Quick Stats
- CEO: Kurt Bland
- Prospect Team: Erik Maurer, Brad O’Dell, Kyle Slovis
- Location: Apex, NC
- Industry: Specialty Service (B2B)
- Investment Date: December 2017
- Exit Date: November 2024
Overview
Bland Landscaping provides a comprehensive suite of premium landscaping services to commercial clients, such as HOAs, class A offices, multifamily, municipalities, retail, hospitality, and industrial centers. Bland is a premier provider of commercial maintenance landscaping services with a market-leading position in the Southeast.
Our investment in Bland is a great example of how we back strong management teams and help them build a scalable organization that can capitalize on geographic expansion opportunities through internal investment as well as add-on acquisitions.
We were introduced to Kurt and Matt Bland, the second-generation leaders of Bland, via a landscaping industry-focused investment banker. Kurt and Matt were looking for a partner to help them capitalize on growth opportunities that required additional capital and serve as an active partner as they expanded the Bland platform across the Carolinas. Kurt and Matt selected us as their partner because of our willingness to structure a transaction that gave their management team the opportunity to retain significant ownership in the business and collaborate on a shared vision for the company.
Partnership Rationale
We saw a very talented, ambitious, family-led leadership team providing a high-quality, recurring service with a proven playbook for profitable growth in an attractive region of the country. As a result, Prospect Partners made a control-equity investment in Bland and focused on leveraging Bland’s strong reputation in the fragmented commercial landscaping market to grow both organically and through acquisitions.
Growth Initiatives
- Completed seven add-on acquisitions, increasing density in core markets, diversifying service offering, and expanding footprint to attractive growth regions throughout the Southeast
- Penetrated aquatics and stormwater management category (first commercial landscaper of scale to do so)
- Built external sales team to accelerate contract sales growth
Strategic Partnership
- Strong partnership formed with Kurt and Matt Bland
- Implemented first equity incentive program for senior management and other key employees
- Established formal financial reporting capabilities, board governance procedures
- Developed M&A muscle by establishing acquisition playbook and building an actionable pipeline of targets
Infrastructure Building
- Developed structured board reporting package with appropriate KPIs and metrics
- Developed scalable hub-and-spoke model, with 12-branch network at time of exit
- Enhanced the company’s industry-specific IT platform with new modules and capabilities including real-time KPI dashboards
- Completed rebranding and website redesign
- Built out HR & recruiting function that was instrumental for local staffing needs
Management Team Additions
- Implemented branch management structure, creating bandwidth for senior management to focus on growth and strategy
- Built out leadership team by elevating the General Manager to run the day-to-day operations and hiring key senior executives (VP of Finance, VP of Sales)
- Strengthened the next level managers throughout the organization
Let's Talk Potential