Beauticians in Cranston.
Gene Pezzulli invested almost $40,000 in Mother Nature this year, and so far she hasn’t brought much of a return.
The owner of General Lot Maintenance, a Scituate-based landscaping and snow plow company, has spent most of the winter watching his trucks, plows and sanders sit idle as the bills continue to come in.
"We depend on this," he said. "This is the industry of snowplowing. Even though there hasn’t been that much snow we still have to make payments on trucks, loaders and sanders. What happens is that we start the year with a big hole, and that of course hurts us financially."
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He isn’t alone.
"This is one of the worst winters that we have ever had. I think that it hasn’t even snowed seven inches yet," said Anthony DeFusco, general manager of Lawn Beauticians Inc., of Cranston. "Sometimes when you don’t get snow, you get a lot of sanding activity and that hasn’t even been the case this year. This is our winter business and we put a lot of time and money into getting ready for it. That’s a little frustrating."
DeFusco has learned not to depend on winter business to pay the bills.
"Obviously this type of winter hurts everyone, and it does affect our business," he said. "We lose some revenue, but it doesn’t crush us. Some guys really count on this, and seasons like the one we are having now could crush them."
Pezzulli agreed.
"There are people in this business, like myself, for whom this is a source of income," he said. "We are a 12-month-a-year company and landscaping is only seven months of that year. We need to earn some money to pay the bills the other five months."
And the cost of running this five-month business isn’t low. According to Pezzulli, a used landscaper’s dump trunk is $20,000, plows start at $4,000, and sanders are another $4,000. In addition, companies that plow corporate and industrial lots are required to carry high amounts of insurance in case an injury occurs in one of their lots.
"Here I am doing a part-time thing hoping to make some money and I have to carry $3 million worth of insurance," Pezzulli said. "In the case of a guy like myself you can invest $30,000 to $40,000 in a winter with an additional $4,000 in sand and salt and if it doesn’t snow, you have no way to make up those costs. "
Ironically, the plow dealers were having a "record breaking" season, until sales started falling in January. In addition dealers are not being asked to do plow repairs, another source of income in the winter months.
"The snow plow season is predicated on the snowfall of the previous season," said Michael Ferreira, of Tri-Power Sales and Service in Warwick. "Sales were decent at the beginning of this year but they have dropped off. The phone has just stopped ringing."
For Ferreira the concern isn’t this year’s season, but next year’s.
"If things continue like this, next year’s business is going to be in the toilet," he said. "Obviously this is going to affect us. We just don’t know how much yet."
Ken Slocum, owner of Cap City in Warwick, said there really isn’t anything plow dealers can do.
"I have been doing this for 17 years and this isn’t the first time that we have had a winter like this," he said. "I will plan accordingly for next year depending on what the season brings."
Pezzulli too is already looking at next year, and is also worried.
"This winter is a loss and there is no way to get back," he said. "This hurt has a lasting impact because next year when you go to bid jobs, companies don’t think they need snow plowing and the prices go down."
Betting against the odds, Slocum isn’t ready to consider the season a total loss just yet.
"The season isn’t over," he said. "Five years ago we had a heavy snow on April 1. This is New England so all we can do is wait and see."
