Terracare Associates acquires VMC Landscape

LITTLETON, Colo. – Terracare Associates has expanded into Texas with the acquisition of VMC Landscape.

The purchase moves Terracare, ranked 39 on the 2014 Lawn & Landscape Top 100 list with revenue of $28,906,840, into one of the fastest-growing markets for landscaping in the country.

“It’s a pretty resilient economy. It has a tendency, even during down times, to outstrip everything else. It’s a big market, it’s a growing market, it’s an expanding market,” says Terracare President Dean Murphy.

The purchase of VMC will add more than 160 employees to Terracare’s rolls and add another state to its territory. It previously had operations in Colorado, California and Utah.

Murphy says the two companies have very similar services and culture. VMC is primarily a maintenance company that works with municipalities and other large commercial clients. One of VMC’s partners, Bruce Verdick, will stay on.

“They’ve got some stuff they’re doing that we should be doing. It’s really good,” Murphy says. “That’s the beauty of things like this. (You work with) folks that are open-minded, and take best practices and you push them back and forth and everybody gets better. That’s the idea. We’re just extending what we do with different people in a different place.” 

Terracare’s last acquisition was in 2011, when it bought Cimarron Landscape in Sacramento, Calif.

Terracare is owned by Progress Equity Partners with additional financing provided by NBH Capital Finance, Harbert Mezzanine Partners and Patriot Capital.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.