased a brand new DX350LGR excavator, so it's pretty obvious that we are very committed to DEVELON.
"The DEVELON product has been reliable, strong and efficient for us, and you could probably say that about any new piece of construction equipment. What's just as important or maybe more so than the brand you buy is the dealership that stands behind it. How quick do they get you your parts? What's the availability of machines when you need one?
"I've had situations with Equipment East where we needed a specific part that was not readily available, and they thought outside the box and the same day had the same part outsourced for us. Their support people, including my sales rep, are always available. He answers the phone or responds to a text message almost immediately.
"The DEVELON DD100 dozer has proven to be a good money-making machine for us. It was DEVELON's first entry into the dozer market, which could make you a little nervous. Ours came with low ground pressure tracks and GPS-ready. The GPS has been a learning curve for us. We had never operated a machine with GPS technology before, but as we got the hang of it, it's a very useful tool. The DD100 is 115 hp machine, a very good size for the type of work we do and we have absolutely no regrets."
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As for the new DEVELON 350 excavator, the company is very impressed with the machine.
"One of the things I really like about DEVELON is the simplicity of operation," Distasio said. "I'm at the point where I find the technology to be overwhelming. I just want to get my projects done. It's not that DEVELON is lacking in technology, they have just found the sweet spot of giving you the technology that you need without overloading your brain with too many bells and whistles.
"The other aspect I'm impressed with is that it's a larger zero tail-swing machine that you might expect to be tipsy and it's not at all. I can do almost anything with the 350 that I can do with my 420-size machine."
This fast-growing excavation company, which specializes in site work, utility, road work and drainage projects, currently is working at a residential housing project in Reading, Mass., that is valued at approximately $600,000. Distasio is responsible for building the roads, water and sewer mains, as well as the utilities for the site.
For more information, visit www.mdistasioinc.com. CEG
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