Monarch acquires Terracare

LITTLETON, Colorado – Monarch Landscapes acquired Terracare Associates last month, adding another name to the relatively new company’s portfolio.

Terracare is the sixth company under the Monarch umbrella, making it a more than $200-million company with 2,000 employees.

Terracare was ranked 22nd on Lawn & Landscape’s 2017 Top 100 list with 2016 revenue of $62.4 million. The company is based in Littleton, Colorado.

“We share similar values and operations principles,” said Monarch CEO Brian Helgoe. “It adds scale and geographic breadth to Monarch. And we think Dean (Murphy) and his leadership team are fantastic. They have deep knowledge of the industry and they are great at integrating companies and building culture. We felt it was a natural fit.”

All companies bought by Monarch will keep their brands, but Helgoe said unifying under one brand will be under consideration next year.

“We plan on having a common brand at some point” he said. “Whether it’s called Monarch or not is to be determined.”

Terracare was previously backed by Progress Equity Partners, a private equity firm based in Dallas. All of Terracare’s employees and executives will be retained, and Murphy said they took the news in stride.

“I’ve told our people since the day I took over the organization, we were purchased with the intention of selling it down the road,” he said. “Don’t be surprised and it’s not a big deal. This is the way all these deals go. Private equity holds, then, at some point, equity sells. This is part of the cycle and it creates opportunity. This creates opportunities for our folks to move into different roles and bigger roles in the future.”

Monarch, formed in May of 2015, is backed by One Rock Capital Partners, LLC, a private equity firm based in New York. In March of this year, Monarch acquired Land Systems in San Diego and Hort Tech Landscape Management in Indio, California.

In April of 2016, Monarch acquired Jensen Landscape in San Jose, California, and Northwest Landscape Services in Woodinville, Washington. Monarch also owns Signature Landscape Services in Redmond, Washington.

As far as future acquisitions, Helgoe said the focus is filling in where Monarch currently has companies in the Western part of the United States.

“If there is a great company or companies that have a customer-service focus, a great field-first culture, experienced landscape leadership and good operations, we are interested,” Helgoe said.