In 2008, Sposato Landscape employed 150 people and operated 30 Walker Mowers. Since then, the Milton, Delaware, company more than doubled in size, now employing more than 300 people and operating 72 Walker Mowers. When former high school teacher and company president, Tony Sposato, was asked what contributed to the rapid growth, he said simply, “the area.”
Sposato Landscape employs more than 300 people and operates 72 Walker Mowers.
“We’re in a state that attracts a lot of people, thanks to nearby resorts and low taxes,” said Sposato, whose company was profiled in Walker Talk, Volume 31. “As a full-service landscape company, all of our divisions, including design and build, lawn care, irrigation, and residential and commercial maintenance, can take care of virtually any customer request, and they generate work for each other. There’s no question that being full service helped us grow, too.”
So do the Walker Mowers that crews use primarily on the resorts, golf course communities and other high-end properties where customers want their entrances looking nice. Most of them can be found working with the 11 residential maintenance crews, at two direct-report resort locations and out of the Ocean View satellite facility.
Like other landscape contractors large and small, Sposato indicated that lack of labor continues to plague the industry, noting that his company could add another crew or two if it had the people. As he pointed out, the irony is the resorts are among his biggest customers; they are also his biggest competition for labor. For the last 14 years or so, he’s been relying heavily on the H-2B guest worker program to man his crews during the busy mowing season.
What goes unsaid is companies can’t grow at this pace without a loyal base of customers and employees. Sposato has people in both categories, celebrating more than 20 years with him.
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