About

Gorilla Hydraulic Breakers began as Tedesco Pump Service, a petroleum service company, in 1938. At that time, the original Joe Tedesco made a living for his wife Rose and three children by traveling throughout the northeast, repairing gas nozzles and the gas pumps’ series of dials measuring fuel output, which he later referred to as “pump computers”.

When Joe passed away suddenly, his eldest son, Joe Tedesco II, was called back from military service at the age of 18 to provide for his mother and two much younger siblings. He continued to provide petroleum services like his father, but expanded operations to include hydraulic and pneumatic repair to serve the industrial, automotive, and utility industries. He transformed the business from a one-man-band with a station wagon operating out of the basement in his family’s home, to a fully equipped facility employing several technicians, churning out work for the “T”(Mass Bay Transit Authority), Hood milk, and many others.

In 1979, Joe followed his passion into auctioneering, and handed the business over to his younger brother Robert, who took on a partner, and incorporated the business as “Tech Hydraulics Inc.”. With the new heavy equipment and construction-oriented business brought in by the nearby Central Artery Construction Project-better known as the Big Dig-Robert moved the business to a larger facility nearby where the business is headquartered today. The Big Dig put hydraulic hammers into the hands of many contractors in the Boston area, and although the company had been repairing them since they became popular in the late 1970s, Robert saw them as a new growth opportunity in the late 1990s.

In 2003, Robert reached out to his brother Joe’s son, Joe Tedesco III. He proposed a new direction for the business, which would shift its focus towards hydraulic hammers, and use the trade name of “Gorilla” to set it apart with a more aggressive, more memorable moniker. Joe saw the potential, bought out Robert’s partner, and began working with Robert to transition away from cylinders, pumps, and valves into hydraulic breakers. The company invested in field service vehicles, state-of-the-art, specialized equipment and tooling to repair breakers, and added demolition tools and hammer parts to its inventory. Most importantly, honest, growth-oriented personnel were recruited who understood the urgency of customer service.

Within three years, the company doubled its revenues, and, with the help of the internet, began selling nationally as well as exporting to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. By 2006, Gorilla had added its own rental fleet of hammer-equipped excavators. Based on what they learned from field testing in the unforgiving world of equipment rental and decades of repairing all other hydraulic breaker makes and models, the company adopted its own line of hydraulic hammers, known as the GHB line. Today, Gorilla now sports its improved GXS line, and over fifteen years and thousands of Gorilla Hydraulic Breakers later, the company continues to maintain a singular focus on hydraulic hammers, service, parts, and accessories, with the same level of customer service that the original Joe presented to his customers on his gas nozzle route over 80 years ago.