The Bruce Co.’s recent acquisition of Landscape Care in Verona, Wis., will add about $1 million in revenue, according to company President Seth Nicholson.
But since Landscape Care offered only landscape maintenance services, Nicholson is thinking bigger. With The Bruce Co.’s additional offerings, there is potential for new business within Landscape Care’s existing customer base, he said.
“We have the opportunity to add a lot of enhancement work, snow accounts and interiorscape work,” Nicholson said. “We’ll have to work toward showing (customers) what alternative options they have with us and compete with their current providers to become a one-stop shop for those customers.”
Onboarding new customers will not just center on selling additional services, he said. There also will be a delicate rebranding process as Landscape Care becomes The Bruce Co. The company will not sport Bruce Co. garb this year, but rebranding will begin over the winter,
“It will be a slow transition to make sure customers are comfortable and confident with the new brand,” Nicholson said. “We don’t want any confusion.”
Landscape Care’s former owner Mike Simon will stay on as an account executive. Nearing retirement, Simon reached out to The Bruce Co. to create a plan for the future. But he’s not retiring yet, and he will play an integral role in making sure Landscape Care’s customers smoothly transition to The Bruce Co.’s care.
Nicholson wants to ensure customers are comfortable and confident in the new brand and there is no confusion.
“We’ve both worked in the Madison area, and Mike wanted to work with a company with the same core values,” Nicholson said. “He’s formed a great relationship with his customers, and he didn’t want to just leave them high and dry. He wanted to find a company with the same standards that was able to take care of them just the same way.”
The Bruce Co., based in Middleton, Wis., is “not aggressively searching” for mergers or acquisitions going forward, but Nicholson said it would be open to a similar opportunity.
