About Us
Our History
The Beginning
Bethel Power was formed by a returning WWII GI, Percy Ellis. Percy bought the 1920's house on 44 Grassy Plain Street and started an engine business after learning the mechanic's trade in the US Army during his tour of duty in WWII. Percy originally worked on car and truck engines but branched out to reel lawn mowers and then small rotary lawn mowers when they became popular homeowner purchases in the 1950's. A fixture for over 40 years and quite the town character, Percy continued to work out of a typical oil soaked showroom and workshop for his entire tenure as owner of Independent Motors, as he called his business.
Chapter Two
Independent Motors was purchased in 1988 by two brothers John Lennon and Nick Ellis (no relation to Percy) and named Bethel Power Equipment, Inc. John and Nick grew Bethel Power through hard work and great customer service to a thriving Outdoor Power Equipment business. Though Bethel Power sold all types of OPE equipment, it is known for their expertise in commercial and residential lawn and garden equipment. In 2002, they invested in a new 2000+sq ft shop and storage building to better serve customers and deliver high quality service.
Chapter Three
After 19 years of ownership John and Nick decided to sell their business. In January of 2007, Mark Guss and Kevin Dee purchased Bethel Power Equipment, Inc and named the business Bethel Power Equipment, LLC. Kevin was a 20+year employee at Bethel Power and Mark was retiring from IBM and was a 15 year customer. Mark and Kevin formed their partnership and have continued the traditional and successful formula of focusing on customer service and serving the commercial and residential landscaping and garden market.
Chapter Four
After five successful years of growth, the business outgrew the 44 Grassy Plain Street facility and Bethel Power needed more room in order to serve our customers. As a result, in July, 2012 we moved to our current facility in Bethel's Clarke Business Park. We built a new 3200square foot showroom onto an existing 11,000 facility to create Fairfield County's largest outdoor power equipment facility. Our huge showroom allowed us to display more equipment and more models than any other store, including the big box stores.
Our grand opening was a big success and our customer loved our new showroom and 4,000 sqft service shop. We renovated, built and sourced services for our new facility with skilled professionals from Bethel and Danbury, all local businesses. We strongly believe in supporting local businesses and put our beliefs into action. As a result of our local focus and the great reviews from our customers, we were named 2013 Business of the Year by Bethel's Chamber of Commerce. An honor we take great pride in receiving.
Thanks to our loyal customers we are growing again! We have received Planning and Zoning approval to build a new 2400sqft warehouse/storage facility. Our plans are to use the new building to house serviced customer machines that are ready for pickup. This will free up additional space and allow us to increase the size of our service shop.
Our Philosophy
Mark and Kevin have adopted a set of business principles that Bethel Power Equipment, LLC operates under:
1. Provide the best possible Customer Service
2. Respect for the Individual.
3. Make a reasonable profit to allow continued investment in the business.
Best Possible Customer Service
Providing world class service ensures customers receive value when dealing with Bethel Power. We strive to make sure the customer is happy with our service from salesmen, technicians, and our driver. While some stores shout the customer is always "right", we believe our employee's expertise and many years of experience can deliver superb service and value to the buying experience even when the customer may need to be educated about a particular product or part. The respectful way we interact with customers, and help them decide what is best for them, is the key to customer satisfaction and delivering value in our relationship with our loyal customers. Our work is guaranteed for 30 days. We strive to completely satisfy our customers when the rare issue arises of a machine not working 100% correctly after a service. We routinely pickup, re-service and re-deliver a machine if we failed to satisfy the customer the first time. We employ a large staff of mechanics to service our customer's machines in approximately one-half the time of our competitors, especially important in the critical peak periods of Spring and Fall. Our reputation for superb customer satisfaction is real.
Respect for the Individual
Respect for the individual is essentially applying the golden rule and then ensuring management implements that philosophy for employees, peer managers, suppliers and customers. We strive to treat all Individuals with respect and courtesy. This provides the right atmosphere to ensure that we act as a Bethel Power Equipment team in serving our customer and suppliers. Whether it is assisting a customer at the counter, dealing with a distributor or parts supplier, or an employee, the interaction with Bethel Power should be an opportunity to show respect, professional behavior and fairness. All Bethel Power employees are encouraged to attend Industry classes to increase their skills and professional credentials. As a business, we invest multiple days of education for each employee every year.
Make a Reasonable Profit
All successful long-term businesses must make a profit and Bethel Power Equipment is no different. We make a profit on our sales and services so we can re-invest in our employees, showroom, and shop. This in turn allows us to remain in business to service our loyal customers. Since we purchased Bethel Power, we have re-invested our profits in productivity tools for the shop, an upgraded showroom and infrastructure for parts and whole goods storage.