1961
Anthony Zito, then age 38, acquired Hegarty Moving and Storage Co., in Rockaway Park, Queens, NY.
Hegarty was an interesting business. It was a company started at around the turn of the
century, as a summer business, to transport baggage for vacationers from all areas of New
York City to the bungalows and summer cottages at the Rockaways. Hegarty grew to an
operation of about 25 trucks, and as the Rockaways changed from a summer community into a year round community, Hegarty grew into a full-fledged moving and storage operation.
Anthony started teaching his sons about business early on. Stephen, age 10, and Vincent, age 7 would do their homework in his office after school. After their homework was
done, they would work around the warehouse, sweeping up and oiling dolly wheels.
Anthony always paid his sons for their work, and taught them to save. As the business
grew and the children got older, they learned
more and more about the business, and eventually earned and saved enough money to put themselves through college.
1965
Anthony had expanded Hegarty from a residential moving and storage firm into residential and commercial firm. Hegarty became the prime mover for New York Telephone Co., and began expanding its commercial customer base. Anthony noticed that his commercial customers were beginning to contract out many other services, that they used to perform internally, and decided to form Crown Cleaning Contractors, a janitorial service company.
1974
Stephen Zito, after finishing college and working for Vignola Haulage for a year, to learn about heavy equipment moving and rigging, joined his father in the family business. Together they incorporated Crown Cleaning Contractors into Zito & Zito Maintenance, Inc.
1976
Zito & Zito had grown so quickly and profitably, that Anthony decided to sell off Hegarty Movers, and concentrate full time in building Zito & Zito.
1977
Vincent Zito, finished his education and joined Zito & Zito.
1978
Office Moving Specialists (OMS) was formed, as a division of Zito & Zito Maintenance, Inc., to fill the needs of our customers for specialized space planning and furniture moving services. Its primary function is the coordination of various services associated with commercial space renovations. OMS coordinates the drafting of floor plans, labeling, disassembly and reassembly of furniture, disconnection and reconnection of data and electrical services associated with any renovation.
Since its inception, OMS has performed numerous projects for customers like NYNEX, AT&T, and New York University, and has given Zito & Zito the ability to increase its sales base to each of its many janitorial service customers.
1981
American Sun Control Systems (ASCS) was formed, as a division of Zito & Zito, to address our customers growing need for energy conservation. ASCS installs solar controlling window treatments, both commercially and residentially.
Since its inception, ASCS has helped hundreds of homeowners, retail storeowners, and large commercial real estate owners solve their energy, glare, and sun fade problems. Some of our more notable projects are the American Airlines JFK Terminal Building and dozens of facilities for NYNEX, including their 42 story Headquarters Building in Manhattan. ASCS's customer base has helped expand Zito & Zito's janitorial services business tremendously. An example of this is our relationship with NYU, who came aboard as a solar control customer in the early 1980's. In addition to many solar control projects, Zito & Zito has performed numerous commercial-cleaning projects for the University.
1990
Anthony Zito retired.
1994
Industrial Floorworks was formed to address the needs of our customers for quality industrial floor coating installations and industrial maintenance. This is our fastest-growing and most profitable division. We have formed a partnering relationship with the Tennant Company from Minnesota. Tennant is the world’s largest manufacturer of mechanized sweeping and floor scrubbing equipment, with over 65% of the worldwide market. They approached us in 1995 to act as a rental agency for their equipment. The relationship has grown to the point that we now own or lease approximately 20 pieces of their equipment. Being primarily a maintenance contractor has given us the ability to turn this rental business into profitable industrial maintenance contracts by offering operators when we rent the equipment. In 1997 we became one of only 30 companies in the world designated as an Authorized Contractor for the installation of their floor coatings and resurfacers. In 1998 we won Tennant’s Floor Coating Division’s ‘Highest Percentage Sales Growth’ Award. We have also become Authorized Installers of other floor coating manufacturers systems such as Ardex, General Polymers, Ashford and Dur-A-Flex.
1997
We realized that there was a profitable market niche that was not being serviced. Most of the industrial facilities in the New York Metropolitan Area are less than 100,000 square foot owner occupied buildings that do not warrant the investment in expensive cleaning equipment. The owners of these facilities are beginning to learn that outsourcing is more beneficial than in-house maintenance, but have no where to turn for these services other than Janitorial Service contractors. Most Janitorial Service contractors don’t focus on this market because of the equipment expense that would be involved, and so the facility has no choice but to perform the services themselves manually. The customers who do invest in this equipment usually have no maintenance plan, or have better things to do with the personnel assigned and wind up letting the equipment gather dust. Our ability to rent equipment, provide operators, and install industrial floor coatings has put us in a unique position to service this profitable market. As a result, we made a decision in 1997 to eliminate low profit margin service contracts, such as a $4,000,000 per year Janitorial Service contract we had with Bell Atlantic, and devote ourselves to building this profitable Industrial Maintenance and Coatings Division.
2001
We won the Contractor of the Year award from The Tennant Company.
2016
Industrial Floorworks became a Level Master Elite (LME) Contractor for Ardex. Ardex’s products are recognized as the worlds finest self-leveling underlayments and concrete toppings. An LME is their highest designation for a contractor and the designation comes with special warrantees.
At Present
The Zito Family of Companies have grown into a building service contracting firm performing a multitude of services for major property owners and tenants on Long Island, Westchester, Northern New Jersey, Southern Connecticut, New York City.
Industrial Floorworks has installed millions of square feet of concrete coatings, toppings, and concrete polishing for some of the most important property owners and facilities in the tri-state area.
Please see our customer list.
