Sanford, Fla.-based Girard Environmental Services recently announced the sale of its residential lawn and shrub care accounts to TruGreen ChemLawn. Company president Rick Girard notes that much of the company’s business has been moving toward growth on the commercial side, leaving them with fewer resources to focus on this particular service.
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“When we started residential work, we were very gung-ho about it – and we still are in many respects,” Girard tells Lawn & Landscape. “But we found that there’s only so much of us to go around. The company has had a great reputation in the residential market because of our unique service blend, and our staff does an excellent job taking care of customers. At the same time, we reached a point where we were applying a lot of financial resources and infrastructure to that aspect of the business, but our growth is focused in another direction.”
In terms of its unique service blend, Girard notes that the company offered lawn and shrub care in conjunction with its irrigation services. For the purposes of the TruGreen transaction, Girard Environmental Services sold only the lawn and shrub services, which Girard says had been costing the company $12,000 to $15,000 monthly in time and resources. The company retained its irrigation accounts, which will be rolled back into the commercial side of the business. Residential landscape construction also will remain on the company’s service menu for high-end customers.
Girard says managers and employees of the portion of the business that was sold off have been reallocated throughout Girard Environmental Services, as has the profit made from the sale. Financial aspects of the transaction were not disclosed.
For business owners considering selling a portion of their companies, Girard recommends doing some homework internally before approaching a potential buyer. “Theres’ a lot of different aspects to consider,” he says. “Look at your financial resources, your management team and what you can handle as a company in terms of growth and business diversity.”
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Girard explains that offering a service well and offering it profitably are very different. While Girard Environmental Services offered lawn and shrub care successfully on a customer-relations level, the service spread the company’s resources too thin. “You have to self-analyze,” he says. “I don’t look at this sale as a failure by any means – it just happens that the service isn’t right for us right now. Instead, we sold about 650 accounts for top dollar and we’ve been able to take the management and assets of that division and the money we sold it for and redistribute them into more successful areas of the company. I think some people become too attached to their business and the services they offer, which is great if you’re small, but once you reach a certain point, that attachment needs to be to building your brand the best way possible.”
One area in which Girard Environmental Service is building its brand is through the launch of a new garden center, planned for next spring. Girard says he and the company are excited about this new venture. “We have a great location and a plan to offer garden center services differently than other businesses in the area,” he says. “Our goal is to build relationships with our garden center customers, who may also be design/build customers. One way we plan on doing that is to have consistency throughout the customer’s garden center experience, meaning that they’ll be able to work with the same staff member from the time they walk in, to the time they choose their plants, to having that person help them load the materials in their vehicles and taking care of paying at the end of the transaction. We’re going after a higher-end customer and know they’ll appreciate that kind of service.”
Girard says the new garden center and other growth within the company should bring Girard Environmental Services’ revenue up to the $18 million mark – a 20-percent increase – next year. The Girard Cos. also include Girard Wholesale Nurseries and Girard Pool & Patio. Girard Environmental Services came in at No. 77 on this year’s Lawn & Lansdcape Top 100 list.