Pete Lucadano

CEO & co-owner of RedTree Landscape Systems, Tampa Bay, Florida

Trying to control the uncontrollable has been difficult for RedTree lately, Pete Lucadano says.

Everything from the weather to unexpected legislation has posed challenges for the $8-million-dollar company.

Lucadano says legislation passed by Governor Ron DeSantis earlier this summer caused mass panic for much of the Hispanic workforce in Florida.

“Florida imposed several levels of legislation targeting illegal immigrants,” he says. “There was mass panic, and it caused somewhat of a mass exodus of a lot of our industry employees here in the state of Florida. Every major landscape contractor that I know felt the adverse effects of it.”

Lucadano notes that RedTree and other companies affected weren’t doing anything wrong and already E-Verified employees, but there was still stress and confusion in the Hispanic communities.

“That legislation is possibly the single biggest challenge Florida landscape contractors will face this year,” he says. “We understand what our government is trying to do, but as is often the case, it tends to target the wrong people.”

Immediately, Lucadano recalls RedTree strived to communicate effectively with its crews about what was going on.

“This is where having good relationships with our people really paid off,” he says. “Because being able to sit down with our entire team, in small groups, and give them assurances that this won’t affect them…and that their employment here is secure…that helped tremendously.”

Lucadano also recognizes state-level industry associations for helping to answer legal questions for business owners and their employees.

Lucadano says a lack of real storms and unusual weather patterns have also created difficulties.

“It was very dry for sections of time, so that caused a lot of horticultural challenges,” he says. “Being in a tropical climate, a lot of that plant material and turfgrass really depend on water — especially when the temperatures get into the hundreds for the bulk of the day. Irrigation systems can only do so much. They aren’t a 100% replacement for precipitation.”

Lucadano adds it’s been one of the hottest summers on record for the state.

Like so many others, rising costs have caused RedTree to increase prices. Lucadano says the reaction has been mixed.

“The biggest struggle we have as contractors is being able to help our clients understand that these costs are rising,” he says. “It’s a challenge to try and explain to them that we as one landscape company can’t shield them from the effects of the world.”

Sam Creekmore

Owner of Creekmore Landscape, New Albany, Mississippi

Not only has Sam Creekmore owned his business since 1992, but he is also a Mississippi State Representative.

A policy Creekmore is looking to change has been impacting green industry companies for years. He says it’s time to move past it.

“In Mississippi, a landscape architect and an architect cannot be partners,” he says. “We are one of few states in the United States that has this archaic law.”

Creekmore says he fears this law keeps fledgling and future landscape architects and horticultural students from settling down in the state.

“For the future of our industry and to keep our young people in the state of Mississippi, this needs to be changed,” he says. “We’re limiting ourselves with this regulation.”

While Creekmore says he’d have no plans to partner with an architect if this stipulation changed, there are several other issues impacting his business.

“We service about a 90-mile radius, so travel time and gas prices have been an issue,” he notes. “That’s a challenge for us.”

To combat the rising fuel costs, Creekmore Landscape decided to make a big investment to save not only money but also time.

“We installed gas tanks here on site to cut down on any stoppages along the way at convenience stores,” he says. “We use GPS and we’re constantly monitoring to see where there is idle time or any kind of breakdowns in our travel planning.

“We’ve absolutely seen savings,” Creekmore adds. “The biggest savings has been on man hours. We fill up at the end of the day, and then when they come in in the morning, they’re out the door by 7:05 a.m. at the latest.”

Another way they’re saving time and money is by keeping a keener eye on overtime, Creekmore says.

“We’ve tried very hard to keep our hours down and to not have as much overtime,” he says. “Sometimes that doesn’t work out but for the most part, we’re trying to keep crews at 45-46 hours. That also makes for happier employees.”

Creekmore adds a recent price hike to combat wage increases and other rising costs was inevitable. However, it’s seemed to work out so far.

“We were behind on doing price increases, so last year we raised our prices an average of 20% on the project and the maintenance side,” he says. “We knew there’d be some growing pains from that, but we were able to retain probably 80% of our work.”

Now, in 2023, the company is expecting to earn about $3 million in revenue. Creekmore adds that the goal for this year is all about customer service and building valued partnerships.

“With the price increases, we decided we can’t just increase prices and have our clients expect the services to be the same, we need to improve it,” he says. “We’ve been intentional on customer relations and trying to build up our relationships with each of our customers. We want their experiences with us to be memorable and pleasant.”

Grayson Smith

Owner of Elite Landscaping, Valdosta, Georgia

Elite Landscaping has been through a lot so far in 2023, and Grayson Smith notes there have been plenty of struggles.

“Last year our market was really good,” Smith says. “This year it’s been good, but about a month ago it tanked and went to virtually nothing. The maintenance is just like it was, but the installation side has basically gone away.”

“We never had to hunt for work really ever since I’ve started, and now I’m going around to the banks we do and apartments trying to sell enhancements,” Smith adds.

Currently, the company has about 32 employees divided up into nine crews. Smith says he’s hoping to reach $3 million in 2023.

Unlike most of the industry, Smith says he hasn’t really experienced a lack of labor but just the opposite. With new legislation being introduced in Florida, he says a large amount of the Hispanic workforce there has made its way into Georgia and his market.

“The whole deal in Florida has driven a ton of Hispanic workers to our area,” he says. “Every week we probably have 10 people calling the office wanting a job. We’re being flooded with a workforce now, which stinks because we don’t really need anyone.”

Smith says the major slowdown Elite’s been experiencing has forced him to look harder at his bottom line.

“Since we’ve slowed down in design/build, I’ve been analyzing my maintenance really closely because I know that’s what’s going to be carrying us through,” he says. “I’ve spent three weeks analyzing every account. We’re trying to get more efficient and trying to get our routes tighter.”

Smith says he was surprised to learn about 60% of his maintenance jobs weren’t breaking even.

“I’ve come up with a percentage for every account on what they’d have to go up to be in the green,” he says. “I’m having to battle internally and figure out if I should call the worst ones and say, ‘I can’t do it for this price, it’s going to be $200 more a month.’ or what the best decision is. That’s a huge hurdle of ours currently.”

Smith says the lack of profitably is due to a combination of pricing and crews taking longer than they should to complete the work. To combat the latter, he has instituted a new bonus program that he hopes will boost efficiency.

“We put GPS on our trucks a couple months ago and we’ve been catching them sitting in the vehicle, making extra stops and all that,” Smith says. “So, we brought the crew leaders in and said if they can meet each jobsite’s estimated time, and they don’t miss any for that pay period, they’ll get an extra $125…So they can get an extra $500 a month if they do it consistently.

“We just implemented it this week,” he adds. “So far, they’ve totally changed what they’re doing but who knows if they can do it consistently.”

Scot Williams

General manager of GLS Landscaping and Maintenance, Greensboro, North Carolina

Scot Williams says it’s been a banner year for GLS as the company is expecting to grow by about $1 million in 2023.

“The commercial industry is blowing up now,” he says. “I’m finding three more accounts a day… we’ve signed so many accounts today.”

Williams says he attributes this most to a “return to normalcy” after the COVID-19 pandemic and big, commercial office sites getting back to the status quo.

“We’ve stayed pretty stagnant coming out of COVID, but it really boomed in 2023,” he says. “It’s an unusual year for us… I think the next two to three years will be pretty solid for everybody.”

He adds that the company’s 15-20 employees, depending on the time of year, have been working tirelessly — and he wishes there were more hands on deck.

“We’re working a lot of overtime these days,” he says. “The guys don’t mind that. They’re picking up probably two or three extra accounts a day. We’re still not to the point where we have to work on the weekends.

“The only problem we’ve really had so far is labor,” Williams adds. “People still don’t want to work.”

In addition to commercial work returning to pre-pandemic levels, Williams says some new marketing tactics are also playing a role in their growth.

“For the first time, we got talked into working with a new marketing company,” he says. “It was pretty much all in-house before then. We started working with them about three months ago and they’ve revamped our website, our Facebook, Instagram and all that. The phone is starting to ring a lot more than it used to.”

With the future looking bright, Williams says he’s turning his attention to something he feels is on the horizon for all landscaping companies — battery-powered equipment.

“I’ve looked into electric and autonomous units because I think we’re going to start getting pinched more on gas-powered equipment,” he says. “I think it’s coming…I don’t think it’ll be in the next three to five years, but probably hit after that.”

While they haven’t purchased any new mowers just yet, Williams says they are working with battery-powered blowers and hand tools.

“We’re testing stuff out,” he says. “The biggest problem we’re having with it is the runtime and the charge. Most of these charges take 45 minutes to an hour so you have to buy three batteries to go with it and the batteries are the most expensive part.”

Additionally, Williams is keeping a close eye on how the competition and his peers are handling the transition.

“We know a couple people larger than we are and we talk,” he says. “The one said he bought 12 autonomous units, and it was the worst thing they’ve done. They aren’t lasting nearly as long as they thought they were going to. It’s a $30,000 investment and then you have to train all the guys to know how to work them.

“We have the luxury to hold off on and see what my counterparts are doing,” Williams adds.