Pierre Bridger, director of operations for vibrant outdoors, sheds light on how the past year has gone for the landscape industry, obstacles the industry has faced and more.
Green Industry Pros: Can you talk to me about how you perceive the current state of the landscape industry over the past year?
Bridger: From people I know locally, I've seen a higher percentage of companies involved in design-build that are down from a revenue standpoint. I've seen traditional lawn care companies up 15 percent, and I've seen them down 15 percent. Our maintenance is up about 5 percent so it's in flux, and I think part of that is nobody really knows what to expect, but labor is still a monumental issue, and I don't think that's ever going away,
With the design-build, a lot of the people that had the disposable income in '24 opted not to spend it, push it to '25 or reduce the size of the project, but now we're sitting in an incredibly good position for '25 for design-build in the first two quarters.
Green Industry Pros: Are there any other challenges that your company has experienced the past year?
Bridger: We're a bit different just because we don't do residential maintenance. We only do commercial maintenance, but we don't mow. I outsource mowing. The mowing industry as a whole has become more difficult because in the past, I could negotiate better rates because of volume, and now mowing is one of those service lines that has to stand on its own. We've seen a lot of companies that we might have been able to utilize in the past as a vendor get out of commercial mowing or downsize commercial mowing because it was harder and harder to make money.
That's kind of the industry's fault because we've taught clients that by beating the hell out of each other on price, they can get away with not paying a fair fee. As the industry has aged, we're getting better at holding the line on price, but the newer companies don't seem to know that yet.
Green Industry Pros: Are there any other trends that you're seeing in the industry as a whole?
Bridger: We've had to be creative on how we accomplish certain tasks. We outsource some of our hardscaping. Three years ago, we started outsourcing some of our mulching to one of our hardscape contractors. In 2025, we're going to outsource a substantial quantity of mulch installation to a company that only does mulch. They can apply mulch because it's computerized delivery, and they can apply a lower quantity and apply it more consistently. We can actually make more money and get our mulch done more timely. After running the financials, that's going to save me from hiring five additional people.
Green Industry Pros: Have there been any new technology or tools that you've integrated in the past year or so?
Bridger: I've started to use AI for letter writing. It helps me put some emotion in what I'm writing.
We've used it for a decade, but we're going to switch GPS service providers. We've also used LMN for nine years. We're considering jumping into autonomous mowing, even though we don't mow, because with autonomous mowing, we can recruit someone who is not the traditional landscaper to run an autonomous mowing crew. We can recruit somebody that understands it. We have the opportunity to recruit from a different labor market, instead of going after the traditional landscape segment. We can look for people that are gamers and people that understand technology.
Green Industry Pros: Is there anything the industry could use more of? And is there anything you think the industry is doing well right now?
Bridger: Ten to 20 years ago, sales representatives would bid everything they could get their hands on. That's not the case now. I turn down opportunities every other week to take new business portfolios because they don't fit what we want to do or they don't fit the type of client or I just don't want to deal with that. I'm glad the industry has gotten to that point we need to be more selective, and by doing that, my thought is that it will eventually drive prices up higher to closer to where they need to be.
From a legislative affairs standpoint, we still have markets where there are groups of folks who would like to eliminate certain pesticides and have control over what we do as an industry—and that’s concerning. I'm vice president of Indiana's Outdoor Management Alliance. We are the legislative affairs arm for the landscape industry in the state of Indiana, and we literally went through an issue last year with Senate Bill 216 that had it gone through as written, would have eliminated licensure for for-hire lawn care applications.
As it turned out, we were able to amend the bill, but there were a lot of stakeholders who joined hands to make that happen. I’m concerned there are states that may not be as organized as we were, and when that happens in one state, it’s going to keep moving.
Green Industry Pros: What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Bridger: Find a mentor. Find someone who has done it. Find someone that is where you want to be.
Green Industry Pros: Is there anything you'd like to add?
Bridger: We can never have enough help. I'm 62, and I want to try to give back and help in any way legislatively that I can because that's one of my biggest fears moving forward is restrictions on our ability to operate without government interference.
