LandCare USA
Fieldstone Partners initiated in 1997 the idea for a national company in the commercial landscape services market. Prior to that, there were no national companies in the field and there were limited exit opportunities for regional landscape operators. There were also a number of clear economies of scale, including regional marketing and substantially lower costs for workers’ compensation insurance.
The project included the following steps:
- We secured the support of Notre Capital, a leader in the field of consolidation strategies, which agreed to act as a project sponsor.
- Working with Notre, we researched over 100 leading landscape companies and selected seven that qualified as founding companies, providing consolidated pro forma revenues of almost $120 million.
- We helped finalize merger agreements between the seven founding companies with LandCare USA, a new holding company.
- In June 1998 we helped complete an initial public offering for LandCare, with BT Alex. Brown as lead underwriter, and LandCare immediately listed on the NYSE.
- Fieldstone continued as an acquisition advisor, helping build the company to over $400 million in pro forma annual revenues, and also advised in a successful merger with ServiceMaster. The merger led to the formation of TruGreen LandCare, which continues to be the largest commercial landscape company in the country, with over $1 billion in annual commercial landscape revenues.
- We continue to maintain strong relationships with a large number of the LandCare founding partners and others from the management team, more than a decade later.
