Sixty-five years ago, when Roger Schmidt founded Schmidt Equipment, Inc. he coined the phrase, “Work hard. Take good care of our customers. Success will follow.”

Success did follow and today this family-owned business, who has always lived by Roger’s philosophy, has grown to more than 140 employees housed in five locations throughout Massachusetts – North Oxford (headquarters), Springfield, Swansea, North Billerica, and Plymouth.

Since the early days, Schmidt Equipment has been a key player in the construction industry serving customers in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Each location provides parts, sales and service to construction, forestry, government, skid steer customers, and more.

“This company has grown significantly since the day they only sold little green tractors,” said Daniel Carson, Director of Sales.

Although this past year presented challenges to almost every business, Carson said this company is proud of how they handled the day to day demands of the coronavirus pandemic.

“‘Stay safe, stay healthy’ was our company philosophy,” Carson said. “We were able to keep all of our locations open to our customers throughout the past year. Schmidt carefully followed all the established safety protocols which played a key role in our low number of cases experienced over the last 12 months. Everyone at Schmidt Equipment remained employed and no layoffs were needed.”

Starting out as and still remaining a John Deere dealership, Schmidt Equipment has expanded to include additional market leading brands such Hitachi, Wirtgen, Morbark and others.

“We strive to represent the best manufacturers of the hardest working, highest quality equipment available today,” said Marketing Manager Jeff Tate, who has been with the company for three years.

Schmidt Equipment offers customers in the construction, road building, and tree care/recycling industries a robust line of equipment, parts and services equal to the challenges that heavy duty work demands. The company has a well-earned reputation in service and parts availability to minimize downtime for its customers.

“With our five full-service maintenance facilities and a fleet of 14 service trucks covering Massachusetts and Rhode Island, we can provide all the maintenance and service needs that our customers expect,” Tate said.

In addition to the many products and services this company has to offer, the sales and service of new and used attachments plays an integral role in this business. Attachments can make any job easier for customers who are looking for opportunities to streamline projects and make any job more efficient. Attachments allow work crews to gain more versatility to get more done in less time and also use fewer resources.

“The world of attachments has had some amazing advancements over time,” said General Manager Ed Perrotti, who has been with the company for 20 years. “It is necessary to have a range of attachments at the dealership from reputable manufacturers to offer to our customers. Attachments allow the customers to customize their needs for specific jobs with a common machine or an existing machine.”

Perrotti said that customers don’t need to have a machine or buy a machine for each different application.

“Attachments allow them to make their machine more versatile, which helps them maximize their investment while controlling costs,” Perrotti said. “The goal is to help them be more productive, profitable and successful.” 

Owning attachments can pay for themselves if they create new opportunities to add in additional work – such as seasonal work. Snow blowers, snow pushers, snow/utility blades, and snow/utility V-blades can be useful when getting snow removal equipment ready for the winter months. And in the spring, summer and fall months, skid steer and compact track loader attachments such as brush cutters, multi-purpose buckets, and stump shredders can be useful in boosting revenue.

To get more productivity from a skid steer, loader, compact track loader, excavator, or backhoe, customers can hook-up one of the many easy-to-use John Deere Worksite Pro attachments. The ever-expanding lineup includes more than 100 models, so it is easy to find the right tool for the job.

“Schmidt primarily acquires most of the attachments utilized on John Deere machines through John Deere directly at time of machine order,” Carson said. “Schmidt does recognize that customers do have preferences, so we do our best to accommodate their attachment needs on large and small equipment by providing options that include quality attachment companies like Paladin, JRB, GEM, Indeco, TAG and Woods.”

Carson said the most popular attachments sold are couplers, buckets, forks and thumbs.

“Most compact equipment is sold with multiple attachments,” Carson said. “And because of the volume of compact equipment sold versus larger equipment, they make up the majority of attachments we sell.”

Some of the more popular attachments offered by John Deere include brooms, brush-tined grapples, buckets, cold planers, dozer blades, hydraulic hammers, mulcher heads, nursery forks, pallet forks, planetary drive augers, power rakes, root rakes, rotary cutters, rotary tillers, scrap grapples, side discharge buckets, snow blades, snow blowers, snow pushers, steel tracks, tooth bars, trenchers, and vibratory rollers. Each is backed by the legendary John Deere parts, service, and warranty coverage.

Perrotti said that representing popular, well known, well received and innovative manufacturers is a big part of having a chance to be successful.

“But the construction equipment dealership world is truly a people and relationship business,” Perrotti said. “As much as the technology and social media presence is out there, people still buy from people. It is equally, if not more important than the manufacturers you represent, to have people in your dealership who care and are willing to go the extra mile to support your customers. I believe the employees working at Schmidt Equipment care about our customers and our company and that is what helps make us successful.”

To encourage customer education, Schmidt Equipment offers four publications found on the website that offer insight into various subjects concerning the construction business. The magazines offer valuable information in the way of editorials, successful job stories, equipment news, industry trends, how to make the most of company resources and more.

• The Dirt teaches customers how to maximize productivity and uptime while lowering daily operating costs. Each issue includes practical information and customer success stories, plus news on John Deere construction equipment and industry trends.
• The Landing is a dealer-personalized, corporately produced, 16-page publication that goes out to thousands of John Deere forestry customers quarterly. Content focuses on new product introductions, customer testimonials, real stories from the woods and product support programs.
• Worksite Journal accommodates compact equipment users. Each issue features in-depth worksite stories that show how contractors, landscapers, farmers and others get more done and more reliably for less with John Deere Compact Construction Equipment and Worksite Pro attachments.
• Breakout magazine provides Hitachi construction equipment dealers and contractors with information focused on Hitachi construction equipment application, maintenance and management, as well as new product information.