The state of mergers & acquisitions in landscaping

Photo: Season Moore

New to mergers & acquisitions

Daniel Currin

For Daniel Currin, leading his family-owned business Greenscape was just the first step. Now, as the business evolves, Currin is hoping to expand its reach nationwide by forming Green Leaf Group — a platform company where he is now CEO.

“My history is definitely influencing my future,” Currin says. “Greenscape is still fully owned by my family. As we started to lay out what are future vision was for the company and what that looks like, what started to make sense was expansion into new markets.”

And while Greenscape may have been a creative name back in 1979 when Currin’s father, Michael, founded the company — they knew that variations of the name were so commonplace now that in order to truly be successful they needed to seek partnerships.

“We saw a lot of value in these brands that were already established in their marketplace. They’d been in the industry and had created great companies and great brands. So, we decided to start to acquire those brands and do that under a new parent company called Green Leaf Group,” Currin explains.

Currin's M&A strategy

The first was the recent acquisition of Environmental Enhancements of Virginia — and Currin says more are certainly on the horizon.

“We’re looking at selective acquisitions in very specific markets we like in the Southeast,” he says. “We are not private equity backed currently. I joke that currently we are family-backed. My family is very committed to the industry and that’s where we have our expertise and it’s where we want to put our money right now. We’ll use that to expand and create value for ourselves, our team members and customers.”

Acquiring companies without private equity

Currin notes that not having any private equity funding has both its challenges and benefits.

“We can put maybe a higher value on different parts of the business or how it fits into our business,” he says. “What makes us slightly different is we have a very long-term approach. We’re not only thinking three to five years, we’re thinking about at least 10-plus.”

However, without that private equity backing — Currin says Green Leaf Group has to be that much more cautious about the deals it does.

“I do think where we are limited is that we can’t just pay whatever just to pay it,” he says. “We don’t have endless funds to make OK decisions, we have enough funds to make good decisions.”

What types of companies to target in M&A

But what makes a good decision? Currin says it’s the traditional things like an ideal market, a healthy customer mix, revenue and then it’s the less concrete things like good team members that play into the equation.

“I think it also comes down to core values,” he says. “I’ve had situations where I’ve had great alignment with the business owner of a company we’ve acquired, and they fit into our team and make our team better. But I’ve also done some deals where…within the first two weeks you realize maybe you were misaligned on core values, and you can’t undo the deal, but you can undo the working relationship — which is not fun and not the goal.”

Forming Green Leaf Group has also forced Currin and his family to prepare for the future of the company.

“We’ve now moved beyond the traditional family business,” he says. “Now, we’ve built a true executive team with key players that on their own could probably run the business themselves. There’s kind of the short-term succession plan and a longer-term one that will have to be revised and reiterated as the company grows. Our growth will probably dictate our succession plan even more than myself.

“The thing I think about the most... is can I lead the company to next level? And when we get there am I the right leader? Where does my runway end? There might be a need for somebody from outside the organization to come in and go even further than where I can go.”

Photo courtesy of ExperiGreen Lawn Care

A seasoned M&A pro

John Moehn

President of ExperiGreen Lawn Care is no stranger to mergers & acquisitions or the world of private equity, in fact he’s been at it since 1996 and his time with Scott’s Lawn Service.

But after TruGreen bought out Scott’s in 2016, Moehn decided to take the leap and start the lawn care company ExperiGreen in 2017.

Handling a high volume of acquisitions

Moehn adds that ExperiGreen has been hitting the group running since Day 1, which has led the company to be nearing the $90-million revenue mark.

“We built every one of those businesses organically for the first few years, and then realized we were spending an absolute ton of money on building those businesses that way,” Moehn says. “Around 2020, we realized there were a lot of businesses coming up for sale. So, we started to be inquisitive ourselves. We started buying some smaller locations that were tuck-in opportunities for the locations we had. We started to say, ‘Hey we’re on to something here’ and in 2021, we started talking to a few different private equity companies about partnering with them. In that process, we found Huron Capital and in August of 2022 we partnered with them.”

During their time with Huron Capital from August 2022 to December 2024, the company completed 19 different acquisitions.

“That process went so well, and Huron was excited about it, that just within a couple of years they were ready to hand us off to another private equity firm,” Moehn says.

Transitioning from one private equity firm to another

At the beginning of this year, Wind Point Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, acquired ExperiGreen Lawn Care. As part of the deal, Luis Orbegoso will be joining ExperiGreen as CEO.

“It was an amazing relationship and it’s so important to have the right partner,” Moehn says of Huron Capital. “They let us run the business, but they gave us the capital we needed to continue to grow what we had, but also to grow through acquisitions at a very accelerated rate.”

When it came time to find their next PE partner, Moehn adds the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

“It was really important to me, as the founder, that if we were going to do something that quickly that we found the right partner the second time as well, because if you don’t find the right second partner something can happen where people are let go or someone has a different vision,” he says. “We wanted to find a partner that would celebrate what we’ve done and continue to push and ask us to drive the business forward.

“We found the right partner that had the bigger piggybank so to speak that could help us out and continue to grow,” Moehn adds. “That’s why Wind Point really stepped up… there’s a need for personnel to help us scale this business because we’re pretty sure we’re going to be able to grow it to a $200-million business in about three years.”

Giving up some control in M&A

That’s where Orbegoso comes into play.

“Luis is going to be a great addition to what we’re doing,” Moehn says. “He has some tremendous experience in scaling businesses and getting them to those next steps.”

And while it may sound difficult for a founder to give up some control of the company’s operations — Moehn says in order to achieve the success they have, he’s had to put his ego aside.

“As much as your ego says one thing — you have to do the right things, too,” he says. “Growing and establishing a business like we did, I take a lot of credit for it — but really it’s all about the people that you surround yourself with that have been working so hard.”

Moehn says Orbegoso may not have the industry experience, but that can be taught. His experience in scaling businesses, however, is invaluable.

“He didn’t know anything about grass,” Moehn says of Orbegoso. “But it takes the right person to want to come in and learn the topic and learn the business. I spent eight weeks on the road with him visiting almost every one of our 28 locations… he’s really enjoyed getting to know the people that are all working hard for us at the branch level.”

Photo courtesy of GreenView Partners

An M&A expert

Keith Freeman

Between his time with Service Master, TruGreen and various other green industry companies, Keith Freeman has participated in about 80 acquisitions over the last few decades.

Nowadays, Freeman is the founder and partner of GreenView Partners, a commercial maintenance company doing nearly $30 million in revenue in the Carolinas.

While Freeman started GreenView back in 2011, in 2019 he founded Green Group Companies in the lawn care segment. Freeman says they did 16 acquisitions, which caused private equity to come “roaring in” and make them an offer he couldn’t refuse. The private equity firm then rolled Green Group into another platform.

Organic growth versus mergers & acquisitions

So far with GreenView, everything has been organic growth and the company employs 250 people and generated $30 million in revenue.

“Looking at that business for the future, and to continue to give headroom for the really talented people we have in that business — it needs to continue to scale. And what’s the right way to do that? It’s really about the people in the business and trying to create some wealth for them and their families and give them continuing career progression,” he says.

Mistakes in M&A

Having been around the block so many times, Freeman is an expert on the common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when looking to sell.

“Most of the sellers are what I would call unsophisticated sellers — they’ve spent 30 to 40 years building a business with the idea that they might hand it off to their children or sell it for retirement at some point in the future. So, they go into these deals not really understanding how the price is derived,” he says.

Freeman explains the biggest components to determining valuation include: the market being served, EBITA, retention of both customers and employees, as well as the health of the financials.

“The financials are usually not very clean,” Freeman says. “It’s what I’d call shoebox financials. Most of these sole proprietors run their family cars, family phones, vacations and it’s all running through that business. Those have to be pulled back out.”

“For the buyer, that can be sort of ugly and messy. A lot of private equity groups don’t want to deal with that.”

Finding the right private equity to help your M&A strategy

And once a company is ready to sell, Freeman says there are all sorts of private equity firms to partner with.

“You have all types of private equity and capital — it’s kind of like ice cream — there’s a lot of flavors,” he says.

Freeman uses the analogy of Alphas versus Betas when it comes to different PE firms and their motivations.

“Most are what I’d call Betas — they are all about acquiring EBITA, putting the EBITA together and then doing a transaction in three years or so,” he says. “There are some private equity groups who are Alphas, but there are less of those.

“Those are family funds or high-net-worth groups. They are interested in more of a longer hold. They tend to put less leverage on the business. They may buy and build a business with two to three turns of leverage. From a wealth creation standpoint, both paths work,” Freeman adds.

Overall, Freeman says private equity in the industry is going to improve things.

“Private equity is a good thing for our industry,” he says. “It’s going to bring our industry a lot of access to capital to create growth and advancements in technology.

“When we start talking about robotics and AI and the deployment of those — all of that is coming and private equity investment is just going to accelerate that.”

Photo courtesy of Unity Partnerships

Landscape M&A from a PE viewpoint

Brett Stoehr

As private equity involvement continues to heat up throughout the industry, Brett Stoehr, vice president of Unity Partnerships, is looking to get his PE firm involved.

“It’s a private equity firm based on people-based services,” he says. “I focus entirely on residential, commercial and industrial facilities services. We’ve been looking (for a landscaping company) in earnest for the last six to seven months. We’ve been talking to folks in the industry and now we’re really sprinting at it.”

How to attract private equity

Stoehr says there’s a few things that contribute to PE’s interest in the green industry.

“It’s a very stable industry — grass grows, and you have to cut it. People care about their properties and the aesthetic, so you have to maintain them well. It’s also a recurring service and private equity loves recurring services. Contracts provide good, stable revenue for one, three to five years in length,” he says.

And opportunities are endless, Stoehr says for green industry companies.

“There’s very clear growth opportunities in this space,” he says. “You can build bigger and build better. Building bigger would be hiring sales professionals and more crews to perform the work…you can also build better by taking a business with a lot of construction and make the mix more reoccurring so it’s more attractive to the next investor. You can diversify it by entering new geographies and professionalizing the business as well.”

Be open to sharing with others

Though Stoehr says something that makes the green industry truly unique, and adds to his and PE’s overall interest, is its welcoming, cooperative nature.

“One other thing that makes this industry very attractive is business owners are very open to sharing best practices and what works well with one another,” he says. “They are very collaborative. They authentically share because a rising tide lifts all boats. It’s a spirit of partnership that makes it an attractive backdrop. It’s hard for me to overstate how important that is because if people in the industry like each other, it makes the M&A story much easier.”

Stoehr, who’s done over 50 transactions in his career, says Unity Partnerships is open to partnering with a scaled, established platform or formulating one itself.

“We’re flexible in that regard. But any platform we’d invest in we’d need it to be of ample scale and I’d say that’s around $40 to $50 million in revenue as a starting point,” he says.

Stoehr also harkens that historical growth rate, EBITA and customer retention are all deciding factors for a company, but so is service mix.

“If it’s 100% installation and construction — that wouldn’t be attractive,” he says. “If it was more reoccurring, that becomes more attractive.”

But, more importantly, is the team, their motivations and their willingness to come together.

“The team is the most important thing for us,” he says. “We need to align with the team on our vision. That doesn’t mean the team that’s currently in place will be the team that’s in place and it doesn’t mean they want to have to stay for the next five, 10 or 20 years. It just means we have to have alignment on where we’re going.”

Will M&A stay hot?

As he waits to enter the industry, Stoehr predicts M&A activity will remain red hot for now.

“The activity we’ve seen today is private equity getting into the industry, we’ll see new firms, but those already PE backed will continue to be inquisitive. I think you’ll see more buyers and as more people enter the industry, the number of buyers will continue to increase,” he says. 

The author is senior editor with Lawn & Landscape.