A New Franchise Opportunity

LLTI is a Toronto-based chain of landscape design, supply and installation outlets in business since 1995. With a current operation of six southern Ontario, Canada, locations, LLTI’s retail and service franchises offer products and professional services to residential and commercial customers year-round. Of the six outlets, five are owned and operated by independent franchise owners, and the sixth is owned and operated by the corporation.

LLTI outlets, known as landscape design centers, cater to both do-it-yourselfers and those customers seeking professionals to do the work. The centers offer a variety of services, including landscaping, hardscaping, lighting, irrigation, interiorscaping and even Christmas decorating. These services set LLTI design centers apart from regular garden centers. Charles Vickers, LLTI president and director of franchises, explained, "Garden centers of today handle retail and wholesale but don’t have the option of having services done for the consumer." To provide this unique selling point, the stores require a knowledgeable staff that is capable of a wide variety of landscaping techniques. Therefore, LLTI stores are managed and staffed by experienced landscape designers and skilled tradesmen to ensure that customers receive proper landscaping advice, products, services and prices. The company is currently expanding into the United States and is looking for more of these professionals willing to incorporate their businesses into retail and service outlets.

LLTI is opening its first U.S. outlet in North Carolina later this year, tentatively slated for opening within 30 to 60 days. The North Carolina location has been created by incorporating an established landscaping business into an LLTI design center. LLTI also has ambitious plans to open an additional 200 such retail storefront locations. "Let’s Landscape (together) has aggressive expansion plans for our franchise network. With a base of established franchisees in the southern Ontario marketplace, Let’s has a goal of expansion to every major market in North America within five years," said Vickers. According to a release by the company, the additional locations will consist of 2 percent of the available market.

Franchising interest has already been sparked by LLTI’s plans to further expand into the U.S. market. "We are very busy qualifying a very large number of Internet lead requests generated from the recent stock market activity, these inquiries come from over 30 different states expressing interest in opening a Let’s Landscape (together) display center," said Vickers.

WHY FRANCHISE? The appeal of becoming a franchisee often is attributed to the recognition that arises from using a known name on vehicles, equipment and apparel. "A contractor can gain national notoriety overnight," explained Vickers. The benefits of being a part of a corporation also motivate one’s consideration of starting a franchise business, especially the relief from marketing a business all on one’s own. Among the benefits LLTI lists to contractors interested in exploring this opportunity are:

• Distancing their companies from others in the local community.
• Expanding on current landscape contracting businesses by offering landscape design services.
• Gaining the benefit of national advertising campaigns.
• Full ownership of the business.
• Creating stable, year-round employment for landscape employees.
• Meeting with other franchised locations to share ideas.

Vickers said that an established landscaping business can open an LLTI franchise to quickly switch from a seasonal to a year-round business, supplying products as well as services. Understanding the concern many landscapers have about making money during the off season, Vickers said an advantage of an LLTI franchise is the ability to sell products and services, such as Christmas decorating, during traditional slow times.

In addition to the name recognition of being a franchise business and year-round services, Vickers also attributes word-of-mouth and completed jobs as advantages to franchising. "Another thing the franchise image offers is that people who buy in the residential community often influence the commercial properties in choosing services," he said.

SELECTING FRANCHISEES. Naturally, LLTI doesn’t just pick anyone at will to own and operate a franchise. The company requires that all franchisees adhere to the company’s standards for service. Therefore, the company performs evaluations of potential franchisees to make sure they are up to the task. These evaluations include checking a contractor’s quality of work and reliability of services, as well as making sure the contractor carries his own insurance and is experienced in the types of jobs that are offered by the design centers. LLTI will also visit a few of the sites a contractor has worked on and possibly interview customers to get an accurate description of job quality. "We want to be finding the right people rather than just finding people," explained Vickers.

"We have established our business policy to suit qualified individuals who are financially able to develop and own one or more of our specialized franchised Let’s Landscape (together) locations," continued Vickers. "This opportunity should be of special interest to applicants who have landscaping experience and of particular interest to existing landscape contractors wishing to expand on their natural industry knowledge and capturing a much larger market share of this growing market."

INTERNET PLANS. In addition to its retail expansion plans, LLTI intends to add a developed Internet site to the mix. According to a release by LLTI, the initial launch efforts for the site include "developing and hosting a web-based landscape and horticulture community dedicated to the furtherance of the landscape and horticulture enthusiasts’ self expression." Development of this community is scheduled to include discussion forums, online educational services and a network of product and service brokers, which will supply and service online customers within their local or regional franchised areas.

To drive revenue on the web site, the company is exploring spot and banner advertising by product manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, preferred supplier fees charged to partners who qualify as regional primary suppliers of products and materials, online design and project management services, and traditional mark-up on delivery of landscape products and materials. Scheduled to launch in midsummer, LLTI is also adding an e-commerce component, known as the Home and Garden Shopping Cart, for the online purchase of design, project management, landscape materials and installation services.

According to Vickers, both "brick & mortar" offices and virtual offices will be established to work together to service a wide variety of retail- and consumer-based customers. Information sharing is slated to be one of the most useful benefits to those customers. The information sharing is already in place at LLTI design centers with the professional staffing, but plans to bring the same service to the Internet include adding discussion forums as one of the forthcoming web site developments. Vickers said dialogue among professionals and between professionals and do-it-yourselfers will be a valuable resource to the entire network of LLTI web site users. To further assist franchise operators, LLTI is also planning to develop an Intranet, which will include online help and administration support.

According to a release by LLTI, industry sources for 1998 show that the landscape and horticulture markets generate $25 billion per annum in the U.S. and that the niche landscape market generates an additional $14 billion per annum. Canadian revenue for a combined industry of landscape, horticulture and garden centers is valued at more than $10 billion, according to the release. (Note: All figures in U.S. dollars.)

For more information about LLTI visit the company’s web site at www.letslandscapetogether.com, or e-mail Charles Vickers at letsland@idirect.com.

The author is Internet Editor of Lawn & Landscape Online.
Images provided courtesy of Let's Landscape (together) Inc.