Davey Tree Flipbooks

85 84 Growth Rings At the end of 1984, the new combined Residential/Commercial service line report- ed $28.5 million in revenue. is amounted to about a quarter of overall company revenue. Still, the R/C service line was, for the time being, chasing the company's revenue leaders: Utility services. Utility services operations under the Kent operating company, otherwise known as Eastern Utility services, accounted for revenues of $46 million in 1984. is amounted to almost 39 percent of total overall revenue for the year and exceeded the Davey Tree Surgery Company's revenue figure of $39.3 million, which included Western residential operations. Utility operations performed well in the early 1980s despite some market shifts. Traditional paradigms were changing concerning customer relationships and service, contract bidding including better cost recognition, faster response time, and supplying large numbers of mobile crews for storm recovery responses. New management and upgraded equipment served to better market Davey's capabilities throughout the utility industry. Eastern Utility services was also heavily invested in telephone wire service through- out the Carolinas. ese were large contracts ordered by telephone companies to bury phone lines running from the main line to residences. Edward K. "Ken" Shuford, who retired in 1985 after 44 years, had served as division manager in utility services in Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Shuford recalled in a November 2000 inter- view that the telephone companies approached Davey and other contractors to do the work. e phone companies typically provided the small, motorized trenching equipment required for the actual burying of the phone cables. All Davey had to do was provide a truck and a crew to perform the work. "So we put together some crews and got some pick-up trucks […] and we started burying wire," Shuford said. "It was easy to train people to do that, but it required more supervision than a tree crew. You could take a person off of the street and within one day's time you could have a crew running efficiently." Such fruitful buried line work lasted for decades. As just one example, in 1989 Davey celebrated more than 25 years of providing buried wire service to Southern Bell. Davey lost a long-time employee during the mid-1980s. Former president Paul Hershey died in September 1984. Hershey's 42-year career started in the summer of 1926 while training as a field employee and culminated in his term as company president from 1965 to 1968. Hershey was the first person elected president who had not been directly related to the Davey family by blood or marriage, even though he briefly lived at 338 Woodard Ave. in the house John Davey had lived in until 1923. Hershey lived there until 1975 when he moved to 814 Bryce Road – a stone's throw from the Davey Technical Service Center. Hershey sold John Davey's old homestead to the Davey Foundation, which had planned to turn the house into a library and museum dedicated to the field of arboriculture. ose plans were eventually dropped, and the house was sold to a private individual in 1980. With the new corporate center and executive management group, success in utility services, and combined tree and lawn care operations, the company raced toward a prosperous future. Gradually, the utility services market grew more competitive. Yet the service line still accounted for about 65 percent of Davey services. Even with a tougher market, Eastern Utility services and the Davey Tree Surgery Company remained a vital service provider to the industry. Davey continued to see success as the Residential/Commercial service group grew and expanded. "It took the company 72 years to reach $52 million in annual sales," Joy said in an interview. "And we've more than doubled that in the past six years. And, in that period, earnings have quadrupled." e outside world took notice. In February 1984, Ohio Business Magazine spotlighted Davey as one of eight Ohio companies exemplify- ing excellence in business in an article titled "Ohio's Top Privately Held Companies." Davey's inclusion in the Ohio Business article drew attention from then Ohio Governor Richard Celeste, who wrote Joy a congratulatory letter for making the story. "All Ohioans are proud of your contribution to our entrepreneurial tradition," Celeste wrote. "Please accept my heartiest congratulations." In 1984, the Davey Company grew once again. At the International Society of Arboriculture trade show in Quebec City, Karl Warnke and Wayne Parker from Davey's Kent Utility service line arranged a meeting with the owners of a major tree company located on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Rod Soderstrom and his brother Doug, the owners of High Tree Services, Ltd., were seeking information on Davey's capabilities in the utility industry. At the time, High Tree was the largest and most reputable line clearing contractor in Western Canada, operating in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Rod Soderstrom founded High Tree Services in Nanaimo, British Columbia, in 1969. High Tree soon started working for clients such as B.C. Hydro. rough High Tree, Rod Soderstrom introduced the first insulated bucket truck – a critical safety feature – for tree trimming in British Columbia. e Soderstroms were contemplating some type of partnership, so the door opened Chapter 5 In 1975, executive management and members of the Davey family announced that the John Davey homestead on Woodard Avenue in Kent, Ohio, would be dedicated and maintained as a library-museum to preserve history, documents and memorabilia associated with the beginning of the tree care industry. e house, ironically built in 1880, became the Davey homestead in 1902 when John Davey bought what was then the 25-acre property and dubbed it "Birdmount." Past Davey Company President Paul Hershey had obtained the house from the Davey family but later sold it to the Davey Foundation in 1975 for the purpose of establishing the arboriculture museum, with the goal of opening it in mid-1976. Unfortunately, plans for the museum never materialized, and in 1980 the house was sold to a private owner. e privately owned house remains an iconic fixture in Davey and Kent history and is still standing today. In 1986 Davey acquired High Tree Services, Ltd., of Vancouver, British Columbia. e acquisition gave Davey an instant foothold in the western Canadian utility market. A Davey employee fertilizes trees on the landscape of a residential client.

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