TNT Tree Care expands through merger with Ryan Lawn and Tree

An Overland Park lawn and tree service company is branching out with the acquisition of a 17-year-old Springfield firm.

As of Jan. 1, 2003, Springfield-based TNT Tree Care will be operating as Ryan's TNT Lawn & Tree following its merger with Ryan Lawn and Tree of Overland Park, Kan.

TNT will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ryan Lawn and Tree, said Cindi Crews, manager at TNT. She said 2002 gross sales for the 10-employee Springfield firm will be close to $1 million.

Larry Ryan, president of Ryan Lawn and Tree, said TNT will become his company's fourth location. With headquarters in Overland Park, Ryan also operates in Wichita and Lawrence, Kan. The three locations employ 56 and Ryan said 2002 sales are expected to hit $4.75 million.

Merger benefits

As an employee-owned company, Ryan's TNT Lawn & Tree will provide an employee stock option plan based on Ryan's formula of giving 10 percent of pretax profits back to employees.

The objective is to employ full-time people with professional qualifications to do the work, typically those with a college degree in forestry or horticulture, said Tim Crews, manager at TNT and Cindi's husband.

Based on gross income, which includes a benefit package and the ESOP, "our people are going to be making probably between $30,000 to $45,000 a year," Ryan said.

Services

In addition to tree care, the Crews and their employees will add lawn care to their repertoire. A standard contract would run about $250 annually and involve six visits per year during which treatments would be applied and issues addressed according to season and lawn condition, Tim Crews said.

They do not mow lawns, however. "We don't do things that are low productivity that would be hard for us to do with a degreed person and still be able to pay that person what is an industry wage," Tim Crews said.

Seeing green

Lawn care, excluding mowing, is one of the fastest growing segments in the green industry, said Crews. It's profitable because it's renewable and service is repeatable as opposed to tree care where visits might be done at three-year intervals, he said.

Ryan said there's room for the business to grow.

"For years we were 25 percent a year, but, you know, when you're small that's easy," he said. "We're going to try to maintain double-digit growth for the next 10 years."

Tim Crews said profit margins industry-wide are at about 3 percent to 4 percent, but they're hoping to increase that, in part by drawing on his existing client base of approximately 5,000.

Tulsa, St. Louis and Little Rock are possible locations for future expansion of Ryan Lawn & Tree, Tim Crews said.