Consumers boost landscape spending 31%

Consumer spending on professional landscape and lawn care services continues upward, says a survey commissioned by the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA).

The report — ALCA?s Report on Landscape Industry Growth: Trends and Buying Pactices in the Consumer Market, 2004 — says that consumers spent a total of $28.9 billion on these services in 2002, $37.9 billion in ?03 and will spend $41.6 billion this season, a 31% growth rate.

Bendure Communications, on behalf of ALCA, commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct the study and it surveyed 2,004 adults. Harris claims the results are accurate to plus or minus 2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Some of the findings include:

• Landscape construction (design/build) accounted for the largest dollar volume of Green Industry home improvements in 2003, with $13.4 billion spent on these services, an increase of $2.2 billion from 2002.

• One in three consumers (32%) purchased professional landscape services in 2003, the most popular services, in order: mowing, fertilizing/weed control, maintenance and pest management.

• One in four consumers (27%) planned to purchase landscaping services this season, with mowing and fertilizing/weed control again the most mentioned services.

• Referrals from family members or friends is the top method (55%) used by those hiring landscape/lawn service professionals. Other methods used, in order of responses, were: advertising (22%) , phone book/Yellow Pages (22%), area professional organizations, Internet and contact from the professional.

• Cost is the biggest consideration when people decide to hire service professionals. More than four in five (83%) ranked it as one of the top three criteria. About half (52%) also use recommendations and customer service (46%).

"Although the industry has experienced steady growth during the past five years, growth has been explosive over the past three years," says a release from ALCA. "This explosion of growth is attributable to continued low interest rates as well as the growing recognition of the value and return on investment of landscape expenditures. There appears to be a direct correlation between housing starts, interest rates and consumer confidence in investing in professional landscape services."

The Report, which contains almost 200 pages of survey data, is available for purchase from ALCA. For more information call 800/395-2522 or visit the Web site www.alca.org.