In recent lawn care news, the second and fourth largest landscape companies, TruGreen and Scotts Lawn Service respectively, have merged. Now with a combined approximately 2.3 million customers and $1.3 billion annual revenue, they have the power to truly affect the lawn care industry. But what does this mean for the average consumer looking for lawn care or customer of one of the large companies? While some think that it will have no affect lawn care customer, there will be some differences that you may see over the next year.

The Start of an Empire
The combined company will remain headquartered in TruGreen’s Memphis headquartered and will be led by David Alexander, TruGreen Chief Executive Officer. In an interview with The Commercial Appeal Memphis, Alexander said “The biggest thing this does is it creates a tremendous growth platform for us, We add 500,000 more customers.” He went on to add that the merger will also create jobs, but he is unsure where or how many.

So what will happen to their customers?
Richard Bare, owner of Arbor-Nomics Turf, told Landscape Management that he is predicting the deal could cause his phone to start ringing with customers who aren’t happy about a shake-up with their lawn care provider. Things that might cause them to switch their lawn care service provider may include their want for a more personal and service. Although, their services may also become less expensive and they will be able to compete against other providers on price, because the two companies are saving a lot of money not competing against each other.

Here is what some people are saying on social media:

1. Many small lawn care agencies think they are going to benefit from the merger: 

This seems like a good thing for those of us in the $15-$20m range since it creates a larger gap between us and the…https://t.co/jO1APFZmUN

— Cleary Bros Landscap (@clearybrosLs) December 10, 2015

2. Affecting many small franchise owners of Scott’s

3. Many small companies take this as an advantage to recruit new customers

4. Some industry experts comment that this may turn lawn care into a “two-class system”

5. Some set up a poll on Twitter to see what Trugreen/Scotts existing customers would do:

What will you do since TruGreen and Scotts LawnService merged? https://t.co/9e0zSZwVPf

— Tomlinson Bomberger (@MyTomBom) December 10, 2015

While, there are some down-sides to the merger with a larger company having a difficult time being personable and many changes with the structure of the businesses. You will still see the same ScottsMiracle-Gro in stores, as the products will not change much and the prices will potentially decrease. Many people are still waiting for more information on how this will affect the consumers and we will have to see if the merger was the right move for TruGreen and Scotts Lawn Care.

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