We visit Tom Stevens, owner of Stevens Hoveniers Asten , 31 years old and a passionate gardener from Asten. Together with a team of two young colleagues, they are a hard-working group of people. Besides the Doosan DX10z mini digger , Tom also has a lot of other machines including a phrase, lawn mowers, vibratory plates and so on. Six years ago, Tom took on the challenge of starting his own business.
Own start
''My career started with another gardener. After working for a while I thought; I can do this too, just for myself. I have always had the ambition to one day start my own business, but first I had to gain a lot of experience. I wanted to look beyond my nose so that I could embark on my own adventure well prepared. At the end of the crisis I started my own business, which was exciting to take that step at that moment. In the beginning I lent myself a lot as a freelancer, but now I only take on my own projects. Slowly more and more work trickled in and now we have so much work that we can hardly handle it anymore. Better too busy than too quiet, I always say. What do I do in terms of work? Basically everything from A to Z. You can think of design, construction and maintenance. You can think of it so crazy and we do it. We really offer the total package for our customers, so that we can completely unburden them.”
A real gardener's machine
''The Doosan DX10z is really a perfect size for me. I don't need any bigger. The location where we are is often small and difficult to reach. Then with a size bigger it is soon not possible to get to it. But with the Doosan DX10z, yes. We can easily make the mini digger wider and narrower, so that we can easily fit through a garden gate. We have also regularly had to drive through a house so that we can work in the garden with the Doosan DX10z . You can not think of it so crazy and you manage to get through it with this mini digger . Many customers then say: “that will never fit”, but because I quickly make it narrower, we can get through everything. It really is the narrowest and widest in its class, which makes it very stable at work. Besides the financial picture, this was the biggest reason for me to go for the Doosan DX10z . But the service is also really nice. On my previous machine I didn't have that and I sat forward a bit. Now it works much better because I can sit up straight and finish much neater.”
Flexibility
“Flexibility is also very important to me. If I hadn't had the machine I would have to rent a mini digger for a whole day while sometimes I only need it for two hours. That makes renting very expensive and now I can use it whenever I want. Also last minute.”
Dealer
“In addition to the Doosan, I chose our dealer Staad because they are close by and I regularly receive a newsletter from them with information. Then I thought, I'm going to go and see what we can do for each other. To make a long story short: Then it was quickly completed together with the representative Johan.”
No challenge is too big
Plenty of projects are coming up for Tom. “We do not shy away from a challenge. I like to sometimes take on more difficult projects and then sink my teeth into them. And then bring it to a good end. For example, in February we made a kind of floating staircase of large tiles and they were 470 kilos each. That was really fun to do. Prepare the soil underneath, measure everything because it has to fit perfectly. I'm really proud of that. In the coming period we will be busy with various gardens, water features, cutting hedges and after the construction period there is a large project on the roll to install irrigation on a plot of 6000 meters. So plenty to do!
Contact us. We are happy to tell you more about it!
