Signature taps internal expertise to launch two divisions

Signature Landscapes is studying further extensions of its brand and its services after the company launched pest-control and tree-care divisions.

Both new divisions represent an effort by the Reno-based commercial landscape maintenance company to further build upon skills and equipment that already were available in the company.

The pest-control business, for instance, grew out of an existing operation that was licensed to apply herbicides and pesticides to turf, ornamental landscape and aquatic locations ranging from garden ponds to irrigation ditches.

With additional licensing through the Nevada Department of Agriculture, five staff members of the Signature Landscape staff now can handle pesticide applications in institutional and industrial settings, says Rick Clark, a principal in the firm who will oversee pest-control operations.

Similarly, Signature Landscapes historically has worked on trees that were 15 feet or less in height, but workers compensation insurance costs limited work on taller trees, says Justin Trimble, another Signature principal and head of the tree-care unit.

By creation of a separate tree-care unit, Signature is able to limit the higher insurance costs to a smaller group of workers and provide tree services cost-effectively, Trimble says. Those services range from consultation and trimming to stump-grinding.

Three of the company's employees will work in the tree-care division. Company-wide, Signature employs about 200 during the summer peak season.

Clark says the Signature management team it includes Lebo Newman in addition to Clark and Trimble considered acquisition of existing tree and pest-control firms. But agreeing on a price with potential sellers of those firms is difficult, he says, because service firms typically have few assets other than their customer lists.

With their nine years of experience in landscape maintenance for owners of commercial and multi-family properties, Signature's owners figured they could create their own customer lists at less cost than an acquisition.

The company can enter the new businesses at a fairly low cost, Trimble says, because much of the infrastructure equipment and management systems already is in place.

At the same, Clark says branding the new divisions as part of Signature is expected to pay off by providing allowing the company's business and residential clients to use a single source for a greater portion of their property maintenance needs.

That's driving the company to look for other segments of the commercial property maintenance business it can enter, either through startups or acquisitions, Trimble says.