20 years of the Top 100

Lawn & Landscape has been publishing a list of the largest 100 landscape companies since 1998. (In 1997, we published a top 50 and in 2009, we published 150). A lot has changed in the industry since last year’s list (not to mention during the intervening 20 years). Here’s a few:

Scotts, which spent most of the last two decades in the top 10, is no longer even on the list. It was acquired last spring by TruGreen when Jim Hagedorn decided to go into “urban hydroponic growing” (Read: weed).

It’s odd to not have Scotts – a name so synonymous with American lawn care – on the list, but there are 13 new companies this year, including Baytree Landscape Contractors at number 75, which reported the largest growth out of any other company on list. Five Seasons Property Management/Asplundh, a holding company for the huge tree care firm that has been quietly acquiring multi-million-dollar maintenance firms across the country, is new as well, coming in at number 7.

We also welcomed Heartland, a private equity-backed firm in the Midwest at number 34, Pierre Landscape at 47, Earthtones Design at 69, The Loving Group at 80, Dennis’ 7 Dees at 83, Parker Interior Plantscape at 85, Designs by Sundown at 91, Ecoscape Solutions Group at 95, Cleary Bros. Landscape at 97, Munie Greencare Professionals at 98, and Heron Lawn and Pest Control (acquired in April by pest control giant Rentokil) at 100.

BrightView isn’t new (it formed officially in 2015), but the $2.2 billion company has a new CEO, after Roger Zino and Andrew Kerin left late last year. I sat down with Andrew Masterman, who comes from a long tenure in the manufacturing and engineering world, at their headquarters outside Philadelphia for an exclusive interview where he explained what he’s doing to keep BrightView at the top of the list.

I had a similar interview with Zino and Kerin in 2015, so I hope things go better for Masterman.

The Top 100 list is one of the most intensive research projects we do all year, and comes together only thanks to the hard work from all the editors on staff. I hope the two decades of data and the stories this month help you understand and implement the strategies and tactics used by some of the biggest companies in the industry. – Chuck Bowen