Rentokil Tropical Planct Services: Bigger & Better
By acquiring smaller companies, Rentokil Tropical Plant Services expects to continue its growth initiative to increase its presence in the marketplace.
With a whopping $90 million in revenue for 2000, Rentokil Tropical Plant Services, Riverwoods, Ill., is at the height of success. With a 28 percent increase in revenue over 1999 and another 30 percent increase expected in 2001, Jeff Mariola, president, sees no limit to the company’s growth. “We plan to make our footprint in the market larger,” Mariola asserted.
Most of the company’s growth in 2000 can be attributed to acquiring the TruGreen business, Mariola acknowledged. “TruGreen was roughly half our size, so it was a 50 percent improvement of the business,” he noted.
However, also integral to Rentokil’s success for 2000 was its strong, organic growth from its core markets. “We are making sure that everyone in the organization is telling the same story in that what we provide to the business community is an essential service.”
Although the company took on 700 employees in 2000 with the acquisition of TruGreen, Mariola commented that he is surprised at how smoothly the two businesses merged. “It was a challenge systems-wise, but it has caused little disruption to the regular business,” he noted. “It has blended quite well.”
Now, the company has 1,400 year-round and 150 seasonal employees to service its accounts, which are mainly interiorscape design/build and plant maintenance projects at commercial sites. Rentokil also provides rotational color and holiday programs and services some residential areas.
With one successful acquisition under its belt, Rentokil plans to continue growing through more acquisitions, Mariola stated. “The reason for the TruGreen acquisition was to give us a platform to go into smaller markets and build our business there,” he said.
However, with all this talk about growth, Mariola is cognizant of the limits the slowing economy can cause. “We have to plan,” he explained. “We have to prepare that the downturn is going to remain for the year and well into next year.”
Mariola related that his planning involves making sure the company’s services are marketed aggressively to lose the least amount of accounts possible. He also stressed working closely with clients as a way to keep their business at a time when most are pinching pennies.
“The most important thing we do is work closely with existing customers that have been the hardest hit to help them ride it out,” he said. “If that means decreasing the account, redesigning something or paring down the program, I’d much rather have less than nothing at all.”
Mariola also said the industry needs to band together to fight the economic downturn with programs like Plants at Work. “The economic downturn is another wake-up call that programs like these are really critical to this industry if it’s ever going to realize any major growth,” he stressed. – Cheryl Green
Plant Interscapes: Taming Texas
Gaining shares in new markets keeps Plant Interscapes’ growth on track.
Ask Mike Senneff about the secret to his company’s success in 2000 and he can sum it up in one word: diversification.
Senneff, president of San Antonio-based Plant Interscapes, said that expanding into Dallas, Austin and Houston helped prompt the 24 percent growth spurt last year to bring in $4.9 million in revenue. However, geographic diversification alone wasn’t responsible for the increase. Senneff noted that the growth would not have been realized without his sales staff.
“With the use of technology (lap tops), the sales staff has been very effective in the field,” Senneff stated. “We’ve also invested in some third-party sales training that has been helpful.”
Senneff said Plant Interscapes’ diversified service offerings and customer base also have contributed to the company’s growth. Plant maintenance, rotational color, holiday, corporate floral and retail/wholesale are among the services the company provides to its 95 percent commercial and 5 percent residential accounts. Hotels and office buildings are the company’s primary commercial clients.
While Senneff originally projected another 24 percent increase in revenue for 2001, that number has been scaled back to 12 to 14 percent because of the slowing economy. But Senneff said he believes that as long as Plant Interscapes keeps quality standards high and continues responding to customer needs, it will ride out the economic slump. In fact, Senneff recently launched a program called CARE: Customer At Risk Effort. “Within hours we get back to customers,” he said.
In addition to a same-day response from a Plant Interscapes employee, clients receive a follow-up call or visit, which in most cases, is unexpected, just to be sure the situation has been resolved. “It’s much better to be on the initiating side than on the reactionary side,” Senneff said. – Cheryl Green
Premier Plantscapes: On Call 24/7
The $3.9-million company grew 35 percent in a down economy by focusing on customer service.
Growing a successful business in a down economy isn’t easy, but Premier Plantscapes, Burtonsville, Md., has done just that. From 1999 to 2000, revenue increased 35 percent to $3.9 million. Brett Stevens, co-owner, attributes this success to the company’s employees.
“We have tremendous people,” Stevens said. “They’re attentive to detail and they all have a vast amount of experience. This is from the top down and from the bottom up.”
Although Stevens said the phrase “quality customer service” is thrown around a lot, the concept is not something he takes lightly. “In our business, it’s not a buzzword, it’s reality,” he said.
To accommodate their high-end clients, the three co-owners – Stevens, Gary Mangum and Mike McCarthy – are available to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “It’s not uncommon to get a call on a Saturday night or Sunday morning to have flowers replaced somewhere,” Stevens related. “We get a hold of our techs and get the job done. It’s really a can-do attitude.”
That can-do attitude carries over into how the owners handle challenges related to the company’s growth. “The biggest challenge we face is controlling our growth rate,” Stevens acknowledged. “We don’t just want to build up volume for the sake of having volume.”
Instead, the owners direct salespeople to stay within the company’s niche, which is high-end commercial accounts. Currently, 50 percent of the business is maintenance, 10 percent is design/build, 20 percent is holiday and 20 percent is rotational color.
Despite the slowing economy, Premier Plantscapes has retained its customers in these areas, and Stevens believes this is because of the company’s quality work. “We provide a benefit and a value that they can provide to their customers,” he said. – Cheryl Green
Buckingham Greenery: 'Ta Da - It's Working'
Identifying and eliminating inefficiencies has helped Buckingham Greenery prosper in the new millennium.
When performing a good magic trick, all the elements have to come together to get the right outcome. In 2000, Buckingham Greenery, Buckingham, Va., managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat when all the efforts of the company’s president, Connie Balint, finally came together, leading the company to a 14 percent increase over 1999 revenues to bring in $2.4 million.
“All the things I worked for in my business – to get really good people, to provide good training, to have good systems and processes in place – all came together and it was sort of like, ‘ta-da,’ it’s working,” Balint explained.
Balint credits her strategic planning process, where she evaluates the company’s inefficiencies and decides how to eliminate them. In 2000, she examined service routes and decided to make a few changes to keep business on the upswing. “We made them more productive by increasing the amount of work each technician can do and utilizing new plant varieties that are more resilient,” she said.
But going into 2001, Balint faced a tough sell when she tried to convince her clients that getting rid of plants in the workplace to save money would be a mistake.
“Having no plants or dead plants is not the way to go because it reduces morale, especially when so many layoffs are taking place and the people who are remaining are going to be doing added work,” she said. “We used research to show that plants reduce employee stress and make them more productive.”
Balint said the key to getting through the difficult times is being more cost efficient without lowering prices. “Our sales people have to become a little more creative with selling our services,” she said. – Cheryl Green
McCaren Designs: Designing Solutions
This St. Paul, Minn., company maintains its double-digit growth by providing inventive interiorscape designs.
Innovative, cost-effective design solutions keep McCaren Designs, St. Paul, Minn., at the top of its game. While many interiorscapers are fighting cutbacks, President McRae Anderson is upgrading existing clients with custom-designed products and arranging financing to meet their needs.
Take U.S. Bank Place, for instance. When faced with a major tenant’s departure, the client chose to upgrade the existing interiorscape. The new design, Anderson said, incorporates custom-sized containers with a custom finish to match the building’s standard finishes.
This is just one example of how Anderson goes the extra mile for clients – and his highly personalized approach keeps them coming back. With nearly $2 million in revenue from commercial clients in Y2K, Anderson expects business to increase 20 percent for 2001. This comes after 30 percent growth last year.
Besides creativity in design, Anderson said marketing is the most important task to keep his business growing. He looks at growing his business as a challenge and an opportunity. “If we don’t make an appropriate return on our investment, we should be doing something else,” said Anderson, who raised prices 4.2 percent this year to cover higher fuel costs and wages.
Despite these increases, Anderson said the economy has had little affect on business to date. Only a few clients have scaled back their plant service, but he suspects this may become more of a problem. Anderson predicts that people may cut back on plants in less-visible areas to save money.
Still, no matter what curve balls come his way – economic or otherwise – Anderson is ready to dodge them. “Business is business – there will always be challenges,” he said. – Ali Cybulski
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