EDITORIAL: Resilience Personifies the Landscape Contractor

Without question, the professional lawn and landscape segment of the horticulture market is the largest, most diverse and fragmented portion of the marketplace.

With more than 90,000 industry service providers and sustained demand for new landscape installations and well-maintained properties, the professional segment of the landscape industry is well-poised for future prolonged growth.
 
Interestingly, attaining growth hasn’t been an issue for those contractors who desired it. Rather, understanding the financial numbers behind the growth has been an uphill struggle for small companies who suddenly become mid-sized firms seemingly overnight.
 
However, our annual State of the Industry report illustrates that the contractor has become a better business person in today’s day and age. Truth be told, this is a prerequisite for success given the varied factors that directly or indirectly impact the marketplace.
 
Perhaps most obvious is the ubiquitous housing bubble. The National Association of Realtors predicts a fragile housing market – weaker than originally thought – primarily because of a housing glut and the stubbornness of sellers who have grown accustomed to receiving top dollar for their homes.
 
Another challenge facing consumers (your customers) are escalating interest rates. At press time, mortgage rates are about one point higher than they were last year and are not expected to stop there.
  
Internally, contractors must face and balance continued challenges to profitability including escalating operations costs, flat wages, commodity pricing to name a few.
 
Ten years ago, Lawn & Landscape began publishing its annual State of the Industry report. It’s become a much-anticipated report by contractors, suppliers, investors and others who have a stake in the landscape industry. Our 10th installment of this report appears in this issue.
 
The key message in this year’s report is that business owners have become more fiscally savvy. Despite increased costs and challenges to incoming business revenue, net profit has remained strong.
 
Accompanying this year’s report is a 10-year analysis of the marketplace. We measured key indicators such as overall revenues, years in business, number of employees, services offered among others. Those figures and key findings are intertwined throughout the report.
 
Industry statistics aside, the professional landscape market today requires a degree of skill and expertise which wasn’t demanded from contractors in the past. The marketplace has grown from a business of laborers to business owners supported by technology not available 10 years ago.
 
The professional lawn and landscape industry is resilient and moving forward in sustained fashion.  As your business management resource and partner, Lawn & Landscape is pleased to impart editorial that helps your firms not only grow, but at a more productive and profitable level. Enjoy the report.