Chapel Valley Landscape Company
J. Landon Reeve IV, president
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Long recognized as one of the region's leading landscape contractors,
Chapel Valley
Landscape Company has earned a reputation of excellence throughout
the DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia areas.
Chapel Valley was founded in 1968 by J. Landon Reeve IV, and the
business remains privately held. The company specializes in creating
and maintaining elegant landscapes for homes, commercial and institutional
properties.
Services are design/ build, maintenance, estate maintenance, water
management, exterior lighting, hardscaping, enhancements and color
rotations, and holiday lighting.
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Clintar Groundskeeping Services
Robert C. Wilton, president
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Winter or summer, this Canada-based landscape/grounds contractor
is busy, offering a diverse range of services to commercial and
high-end residential clients. These include landscape maintenance,
landscape construction, vegetation control, snow and ice control,
parking lot maintenance and irrigation system maintenance.
"How did I get into this business? While attending college
(Business Administration '68)," says Robert C. Wilton, president.
"I had a summer job with a company that did lawn spraying.
Upon graduation, the owner hired me. After five years I figured
it was time to set up my own shop."
In addition to its year-round services, Clintar
Groundskeeping Services supports a growing franchise operation.
Operating in more than 15 territories in southern Ontario, look
for Clintar franchise operations elsewhere in Canada and in the
United States soon. This company is on the move.
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Davey Tree Expert Co.
Karl J. Warnke, president
R. Douglas Cowan, chairman
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A growing commercial grounds maintenance division, residential
and commercial lawn care, specialty vegetation management programs
and a long tradition of tree care and installation propelled The
Davey Tree Expert Company to gross revenues of $321 million
in 2001.
The company has also been in the forefront of the battle against
the devastating Asian long-horned beetle. It earned a contract from
the USDA this year to help find a way to manage the problem the
beetle has caused.
The company looks for a 10% growth rate in its services, which
total about 70% residential and 30% commercial.
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Cowan (left) and Warnke.
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Dora Landscaping
Apopka, FL
Jim Oyler, President
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The Oyler name has been synonymous with landscaping in central
Florida for decades and it looks like that will continue into the
future. Jim Oyler, president of Dora Landscaping, Apopka, FL, has
one son in the business and another about to enter the industry.
What makes Dora Landscaping, founded in March 1976, special? Oyler
says it's the ability to take a big landscaping project from its
budget phase through installation and then providing the necessary
maintenance.
For example, Dora Landscaping is landscaping the new 7,500-room
Pop Century hotel at Disney World. The Orlando-area company is installing
the landscape, drainage, irrigation and providing maintenance for
a year. One of the challenges to this project is moving 64 2-ft.
caliper oak trees.
"We kind of select who we work for. We're not out there to
bid jobs just to bid," says Oyler, whose firm operates out
of a 35-acre site and features its own container nursery.
"I've always felt that we have a civic responsibility to do
things the right way," adds Oyler.
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DuBrow's Nurseries
Sheldon DuBrow, president
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We wanted this business to have its own rhythm, its own pulse,"
says Sheldon DeBrow. "We built this business to last."
And it has. Sheldon and his brother Martin (now retired) started
the business in 1958 as a garden center. Sheldon remains committed
to making his full-service company "number one," not necessarily
in size but in service, reputation and (not least) getting a fair
return for its efforts.
"You have to keep your focus," says Dubrow. "I had
a vision of the client that we wanted to service and the level of
service that we wanted to provide."
The biggest challenge that he's faced in growing his operation?
"I had to move myself to become a businessperson," says
Sheldon, a self-described compulsive reader. "I realized a
long time ago that I couldn't dig every hole myself, drive every
truck, make every sale or design every landscape. I had to learn
how to be pretty damn good at delegating."
At age 68, many business owners are retiring but not DuBrow. "I've
tried the Florida golf thing and I'd rather be doing this,"
he says.
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Greenspace Services, LTD
Dr. William Black, president
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Just over 10 years ago, FirstService Corp., a Toronto-based company
offering a range of consumer services, acquired the ChemLawn "Canada
zon" from then owner EcoLab. That acquisition — along
with keeping CL managing partners Dr. William Black and Ray Sharits
— gave a big boost to Greenspace Services, LTD, FirstService's
lawn care division.
It was a timely acquisition. Several months after the deal was
made, ServiceMaster, parent company of TruGreen, acquired ChemLawn
in the United States.
Greenspace
Services is actually three companies in one — ChemLawn,
Sears Lawn Care and Green Lawn Care — with total revenues of
about $32.3 million in 2001.
FirstService also has a lawn care franchise operation, Nutri-Lawn,
with locations in Canada and the United States. It notched sales
of about $17 million last year.
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Landscape Concepts
Mike Kerton, vice president
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Founded just over 20 years ago by Mike Kerton and Pete DeVore,
Landscape
Concepts is an example of dynamic business growth and dedicated
service.
With revenues of $28 million, Landscape Concepts, Inc. has become
today one of the largest and most diversified commercial landscaping
companies in northern Illinois.
The founders create total dedication to quality, detail and rapid
client response.
Landscape Concepts employs some of the best trained specialists
in the industry performing at high levels of professionalism and
expertise in their assigned positions. In fact, the company has
one of the highest ratio of certified professionals to the total
labor force in Illinois. This aspect is of paramount importance
to clients who are thus assured of the best possible solutions and
support in any current or unforeseeable situation.
Proximity to the work site is essential for the rapid response
their clients expect. Consequently, Landscape Concepts operates
several service branches strategically located in Grayslake, West
Chicago and Marengo.
Unlike most landscaping companies which often use subcontractors,
Landscape Concepts offers its clients a full array of specialized
and related services directly, by its own professionals using its
own equipment. To this end Landscape Concepts, Inc. operates two
distinct divisions, Landscape Concepts Management and Landscape
Concepts Construction. For the client this translates to better
quality, closer supervision, faster response, and, by eliminating
the "middleman," better value.
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Lipinski Landscape and Irrigation Contractors
Robert A. Lipinski, president
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Recognizing a trend as it develops is the mark of a good businessperson.
Robert A. Lipinski is an astute businessman. He established the
Lipinski name in 1976 with a small team of landscape professionals,
providing mowing and maintenance services and installing small landscape
projects.
He believed that irrigation was an essential part of a complete
landscape project and created the underground irrigation/sprinkler
division in 1982. Since then, Lipinski
Landscape has installed over 4,000 residential and commercial
underground sprinkler systems.
His small team of mechanics and specialists are available 24 hours
a day. In light of ongoing water shortages in Lipinski's primary
market areas of southern and central New Jersey, a lot of property
managers are breathing easier because of the company's full-service
landscape capabilities and, particularly, its experienced irrigation
team.
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LMI Landscapes Inc.
Carrollton, TX
Jody M. O'Donnell, president
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From the first project designed in his apartment in 1987 to offices
in Dallas, Denver and Jacksonville, FL, founder and president Jody
M. O'Donnell has been on a journey. He points to five principles
that have made the trip a successful one for his company, which
reached $15 million in sales and has 150 full-time employees:
- Establish your corporate values early and communicate them
to everyone, including employees.
- Empower your employees to make decisions and "take ownership"
in the company.
- Build relationships based upon your values.
- Embrace change. While business fundamentals remain constant,
systems within organizations must change as you grow.
- Remember to say "thank you" to clients, employees
and vendors. Never get too busy and preoccupied to acknowledge
all of those who make your business a success.
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Western DuPage Landscaping Incorporated
Naperville, IL
Steve Brodt, president
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What does Steve Brodt have in common with a cross-dresser? Not
a lot, except that the U.S. Army decided it could do without either
of them in 1971. Quite simply, Brodt's bad feet (which disqualified
him for the service) led to him taking a temporary job with a landscaper.
"I fell in love with the work and started my own landscape
company in 1976," he says.
Western DuPage Landscaping Inc. is one
of the prime players in the huge Chicagoland marketplace, but it
requires deft management to keep it growing profitably.
"My biggest challenge in growth has been to maintain quality,
reputation and productivity while previous systems that made us
successful get stretched," says Brodt. "Why? It's due
to the fact that we are in a capital intensive, labor intensive,
perishable product, short season, easy entry industry.
"And the devil of it is that these challenges make it fun,"
he adds.
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