Sydney-based owner-operator Dominic Sammut took advantage of Komatsu Finance's "startup package" when purchasing his first machine a Komatsu PC138US-8 excavator and starting off his own business in September 2014.
Since starting in business, most of Dominic's work has been through major Sydney contractor ABAX Contracting, primarily carrying out subdivision work in the western suburbs, covering the whole range of works including bulking out materials, drainage, general earthworks and loading trucks.Attachments for his machine include a set of buckets, a hammer, a ripper and an auger.
Dominic who is the son of Sydney earthmoving identities Felix and Pauline Sammut had been operating machines for other contractors for eight or nine years, and decided to start up on his own.
"I'd been operating for other people for a few years, getting experienced in the industry, and decided to take the plunge," he said.
"I'd mainly operated excavators, but also skidsteers, backhoes and trucks.
"I'd operated a few Komatsu machines, as well as other brands, and the Komatsu excavators stood out in performance; they seem to last longer and are better quality," said Dominic.
"When I priced up all the machines they were pretty on par with price, so, I thought, 'If that's what I want and they're the same sort of money, I may as well go with what I want.'
"I've been very happy with the machine; I've never had a problem with it," he said. "It's (as of December 2015) got just over 2000 hours now, and I haven't had a drama.
"Actually I did have a bit of trouble somebody broke into it and vandalised it after about four or five months of owning it so I rang up Komatsu and they came out that day, saw what I needed and got it going the next day.
"So I was really happy with that.
"I lost two days because they were fixing it the second day, but for what they did for me it's not a common part, which they had to ship down overnight from Queensland to get it going for me so yeah, I was happy."
Dominic said that starting up his business through Chris Favotto, Komatsu Finance's Business Development Manager NSW/ACT, was very straightforward (see separate story).
"Chris was good to deal with, and now I just pay the money each month and that's it," he said.
Dominic also promotes his business through Facebook, and can be found at https://www.facebook.com/Sammutexcavations/?pnref=lhc.