Special Report: Weed Man

Last fall, Canada’s largest lawn care operation fired a shot across the bow of the world’s largest lawn care company.

"There are a lot of landscape contractors who are re-examining the way they handle their chemical lawn care work either because they’ve subcontracted the work to TruGreen-ChemLawn and they don’t want to do that anymore since TruGreen-ChemLawn has gotten into landscape work, or these contractors have realized how strong the margins are in lawn care," said Terry Kurth in Lawn & Landscape’s November 1999 issue.

At the time, Weed Man outlined a strategy to expand its franchised lawn care system throughout the United States via a plan that would include a series of master franchisors who would purchase the rights to sell franchises throughout their own territory.

Now, Weed Man has begun moving on its plan to build what it expects to be the second-largest lawn care company in the United States within five years. Company officials are projecting to sell 100 franchises within the next five years and 400 to 500 franchises within 10 years. Some of the industry’s biggest names have purchased the first master franchise territories:

• Terry Kurth and Bob Ottley are past presidents of the Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA).
• Jon Cundiff is very involved in PLCAA and the Mid-America Green Industry Council.
• Ken Heltemes built one of the largest and most respected Barefoot Grass franchises.
• Steve Russell owns one of Michigan’s largest lawn care companies.
• Phil Fogarty owned one of the largest lawn care companies in Cleveland, Ohio, before selling that to Scotts Lawn Service.

These subfranchisors purchased exclusive rights to territories containing approximately 10 to 13 million people, and they will now begin selling anywhere from 65 to 85 franchises within their territories. The subfranchisors will retain a portion of the royalty fees paid by the franchises they sell, with the remaining royalties going to Turf Holdings Inc., the master Weed Man franchise company for the United States. In addition, the subfranchisors will turn their current lawn care companies, which represent combined annual revenue of nearly $5 million, into Weed Man operations.

"I think we’ve really put together an ‘A team’ here," noted Kurth. "Managing a business is OK, but building a business is where most of us want to be. We’re entrepreneurs."

WHAT THEY’RE THINKING. One of the most interesting aspects of these announcements has to be the caliber of individuals who have signed on as subfranchisors. These are not people who struggled to achieve profitability or build successful businesses. A logical question, then, is why they are making this investment.

"When my non-compete was done [after selling to TruGreen-ChemLawn], I had a couple of people contact me to talk about developing a new franchise company, but I felt that developing the computer software, the systems and the licensing was a lot of effort I didn’t want to take on," noted Kurth, also a Barefoot Grass veteran. "Then I came to Toronto to talk to Weed Man, and I got excited by the infrastructure already in place.

"Also, a lot of us have grown a company to $750,000 to $2 million, and we wanted to continue growing, but we decided that growth would create a whole new animal that would be difficult to manage," Kurth continued. "This model gives us the opportunity to parlay our knowledge into growth for others."

"Our company started as a pest control company in 1931, and we added lawn care in 1982," explained Steve Russell president, Eradico, Farmington Hills, Mich. "We went through the rigors of starting the lawn care service, and I’m convinced that we would be between 2 and 2½ times the size we are today had we had the Weed Man system in place back in 1982."

"I don’t think our timing could be better in terms of the state of the lawn care industry with Leisure Lawn now being gone (after being acquired by TruGreen-ChemLawn in June)," explained Fogarty. "A lot of people have been gobbled up in mergers, but some people don’t want to work for TruGreen-ChemLawn, and this gives them an alternative. At the same time, there are a lot of customers out there who are going to be looking for someone who is going to provide the value that Weed Man has always stood for."

Discussions with other potential subfranchisors continue in the Pacific Northwest, California and Texas markets, and this team is confident of its ability to attract interested lawn care professionals to the program.

"I predict we will have sold out all the subfranchisor territories within the next year," related Kurth.

There are two fee structures for purchasing a franchise. For areas with populations up to 150,000 people, the fee is $20,000, and up to 300,000 people, the franchise will cost $33,000.

Weed Man will supplement growth of franchise sales by opening one corporate store per year. The company has corporate stores in Denver, Minneapolis and Seattle to go along with franchisees in Portland and Albany, Ore., Springfield, Ill., and Rochester, N.Y. The next store will be in Detroit, Mich., and Weed Man will sign a franchise agreement with Russell to operate in that area.

"We used these stores and franchises to learn the differences between the U.S. and Canadian markets, and this taught us that marketing is very similar and our closing rates are fairly consistent in the two areas," noted Roger Mongeon, president of Turf Management and Turf Operations, the two holding companies that own master franchise rights to the United States for Weed Man. "We are very confident we can export our system to the United States."