Do-Cut Celebrates New Chapter at Old Site
CANFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio – The opening of the new Do-Cut Sales & Services store is more than a symbol of how far the company has come over the past seven years, President Lisa Miller said at a ribbon cutting Wednesday, it’s a marker of what the company’s accomplished in the 70-plus years since it was founded.
“Words can’t explain my excitement today. It’s a very emotional day for us,” said Miller, the second generation of her family to lead Do-Cut. “My mother, who is 95, is here with us. As I was setting everything up, I was reminiscing about how proud my father would be of where our company has come from when he started in a one-car garage.”
For seven years, Do-Cut’s Mahoning County operations – it also has a store in Warren – have worked out of a space in Boardman that was too small for its needs. The move there was impromptu; after a fire in the fall of 2011 destroyed the building, Do-Cut needed to relocate quickly to keep its franchises and not miss out on the surge of business that comes every spring.
“At our previous location, we were actually three buildings, so it was a logistics nightmare, especially for our landscape customers who have trucks and trailers. It was hard for them to get around,” Miller said. “We have plenty of parking and maneuverability. You can drive all the way around the building now. We can take care of anyone, from a postage stamp yard to someone with many, many acres to a landscape contractor.”
The new, 10,000-square-foot building sits at the same site, 6442 S. Raccoon Road, as the building that was destroyed by the fire. For Miller and vice presidents Thomas Morgan and Jay Curry, the return was never entirely out of the picture.
“Getting that call in the middle of the night was devastating. We welcomed everybody from Canfield to Warren and they stayed there for a couple months working together. It was a painful process to go through,” Morgan said. “[Coming back] was always at the back of your mind.”
Added Miller, “That space afforded us the quick turnaround after the fire to get up and running so we didn’t miss our spring business that year. We simply outgrew it. We had aspirations to move and the opportunity presented itself.”
With a larger showroom, Do-Cut can put more products on display, from riding and push mowers to safety equipment to chainsaws.
“We really wanted to make sure the showroom was nice and inviting,” Curry said. “It’s kind of like a car dealership where everything’s nice and bright. It brings out the colors of the equipment. We’re real happy with how it turned out.”
Soon, the showroom will have new products on display, Miller said. Next month, Toro will be introducing a new battery-powered walk-behind mower and in August will launch a new “crazy powerful” snowblower.
For the Terzigni family – Lucy, Miller’s mother, was front row for the ribbon cutting – the day was a celebration of everything that’s happened and been overcome since Anthony Terzigni started repairing equipment out of the garage in the 1940s. Sitting just inside the entrance were portraits of the family’s matriarch and patriarch.
“I’m just overwhelmed. It’s gorgeous. I’m hoping that it’s a sustainable asset for the community and the people in this area,” Lucy Terzigni said. “To see something like this after starting a business in a one-car garage, it’s unspeakable. I have no words for my joy and my happiness, for my children and for the community.”
The most important lesson imparted on Miller was work ethic, the Do-Cut president said, both for her and her brothers. Her brother, Dante Terzigni, was on hand for the celebration as well.
“True grit got us through a lot of things. I lost two brothers [who were] at a young age, one 46 and the other 57. They were an integral part of this company for many years,” Miller said. “You just pull up your bootstraps and keep going. That’s the best advice I could give anybody, whether it’s raising a child or handling business.”
Pictured: Joining Lisa Miller, president of Do-Cut Sales & Services, at the ribbon cutting was her mother and cofounder of the business, Lucy Terzigni.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
