Sussex Tree Services celebrates 30 years in business
When Jeffrey Meredith Sr. lost his job as a supermarket manager in 1986, he had a young family, bills to pay, an affinity for tree work, and not many options for employment.
According to his son, Jeffrey Meredith Jr. - who was 7 years old at the time - his father started the business as a one-man crew, and for a while, it was mostly his father scaling trees with a chainsaw to clear dangerous limbs and prevent damage to property.
“When my father opened the business it was kind of impromptu. He always liked tree work, so it kind of came naturally, but he encouraged me to pursue my studies and do something else,” the son noted.
Sussex Tree Services opened Jan. 1, 1987, and it wasn’t long before Meredith Jr. said his father picked up some additional helpers. However, most of the time he was working the intensely physical job to keep food on the table and clothes on his children’s backs. Sometimes, the elder Meredith would enlist his son for help with his work, but mostly, he encouraged higher education because his industry was physically demanding and dangerous.
The younger Meredith followed his father’s advice and pursed a degree, and then a career in engineering and construction, but he, too, had a knack for tree work.
“Growing up I was always around it. He always told me to find something else to pursue because it is a hard way to make a living,” Meredith Jr. said. “We had these conversations multiple times through my childhood and I went to college, then had a career in engineering almost 10 years before this business started to take off.”
That was nearly 10 years ago, and after more discussions about the growing, hard-earned success of the family business, Meredith Jr., has stepped in to help his father run the business as well.
“Thirty years in business is a long time. There are very few local tree companies that have been in the business that long,” he said. “We have a lot of clients in Rehoboth and Lewes we work for every year, and we’ve developed a lot of connections.”
The business has grown from one man and a chainsaw to a staff of nearly 45 workers and a steady stream of work, ranging from tree trimming and hedge pruning to tree removal, crane rentals and plant healthcare.
For the Meredith family, who bet everything on the success of their business, 2017 will be a celebration of the fruits of hard labor.
“Celebrate with us this year. It’s a pretty large feat for a small, family-owned business to be in it so long,” Meredith Jr. said.
For more information about Sussex Tree Services, call 302-645-6262 or go to www.sussextreeinc.com.
