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TruGreen Customer Counts Declining

Posted by: Posted date: April 02, 2011 In: General | comment : 8

Company Confirms Intent to Sell Landscape Division

As reported here in February, the parent of the TruGreen ChemLawn company intends to sell is land care division due to declining sales, according to a report published Wednesday in Landscape Management magazine.

The same report also acknowledged that the customer count declined by 1.7 percent for the lawn care division, which primarily focuses on spraying of chemical fertilizer and pesticide products. Gross sales totaled $1.1 billion, with a net operating profit of $184.5 million.

Steve Martin, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, attributed the loss of customers to “high temperatures that affected lawns and the ongoing transformation efforts at TruGreen,” according to LM magazine, which is a trade journal for the landscape industry.

We believe the loss of customers is likely due to other factors, including the ongoing transition to organic lawn care, for which interest continues to grow at more than 20 percent a year according to the National Gardening Association. TruGreen ChemLawn does offer a “natural” option among its programs, but company sales people openly admit “the natural program costs more and doesn’t work as well — but we have it if you want it.”

About The Author

Paul Tukey

An international leader of the green movement, Mr. Tukey is a journalist, author, filmmaker, TV host, activist and award-winning public speaker, who is widely recognized as North America's leading advocate for landscape sustainability and toxic pesticide reduction strategies.

Number of Entries : 1023

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  • http://www.Alldownherbicide.com Karina Zedalis

    Thanks to efforts by people like Paul Tukey, people are waking up to eco-people-critter friendly product choices when it comes to their lawns and gardens. Need some help with the weeds? Check out our OMRI AllDown Organic Herbicide for broadleafed weeds.

  • John Carey

    Honestly that is some great news and for my neighbors, I recently convinced my parents to stop spraying and the guy responsible agreed to let them out of their contract. Have already added clover seed and a calcium amendment. Lucky with plenty of rain since then.

  • Denise

    Hurray! I’m doing my part in my neighborhood to encourage people to go organic. It’s a tough slog, but I’ve had a few converts.

  • John W. jones

    I never understood the prejudice against using/going organic. Every year, I sign-up 100-200 new customers that see my customer beautiful organic lawns. With organics I can improve lawns with the “worst soils” and lawns with very “harsh conditions” nieghbors see the improvement and sign-up. I get alot of x-scott’s, Lawn Doctor and Truegreen customers because using their chemicals and pesticides cannot “Have the power” to improve lawns with poor soil problems etc.Chemicals are very limited. Any landscaper, Tree services or lawn services that wants to go organic, “must do it correctly” not just apply an organic fertilizer and then say we went organic. They must test the soil, improve the “soil’s health” with bio-stimulants, humic acid etc. apply lime and callcium correctly and improve “grass health” by reducing thatch, eliminate broadleaf and grassy weeds etc. If the correct “organic process” is followed then good looking “organic lawns” are created, then we can win over the general public.

  • Frank Graham

    Tukey. That nearly 2 percent drop in customers probably represents about 10,000 accounts out of 500,000, so you’re barely scratching the surface. I wouldn’t be too quick to take credit for the company’s demise. TruGreen is still a powerhouse and middle America couldn’t give two sh-ts about your thoughts on the environment.
    Frank Graham, Troy, Ohio (ChemLawn’s proud hometown)

  • http://thelawncareblog.com thelawnblog

    After applying pesticides and herbicides for a large lawn care provider in the northeast I can tell you that most of the Chemlawn customers we got were looking to get a greener lawn no matter what the cost(for the most part). They would complain that Chemlawn products would not work well and they would be marketed like crazy. I got the impression that they would “water down” the applications(no proof obviously) but long time customers would just get that impression over time. Either way, customer count will probably continue to go down over the next few months, years, and presumably decades. And I do agree, when talking about the mid-west “bible belt” states, organic is the farthest thing from their mind. Keep up the good work. This site is a great resource to keep all of us in the organic industry up to date.

  • Randy

    We live in Durham NC and Truegreen absolutely destroyed our lawn in three months and I have the before and after photos to prove it. They charged us over $500 for six months of service. We fired them and got part of our money back. They are worthless and completely incompetent and should be out of business. Anyone who buys that business is a fool.

  • Randy

    We live in Durham NC and Truegreen absolutely destroyed our lawn in three months and I have the before and after photos to prove it. They charged us over $500 for six months of service. We fired them and got part of our money back. They are worthless and completely incompetent and should be out of business. Anyone who buys that business is a fool.

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