L&L Exclusive: ANLA, PLANET Leaders Speak Out About Merger

The Professional Landcare Association (PLANET) and the American Nursery & Landscape Association announced last week that the two associations’ boards of directors have unanimously agreed to sign a letter of intent to merge when the organizations meet for legislative events in Washington, D.C. next month.

With just six months under its belt since the merger of the Associated Landscape Contractors of America and the Professional Landcare Association formed PLANET, Lawn & Landscape interviewed PLANET President Dan Foley to learn more about the timing and next steps involved in this new level of expansion. Moreover, ANLA President Peter Orum shares his thoughts on the merger and the potential benefits he sees it bringing to the industry at large.

MOVING FAST? Currently representing 4,000 member firms, the formation of PLANET was finalized on Jan. 1, 2005 – just six short months ago. But the quick timeframe in which this second merger has been approached isn’t a bad thing, Foley says. “When ALCA and PLCAA came together, the goal there was to start building one strong voice for the industry,” Foley says. “Once the formation of PLANET was crystallized and confirmed, we wanted to notify other associations about what we were doing and to let them know the door was open to them, as well. Our goal isn’t and wasn’t to initiate a big roll-up; rather, we want to recognize the respect we have for all of these other great associations and invite them to participate in this goal of creating an ultimate association.”

Foley says ANLA responded to that invitation about seven months ago, which started the ball rolling on partnerships between the organizations. “ANLA responded in several ways in terms of partnerships and, from there, beginning discussions about the possibility of merging,” he says. “We’ve worked together on the H-2B Coalition, aligned our Legislative Days so they’re held simultaneously in July, and we found a lot of other ways to work better together to benefit our members. We really wanted to be open-minded to all options.”

Orum agrees that political activity has been a great starting point for the two organizations, with combined educational opportunities a great benefit to members, should the merger go through.

“Up until less than 10 years ago, ANLA was probably more reactive than proactive in the political arena – when a bad law came out, we’d do something to get it changed, but we wouldn’t plan ahead or anticipate future challenges,” Orum says. “Since then, we’ve become very politically engaged and worked closely with the PLANET legacy associations to help in their efforts as well. With ANLA strong in the political world and PLANET very strong in education, certification and member services, we see that as a very good marriage.”

JOINING FORCES. According to Foley, one of the biggest benefits of creating PLANET was seeing membership from the landscape and lawn care sides of the industry come together and mesh so quickly. “In the few months I’ve been fortunate enough to work with folks with a lawn care specialty, it’s amazing to find out how alike we really are and how much we can learn from each other at the same time,” he says. “As ANLA and PLANET research the merger opportunity, it will be fun to watch it evolves because people from both sides of the room will come together and integrate much more quickly than you’d expect.”

Moving on from blending lawn care and landscaping to bringing the “Landcare Network” and wholesale grower/retail markets together is the next logical step, Foley and Orum say. The groups, they suggest, are true extensions of one another and will make an excellent blend.

“By and large, throughout the industry, there’s a very good relationship between growers and landscapers,” Orum says. “We’re really part of the same family. Within our organization now, ANLA has divisions – retail, grower, landscape, etc. – and as a like-minded organization, so does PLANET – design/build, maintenance, interior, etc. In coming together, we feel we can develop these divisions a little bit more and create a lot of opportunities for education between each group. I’m sure there will be a lot of joint events where growers can drop in on landscaping sessions and find out how that side of the business really works, or landscapers can take a look at the retail section and consider that aspect of the business.”

Foley agrees that member communication to benefit the industry is an advantage to creating an even larger organization. “The green goods that are grown by ANLA members are really a key part of PLANET members’ businesses,” Foley says. “Getting these two groups together is only going to help the communication between them on a lot of different levels. When you look back at ALCA, of which my company was a member for so long, there was a clear analogy between contractor members and supplier members – and it’s not just to get more sales. When you take a look at how much interaction the suppliers and contractors have, and how they can share their insights into the how end users of landscape products work, it’s a win-win situation.”

MERGER TRENDS? As ANLA and PLANET prepare to sign a letter of intent to merge next month, many industry professionals may be wondering if association mergers will become an annual trend. Foley assures, it’s a long process that’s not likely to become a  quick habit.

“It will take a long time to go through another historic merger, with several task force meetings as we investigate the merger possibilities,” he says, noting that leadership from both associations have come together to create a task force overseeing the first phase of evaluation. “One thing I think everyone involved in the ALCA/PLCAA merger learned was that getting a core group together to expose all the issues creates a great forum for discussion. Even if you don’t resolve everything right away, it’s out on the table for consideration and we’re not just doing everything on the fly.”

Foley says he also learned that having a predetermined launch date for a new association could press long-term strategies into a short-term calendar. He notes that setting the Jan. 1 launch date for PLANET, though successful, was an aggressive goal and that benchmarking and tactical planning will be key during a PLANET/ANLA merge.

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Orum says early outlook is promising for a successful merger. “So far, the planning and talks have been very positive – it has not been easy, but it’s been exciting and there has been good spirit from both sides,” he says. “As more news and information about the talks gets out and this is discussed by membership, I hope they’ll look on it the same way. You never like to see something that you knew, something that was comfortable, go away – that’s a natural feeling. But if we’re going to get somewhere in the future, we have to recognize that we can’t just hang onto the way things used to be. We have to make some changes and we have a great opportunity to do that now.”

Indeed, membership support is going to be key to this project. Foley says he’s spoken with industry friends who are very supportive and that he looks forward to hearing what other PLANET and ANLA members think.

“Our first priority is to keep our eye on the ball with the membership during the whole process and not move into anything too quickly,” Foley says. “We’re going to work hard to keep people updated on each step of the process. At this point, we haven’t created any plans to begin subsequent merger talks with other industry associations, though our clear intent remains to build one strong voice for the industry and the door is open for anyone that wants to be aligned with us in that respect.”