Asplundh Tree Expert Company
Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC is an American company which specializes in tree pruning and vegetation management for utilities and government agencies. The company also performs utility line construction and maintenance, electrical systems testing, traffic signal and highway lighting construction and maintenance, automated metering infrastructure and home energy management program implementation.
History
The Asplundh Tree Expert Co. was founded in 1928 in Pennsylvania by brothers Griffith, Lester and Carl Asplundh, members of a Swedish-American family who combined their educations and experience in arboriculture, electrical engineering and finance. The company specialized in "trimming trees around power and telephone lines." It was the first company to specialize in utility line clearance and vegetation management instead of residential services.In 1940, the first issue of The Asplundh TREE magazine was issued to crews; the magazine is still being published. By this time, the company had expanded from Pennsylvania to the Midwest and the Middle Atlantic states. In 1956, a subsidiary company, Asplundh Brush Control Co., was established.
In 1990, Asplundh acquired New York based B & J Maintenance Co., Inc, as well as L. Fulcher Electric, which was over five small clearance firms in France which became Asplundh's French subsidiary. Also during this year, the company expanded to New Zealand, acquiring Electrix Limited, which changed its name to Electrix Asplundh. By 1994, it had become the US's largest firm in utility clearance and one of the nation's largest privately held companies.
Lisa Oz, the wife of former Pennsylvania senatorial candidate and television personality Mehmet Oz, is the maternal granddaughter of one of the cofounders.