Conn.’s DeFeo Materials Finds Transportation Solutions

Christopher DeFeo started DeFeo Materials in 2016 with one tri-axle dump truck hauling bulk materials.

Prior to starting the company in Connecticut, DeFeo had worked in the agricultural industry in the Midwest, where he gained exposure to many different types of equipment and the harvesting process for many different commodities that were shipped in bulk. Once DeFeo moved back to Connecticut, he started working in the construction industry, which laid the foundation for what would become DeFeo Materials.

DeFeo Materials main focus is to produce and distribute decorative stone products to wholesale landscape supply yards up and down the east coast — it supplies over 15 different products to approximately 200 different customers across the east coast.

“It’s common knowledge that the housing market has been very strong in the southeastern United States for a prolonged period of time,” said DeFeo. “Over the last decade, both builders and developers have become aware of the environmental benefits of using decorative stone in the landscape process versus other options such as mulches and pine straw. You are conserving water as well as not having to buy, reapply and pay to have the mulch or pine straw redone every year.

“And a big benefit is the stones keep their color yearround,” he added. “Once you put the stones down, they pay for themselves in two or three years and in the long term it is substantial savings, especially for commercial properties that spend a fortune on spreading mulch every year.”

This market opened up for DeFeo when a gravel pit in New Jersey fell behind on supplying product and could not supply a stone yard in western N.C. When DeFeo Materials delivered the product, they asked the customer “how much more of this would you like” and her answer was “Honey, you could never bring me enough.”