Ed Castro, BLA, ASLA, president of Ed Castro Landscape Company in Roswell, Georgia, knows why the Walker Mower is the only rider he’s ever owned. “Our customers have high expectations and we have to deliver,” says Castro, who founded his design/installation/maintenance company 19 years ago. “The mower is not only maneuverable and versatile, but also delivers a high-quality cut that helps to set us apart.”
Not to say that Castro’s company needs much help in that regard. A wall filled with award-winning plaques, along with countless accolades and recommendations from customers, sends the message that Ed Castro Landscape is clearly special.
Interesting Times
After receiving a BLA (Bachelor’s of Landscape Architecture) degree from the University of Georgia, Castro traveled to London to practice landscape architecture. “I sent out 10 cover letters to London-based companies and received job offers from three of them,” he recalls. He stayed there for 18 months before studying architectural history and visiting several European countries, including spending three months in Spain, making, in his words, “lots of sketches.” Castro later returned to Atlanta and joined a large landscape architectural firm to put his training and experience to work.
Unfortunately, timing is everything, and in this case, it wasn’t the best. A year later, in the midst of an economic downturn, Castro was laid off. “I couldn’t find a job so I did the next best thing,” he says. “I started my own company, selling Christmas trees and doing small installations, gradually getting work designing landscapes.”
As customers asked for more services, the company started doing larger installations, mowing lawns, and providing other maintenance-related services. Within five years, Ed Castro Landscape was doing $1 million in sales. In eight years, the young company tripled in size. By year 10, mowing and maintenance was bringing in $1 million on its own. Today, the company generates $7 million in annual revenue, 20 percent of which is maintenance.
“We’re not the biggest company providing maintenance services in the Atlanta area, but I have to think we’re in the top 10,” adds Castro. “Altogether, we have nine Walker Mowers, including eight 25-hp models equipped with 42-inch GHS decks and one Super B. Most of our properties are wooded with tons of leaves to remove, which makes the GHS vacuum invaluable.” The Super B, Castro explains, is a recent addition to accommodate his company’s entrance into the public space market where picking up clippings is not a requisite and a larger mowing deck and speed are important.
Consistent Performance
Castro is a stickler about quality, and emphasizes that an important part of this equation is consistent performance. “In maintenance, just like in design and installation, certain things need to be consistent,” he explains. “Safety, along with equipment reliability and performance, needs to be there every day. Customers expect the same look, which means you don’t want to be changing equipment; the lawn’s appearance depends both on the type of cut a mower delivers and employees who are familiar with its operation and actually take ownership of it.”
“As we grew crews, we grew our Walker Mower numbers, one per truck,” Castro continues. “I know that employees were fighting over them early on, but that’s less of an issue today. We have one more Walker Mower than maintenance crew. Our plan is to rotate mowers every three years or 2,000 hours.”
The mowers get a workout, Castro adds. “Lawns with warm-season grasses are mowed between 32 and 36 times a year, whereas cool-season turf gets more than 40 cuttings. Most of our maintenance accounts, just as our design/build accounts, are residential, or what we refer to as private gardens. In fact, our early design customers were the ones who told us we needed to get into the maintenance business. It was a natural progression for them. We designed and installed their landscape, and they wanted us to maintain it.”
Logistically Speaking
Ninety percent of the company’s work is within a 30-mile radius of Atlanta, which means that crews log a lot of miles. “When I was looking for a place to build, I came across this 10-acre parcel right across from a UPS distribution center,” Castro relates. “If any one company understands the importance of logistics, it has to be UPS, and their presence nearby immediately made the property more attractive to me.” Castro has since built a shop there and recently constructed a new design studio.
When asked about the current economic climate in Atlanta, Castro remarks, “The longer the recession, the greater the lesson,” meaning that area landscape contractors have to continue to be vigilant about becoming better business people.
Castro adds, “One of our greatest concerns is the degradation of the industry caused in part by the recession. We want good competition, and we want to compete against company owners who understand good business practices and costing, and who run good equipment. I also think that having good business partners is more important now than ever before. For example, we purchase all of our maintenance equipment, including our Walker Mowers, from nearby Howard Brothers. It’s not about price, it’s about them understanding our business, keeping us informed, and taking care of us when our equipment is down. Similarly, we consider our Caterpillar dealer to be a partner with us in our construction business.”
Overall, Castro is very optimistic about the future of his company and the green industry. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” he says. “As a kid, I mowed lawns, shoveled snow, and did just about anything I could to make a few dollars. I learned back then that there was always a customer or service in need. That holds true today, too.”
As Castro points out, it’s not just about providing a service, though; it’s about performing at a consistent, high-quality level—something that engenders customer loyalty and a good reputation.
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