Landscaping Services Industry Profile

Companies in this industry provide landscape care and maintenance services, as well as landscape design and construction. Major US companies include Asplundh Tree Expert, BrightView Landscapes, Davey Tree, and TruGreen. Outside the US, major companies include Active Tree Services (Australia) and Idverde (France).

As the world becomes more urban, interest in green spaces -- including trees, lawns, flowers and hedges -- is increasing in cities around the globe, driving demand for landscaping services. Global demand is driven mainly by factors such as housing starts, employment, and consumer spending.

The US landscaping services industry includes more than 105,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $77 billion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven partly by construction spending and partly by the economy's overall health. Because management and equipment costs are mainly fixed, the profitability of individual companies depends on demand volume and operations' efficiency. Small companies can easily compete with big ones, except in providing services to large customers. Big companies operate mainly through local branches or offices that have operations almost identical to those of local companies. The US industry is highly fragmented: the top 50 companies generate about 15% of revenue.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Landscaping services include commercial and residential landscape maintenance, landscape construction, irrigation systems, tree services, chemical lawn care and pest control, and "line-clearing," or branch removal around utility lines. Larger companies may offer several of these services, ...