New kids on the block

Find out what some of the new leaders in the Top 100 list think about their business and the industry.

Of the companies listed in this year’s Top 100 list, eight are new to the list. To get to know some of these companies better, we asked them what makes their company unique, what their biggest challenge of 2015 is and one thing people might not know about them.

No. 88 New Way Landscape & Tree Service

It’s a cliché, but we care about our employees. We have an open-door policy. People aren’t a number in a large firm. They have tremendous input authority. (My daughter/co-owner) Kath and I are pretty hands off and all regional and account managers run their divisions like their own company.

(Our biggest challenge is to) figure ways to reduce overhead to make decent profits, as we are in the landscape construction arena now – figuring the correct pricing strategy to win large installation work. Also to keep inspiring the managers to run their divisions to be the most safe, efficient and productive.

I never went to college – just took a few classes and learned all on the job through hard work, long hours for many, many years. (I) came to San Diego in fall of 1976 on an Enduro dirt bike with $800 in my pocket.
– Randy Newhard, CEO

No. 98 (tie) Siteworks

Since its very beginning, SiteWorks has an established presence as a compatible and user-friendly landscape contractor that develops mutually beneficial relationships with those we selectively work with.

The diminishing availability of skilled and qualified landscape field personnel that can meet the required individual identity and work eligibility as validated by E-Verify is today’s biggest challenge for SiteWorks.

In the fall of 2004, SiteWorks was founded in the kitchen of a small two-bedroom apartment at a complex located in the East Valley of the Phoenix metropolitan area. We had business cards printed up that showed our address as “Suite 2020” instead of “Apt. 2020,” whereas we wanted to create the image that we were located in an office park instead of an apartment complex.
– Chris Malham,  president

No. 98 (tie) Pacific Outdoor Living

The most unique thing about our company is that we do everything in-house, from the design all the way through installation. There is no need for our customers to get multiple bids from multiple contractors for each aspect of their project. We are able to give them a one-stop-shop experience through the entire project.

Our biggest challenge is expanding our service area to be able to cover all of southern California and eventually all of California. Finding the right guys to install and supervise projects can be quite a task.

We are family owned and operated. The company was started in 1999 by Terry Morrill and his two sons, Trent and Chad, and to this day they still run the day-to-day operations of the company.
– Anthony Barragan, marketing manager

No. 100 Perficut

What makes our company unique is our continued commitment to our mission. This includes working very hard in honoring our partnerships with our clients as well as recognizing and rewarding our employees.

Our biggest challenge is making sure the processes and procedures are in place to continue to grow into the future.

Staffing is one area we are really focusing on now – from how we recruit, hire, train, retain and offer long term careers in the green industry. Like many great companies, we continue to be very passionate about our business and telling the Perficut story of who we are and what we do differently than everyone else.

This isn’t to say that we do one particular service better than the competition, but how we go about serving
our clients’ needs.
– Kory Ballard, president

May 2015
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