When the father, son and son-in-law team comprised of Gerald and Gerry Peddycord and Mike May drive the Walker mowers off their trailers, customers aren't surprised. After all, why shouldn't a lawn maintenance company from Walkertown use Walker mowers?
But it's only coincidence that this North Carolina town located just a few miles northeast of Winston-Salem has the same name as the mowers used by LandCrafters.
"We were intrigued by the Walker name when we were first introduced to the machines in 1994," tells family patriarch and company founder Gerald Peddycord. But pragmatics soon replaced curiosity as the company's first Walker zipped in and around small spaces, easily sucked up grass, and maneuvered like no other riding mower the Peddycords had ever operated.
Before the year was out, the landscaping/lawn maintenance team purchased another Walker. Today it pulls up to commercial accounts with three town namesakes, all tucked neatly away on a single trailer.
"The mowers took the place of our walk-behinds," tells son Gerry. "Everybody liked the way they striped, and we liked the way they maneuvered and handled grass clippings."
Today, the Walkers, complemented by two front-cut Kubota mowers, mow upwards of 100 acres of grass weekly. Most - if not all - of the 20 or so properties are commercial, with the majority being owned by AMP, Inc., the company's first mowing account 23 years ago.
"We were doing only landscaping at the time," remembers Gerald. "I asked AMP if we could do its landscaping. The person in charge of grounds maintenance said the landscaping was spoken for, but the company needed someone to maintain the property and mow the lawns. I didn't even have a mower, but took the company up on the offer."
The account has been a good one. It not only placed LandCrafters on the ground floor of the maintenance business before it became popular, and more competitive, but it located them in the commercial arena, a market that many lawn maintenance professionals find difficult to break into today.
As Gerald explains, that one property alone has led to 12 more as AMP, a manufacturer of electrical components, developed new sites around the Winston-Salem, Greensboro area. It's also useful to have a high-profile company on your vita when other commercial properties become available, he adds.
"It doesn't hurt to tell a customer you've had an account for 23 years," tells Gerald. Despite the good relationship LandCrafters has had with AMP, the Peddycords, especially Gerald, have seen working relationships change. He has worked with five different people at AMP over the years.
His advice for procuring and keeping commercial accounts, then, would include not only getting to know the person(s) in charge of making grounds maintenance decisions, but networking and getting to know other people in the company, as well. In addition, he says, be persistent. Don't give up on the first or second try. Go back often enough so the people in charge know you and the service you provide.
Family Tradition
As his father relates the company's early history, Gerry listens intently. Oh, he's heard the stories many times in the past- how you get and keep accounts, especially - and he no doubt hears them even more today as he assumes a higher profile within the company. Although Gerry has, in his words, operated a mower since his earliest memories, it's been only two years since he graduated with a business degree from High Point University and worked full time with his father and brother-in-law.
"I've always wanted to take over this business," tells Gerry. "This type of work has always been satisfying to me. It gives me a sense of accomplishment when the day is done." His father nods his head in agreement, although he professes to have had no influence on his son's decision.
"I told Gerry from the beginning he wasn't obligated to be in this business. In fact, I encouraged him to do something else. But one thing is for sure, since he has made the decision to be with us full time, he has been a great asset."
So has his brother-in-law Mike May, he adds, who has been with the company for the better part of 10 years. May, who manages the company's two crews, along with Gerry, are the primary Walker operators.
"We've had so many compliments about the lawns over the last couple of years, that alone makes having the Walkers worthwhile," May relates. 'I think customers really like the way they stripe and give the lawns a manicured look. The interesting thing is, I don't think they realize the mower is doing the striping. They think it has something to do with the way we fertilize or some other magic act we perform."
After years of mowing with side-discharge walk-behinds, he also likes the way the Walkers maneuver, especially around automobiles in parking lots. The 48-inch GHS decks not only do a superb job of picking up clippings, but they also contain debris so it doesn't go flying against the cars and sides of buildings.
LandCrafters' newest Walkers are diesels which, the Peddycords explain, provide even more power and torque than their gas-powered counterparts. The company doesn't own any Walker attachments yet, but Gerald says he's taking a close look at a dethatcher or a snowplow or snowthrower for sidewalks.
Even higher on his priority list is the possibility of replacing the front-cut, four-wheel-drive Kubotas with two new Walkers with 60-inch sidedischarge decks. Then they would have the best of all worlds, says Gerald: maneuverability and wide-area mowing capability.
Down The Road
Like so many successful landscaping and lawn maintenance companies, LandCrafters is looking to expand, in both the services it provides and its customer base. Since maintenance already accounts for approximately 80% of business, the company doesn't see much change there. But it has always had a legacy of never turning down work.
In addition to maintenance, the Peddycords will do just about anything a customer asks, from design and installation and doing backhoe, loader and heavy tractor work to dump truck hauling. As the company grows and takes on more commercial accounts, it looks to expand current services to satisfy those accounts.
Times have changed since that first mowing job, says Gerald. This business is real competitive in all markets-in the residential market, in the multi-family market and in the commercial market, too. The only way to pseudo guarantee your position and to grow your business is to continually provide a finished product your customers want at a price they can afford.
Sound familiar? It's the same story whether your business is in Walkertown or in another city or state. Sometimes it just pays to live in a city where there's plenty of growth opportunity- like the Triad area of North Carolina where Walkertown is located - and operate a mower with the same name.
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