CLEVELAND, OHIO – One of the emerging stories in the lawn care industry in the last few years has been to development of the Weed Man franchise network in the United States. In late 1999, Canada's largest lawn care company announced its plans to enter the U.S. market by selling subfranchises and franchises to lawn care companies, landscape contractors, structural pest control professionals and other qualified individuals.
The company has discussed its long-term growth plans since the outset, and rapid progress made in the last two years has established the firm as a growing force in the lawn care industry.
Weed Man finished 2001 with 28 operating locations serving 71 franchise territories, and total sales of $6.5 million, according to Roger Mongeon, president, Turf Holdings, the company with rights to the Weed Man franchise for the United States. The company’s goals for 2002 call for nearly doubling its annual revenue to $11 million and increasing its presence to 41 locations.
Most importantly, however, Mongeon expects to sell Weed Man’s remaining subfranchisor territories this year. The subfranchisor approach makes Weed Man unique as a franchise company as it sells rights for large areas to individuals who then assume responsibility for selling the actual local franchise territories. These subfranchisors then provide the ongoing support for their franchisees.
Weed Man went through last year with seven subfranchisors, and they are some of the lawn care industries most respected names: Terry Kurth, Jon Cundiff, Phil Fogarty, Bob Ottley, Ken Heltemes, and Chuck and Steve Russell, to name a few. This group recently expanded to include Merrill Landscape in Rexburg, Idaho, which bought the territory for Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Utah. In addition, Kurth expanded his territory by purchasing the rights to North Dakota and South Dakota while Fogarty and Ottley grew their partnership when they bought all of New York other than the seven counties surrounding and including New York City. Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Texas were also gobbled up as Jon Cundiff brought in Joe Munie, president of Munie Outdoor Services, and the pair took on the rights for that part of the country.
Now, Weed Man finds itself with five remaining subfranchisor territories:
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Southern California
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Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico
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South Texas
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Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle
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The remaining portion of Florida
Mongeon predicts these areas will sell in the next two to three years as the company continues its growth, and the company continues to focus its marketing efforts for subfranchisors as well as franchisees on landscape contractors looking to grow the lawn care portion of their business or offer a new service.
“What we want is for people to view us as a business consultant who may be able to come in and help their businesses grow,” explained Mongeon. “If we don’t think they’re a fit for us, then we’ll tell them that as well.”
“We’re really just scratching the surface of what we can do,” added Fogarty. “Now we’re adding people like Joe Munie and Stephen Hillenmeyer (Hillenmeyer’s Nursery recently purchased the Weed Man franchisee serving Lexington, Ky.). As a franchisee, your peers are a great group of people to learn from and contribute to. These are some pretty bright, successful people."
The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.