Market Trends: Jan. 1998

Survey Shows Wages Falling

An old adage says, “You have to spend money to make money.” As green industry contractors lament the continuing labor shortage, one would expect that phrase could be adapted to, “You have to spend more money on labor to make money.”

Ironically, though, a Lawn & Landscape survey found that, if anything, contractors have cut wages they’re offering in the last two years. Entry-level laborers are being paid 5 cents more an hour now than in our 1995 survey, and equipment operators have enjoyed a $1.09 hourly raise. Field laborers, foremen and supervisors have all seen their hourly wages drop, however, by 73 cents, 41 cents and $2.69, respectively.

N.Y. Notification Bill Expected To Resurface

Pesticide applicators in the lawn and tree care industries in New York will be banding together with state and national organizations this year with hopes of fending off a notification bill working its way through the state senate.

The bill, which emerged from an environmental committee of the state senate but never made it to the floor for debate in 1997, should be a hot topic in an important election year for New York legislators, according to Fred Langely, manager, state government relations, Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment.

According to Langely, the environmental activists are taking the stance that citizens have the right to know when any application of pesticides is being performed on a property abutting their home. The bill calls for a 48-hour written prenotification before an application takes place.

The state legislature was back in session the second week of January, and Langely expects the bill to resurface for debate in the environmental committee between now and April.

T&O Service Tech Gains AAPSE Recommendation

Lawn & Landscape magazine announced that its sister publication, T&O Service Tech, has been designated a recommended training resource by the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators.

“This prestigious designation has been awarded to T&O Service Tech because of the publication’s commitment to training professional applicators in the safe and effective use of pesticide products in the professional lawn care market,” explained Barry Brennan, president of AAPSE. “We feel that T&O Service Tech is a highly effective training tool, and we are pleased to recommend it to lawn and landscape pesticide applicators.”

AAPSE is an association of state-based environmental and pesticide safety educators providing science-based education programs to the public through the Cooperative Extension and the Land-Grant University System.

“The safe and effective use of pesticides is at the heart of professional lawn and landscape care,” explained Cindy Code, group publisher of T&O Service Tech magazine. “We feel that this relationship will help both organizations to fulfill an important element of their missions – to educate professional pesticide applicators on the best methods, products and safety procedures.”

LESCO, MTD Products Hit The Market

The highly competitive commercial mower market picked up another player recently, as Valley City, Ohio-based MTD Products, introduced a range of turf maintenance equipment stemming from its joint venture agreement with LESCO Inc.

The new line of commercial equipment, marketed under the name MTD Pro, includes six mowers, two models of dual hydro walk-behind landscape tractors, and new models of blowers, overseeders, aerators and spreaders.

The products are expected to be available in the beginning of 1998 and will be marketed through a network of independent dealers including Cub Cadet or White Outdoor dealers, said Jeff Hallgren, MTD vice president of dealer sales.

For the past 40 years, MTD has concentrated on residential lawn and garden equipment, but recent shifts in market trends and the need for strengthened dealer support forced it to develop a new professional product line, Hallgren remarked.

“We see it as a business opportunity we have to react to,’’ Hallgren added.

The new line of commercial power equipment is being manufactured in Aurora, Ohio, by Commercial Turf Products, the joint venture company developed this summer.

“We felt to do it right it needed to be totally dedicated, under one organization and under one roof,” Hallgren added.

Hallgren continued to say that MTD made several enhancements to the products introduced last summer by LESCO, such as paint quality and a vari-touch control system for the belt drive models of walk-behind mowers.

This is not the first time Lesco and MTD have worked to develop green industry products. Five years ago, MTD manufactured attachments for LESCO’s sulky stand-up mowers, Hallgren said.

“This probably led to us coming together,” he added.

Minor's Landscape Acquires Company

Minor’s Landscape Services, Fort Worth, Texas, announced the acquisition of Graeber & Associates, a $3.2 million contractor located in Dallas.

The addition of Graeber & Associates marks the fourth acquisition for Minor’s, and president and CEO David Minor sees more acquisitions on the horizon.

Minor’s will use the purchase to open its third branch in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. All of Graeber’s 80 employees will stay on board, bringing the total number of employees at Minor’s to approximately 300.