History
History
Albanese Brothers Inc. is owned and operated by sisters Marcella and Maria, and brother Oto “Dino” Albanese.
Albanese Brothers Inc. is a 46-year-old private family business. It was originally founded by brothers Marco and Giovanni “John” Albanese in August of 1978.
Marcella, Maria and Dino have been involved with the family business since the beginning; First by working after school, weekends, and summers, and later on engaging in the family business full time for the past 35 years. They have been involved in the daily activities starting at the very bottom and learning everything that they could, literally from the ground up. Marcella and Dino started working with the crews in the field and Maria in the office. Marcella, Maria and Dino run the day-to-day management operations of the company in all aspects of the construction process for many years. The combinations of shared responsibilities make the family able to offer excellent service and competitive rates.
In 1991, John Albanese went off to form his own company, Albanese D & S Inc., while Marco and his three children kept going. The 4 of them became a strong team sharing the daily responsibilities by being fully engaged in all activities and decisions to be made. In the later part of 2010 Marco retired, but the tradition continues at Albanese Brothers with Marcella, Maria, and Dino running the company.
A DREAM BEGINS IN AVELLINO, ITALY
The Albanese family is originally from Italy. First Marco immigrated to the USA and then his brother John. Due to lack of work in their region in Italy they came to the USA, the land of opportunity. Later on Marco’s wife followed, unable to bring the 3 children, but a few years later the 3 children finally joined their parents in Boston, MA, USA.
Marcella, Maria and Dino spent their early childhood years with their grandparents in Italy, helping out at the farm. Being away from the parents for many years only made the three children stronger, as they were forced to become responsible at a young age.
The story first began in the small town of Flumeri, in the province of Avellino, Italy, back in the 1950’s. Marco and John began by working for their father, Oto, in his small public works construction company. For Marco, even as a teenager growing up in the little town of Flumeri, Italy, fulfilling their father’s dream to do something that no one else in Flumeri had done…start his own construction company, was a goal to which he gladly contributed.
In 1958, starting with one truck and a front end loader, Marco’s father, Oto Albanese, began the Albanese family construction business by doing a small road job near their hometown. Marco, though only thirteen years old at the time, put in a full fourteen hours every day, six days a week, while working beside his father supervising work crews and operating the machinery. Marco’s younger brother John later joined the company as a mechanic.
For Oto Albanese, it was a dream come true. He, together with his sons, ran a successful family construction business with an excellent reputation as a road building subcontractor. As their reputation grew…so did the company.
But just when all seemed to be going well, disaster struck the Albanese company when after completing a very large job. The general contractor for whom they were working left the country without paying the Albanese’s. This was financially devastating to the company and there was no recourse to recover any monies owed. At that time the Italian law did not adequately protect creditors and there was no requirement for the general contractor to post a bond or carry insurance. Consequently, the company was forced to liquidate their equipment in order to honor most of their debts.
SAVING THE FAMILY’S HONOR
Not only was the company devastated, the family was deeply hurt. Driven by the events beyond his control, Marco was determined to help his father pay off creditors and save his family’s good name. Although unable to speak English, Marco scraped together whatever money was available, borrowed the rest, and immigrated to the United States leaving his wife and kids behind. Once in the USA, Marco found it difficult to find a job in construction and took whatever was available. He worked as a dishwasher, cook and taxi driver until he found full-time work with P. Gioioso & Sons, an underground utility contracting company and a UCANE member. He stayed with the company for seven years, working first as a laborer and then as a machine operator.
In the meantime his brother John joined him in the states and found a job as a foreign car mechanic. Together they managed to send more than $50,000 back to Italy to help their parents pay off the remaining family debt.
LIKE MANY BEFORE THEM, WILLING TO WORK HARD
It was not long thereafter that Marco and John decided to start their own construction company, Albanese Brothers Inc. With Marco’s experience installing underground water and sewer pipe and John’s experience with machinery, the brothers decided to concentrate on water and sewer construction but take whatever job came along. They began their company with the purchase of a truck and a Dynahoe.
The Albanese Brothers were aggressive and bid any type of construction job they thought they could handle, such as installing residential water and sewer connections and paving sidewalks and driveways.
A STEADY PROGRESSION OF LARGER AND LARGER JOBS
As the small jobs were completed, the brothers bid larger and larger projects, installing water and sewer lines, drains, and culverts, first as a subcontractor then as a general contractor.
The company successfully completed even the most challenging underground utility work. When specific skills were needed for a job and when they didn’t have the experience, they invested in people and machinery to do the job. When they could learn something new that would help the company, they did it.
For instance, the Albanese Family seeing that many underground utility jobs involved removal of ledge, studied and obtained a blasting license so that he could be in control of the situation. Doing the blasting themselves, the company could cut their costs which would give the company an advantage over the competition when bidding work.
Slowly and methodically profits were put back into the business. Different pieces of equipment were purchased to give the company new capabilities. Always willing to listen to a good deal or take a chance when it meant the company would benefit, Albanese Brothers was the first company in the New England region to purchase a Komatsu Excavator PC-650.
THE TRADITION CONTINUES
The Albaneses' construction knowledge spans over half a century. First by Marco and John working for their father’s company, then traveling to America and later starting Albanese Brothers Inc. in 1978. At about the same time the three children, Marcella, Maria and Dino, were finally able to join their parents in the USA and immediately began to go to work with their father Marco and uncle John on the weekends, after school and summers. The kids still remember when there was a snow day in the winter and not have school, their father Marco would pick them up in a loader or dump truck and take them with him.
Throughout the years, Marco, Marcella, Maria and Dino expanded the company by purchasing more equipment and servicing this equipment in-house. This enabled the company to keep costs low, minimize equipment downtime, and complete projects in a timely manner. Albanese also owns a vibro hammer, sheeting systems, and a portable crusher which enables them to manufacture their own aggregate material.
The company grew at such a steady pace that in 1986 that Albanese’ headquarters was moved from Malden to a four acre facility in Dracut, MA. To keep pace with their ever growing business, Albanese Bros. occupies 3,000 sf of a 24,000 sf office complex on their Dracut property, plus a 5,000 sf garage. The complex includes the company headquarters, storage buildings and garage and specializes in difficult and challenging sewer projects. The company presently employs over 50 people, and completes an estimated $15 million of construction work a year.
Since Marco Albanese fully retired, Marcella, Maria and Dino are continuing the tradition. We operate the business as usual as we have for many years, just now as equal owners. We bid on new projects and continue to run the daily operations of our present projects.
In January of 2012 Albanese Brothers Inc. became a DBE and WBE certified company.
We presently have jobs in the State of MA and in NH.