One of the perks of putting together big feature packages for Landscape Management is the significant steps that we often take to pull those sections together.
This month’s focus on our annual LM150 rankings is a great example of that. As a part of my reporting on Bland Landscaping for one of the in-depth profiles you’ll find in this issue, I traveled to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and spent a day with Kurt and Matt Bland — the company’s president and senior vice president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, respectively — for interviews, a photo shoot and a great lunch with Bland’s senior leadership team.
I always come away from visits to landscape and lawn care companies with something I didn’t know before and new insights into the industry, and my time in North Carolina was no exception. As Kurt and Matt can attest, I asked more dumb questions about private equity, platform companies and the merger-and-acquisition process than I should have been allowed.
Those dumb questions would have likely continued into the dinner hour, as we had initial plans to connect for a casual dinner after our official duties had ended that day. But Kurt — who had just returned from a vacation with his wife, Meredith Keyes — had some family matters to attend to that night. And since family always wins out over work in my world, I happily stepped aside and looked for something else to occupy my time that night.
Which is how I ended up crossing something off my musical bucket list — I saw Pearl Jam in concert. The Seattle rockers have always been one of my favorite bands, but for a variety of reasons, I had never seen them in concert before. But as luck would have it, the band was playing the second of two shows at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh that very night. My free evening suddenly had very definitive plans. I did a little searching on the SeatGeek app, found a ticket that didn’t break the bank and was in the door. And it was amazing.
Now, not all business trips end in such a memorable (and loud!) manner. But I’m eternally grateful that this one did, because not only did I get to rock out with Eddie Vedder and the boys, I also got to spend some quality time with some of the smartest business owners in landscaping (who also have great musical tastes — that “family matter” that scuttled our dinner was Kurt’s wife surprising him with tickets to Pearl Jam!). I hope all that positivity shines through in the cover story I wrote about Bland Landscaping, which you can read on page six of the LM150 supplement in this issue.
And with the release of this year’s LM150 rankings, I can’t imagine I’m the only one who will walk away from this experience with positive feelings (how’s that for a segue?). Based on the number of phone calls and emails I’ve had from business owners asking how this year’s list played out, I know there’s incredible anticipation for the information that you’ll find in this issue.
The news pegs for this year’s list are noteworthy. For the first time, the combined revenue of the companies represented broke the $20 billion mark ($21 billion, to be exact). The top 10 of this year’s list was largely unchanged from last year, although there was some shuffling in that order. Thirty-five companies on the list enjoyed growth in 2024 that exceeded 20 percent — including a trio of companies that grew more than 100 percent in the last year.
But don’t let those bullet points be the last word on the matter. Even though the top-line numbers are wildly encouraging, there are additional insights to be gleaned from the LM150 regional breakdowns, the market-segment lists and the expanded profiles of three companies that are featured in this issue.
I hope this year’s LM150 rankings make as big an impact on you as they did on me … even if Pearl Jam isn’t your favorite band.
