Turf Supply of the Ozarks to open on West Battlefield

One of the newest entrants to Springfield’s lawn and garden business is growing a new location near the intersection of Fort and Battlefield. Turf Supply of the Ozarks LLC will open a nearly 10,000-square-foot retail location in early July at 1255 W. Battlefield, said owner Ted Puetz. The location’s five employees will serve a market area of about 60 miles.

Puetz has worked in the lawn and garden industry for nearly 30 years, notably with Chevron lawn division and in Bayer’s weed- and pest-control divisions.

The company has been operating since March at 1340 W. Battlefield in the Beechwood Center, said Aaron Matkowski, general manager, who also handles sales calls and does product demonstrations.

Turf Supply’s new structure is similar to many warehouses and strip malls in the area, said Gary Hensley, co-owner of Nixa-based Construction Processing Company, the firm building the project. It will be a pre-engineered building with a brick façade, and it will function as a “combination warehouse and showroom for lawn equipment and supplies.”

Liberty Bank is financing the project, said Tim Baker, vice president of commercial lending. A Springfield building permit lists the approximate cost at $539,648.

Hensley estimated the total finished project, including infill, will run about $600,000.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 square feet will be dedicated to office and showroom space; the rest will be warehouse area, said Scott Beanland, project architect with Burns & Associates, the firm doing the design.

Commercial targets for the sale of Turf Supply’s larger outdoor power equipment, such as mowing machines and light earth-moving equipment, include area golf courses and landscape enterprises, Puetz said. Among the brands sold will be equipment by Simplicity Manufacturing, Ferris Industries, Jacobsen and Bad Boy.

“Our major focus now is in the commercial arena,” Puetz said. “But as we get into this facility we will have more of a retail presence and emphasis, which will be in turf supplies, which would include not only the equipment, but the products for insect control and turf management, and also irrigation.”

Additional candidates likely to receive sales calls from Turf Supply would be owners of large homes and estate owners, Matkowski said. Costs on large-scale tractor-mowers range between $5,000 and $15,000, he said.

Catalog sales might be incorporated in the future, Puetz added, depending on how his business model changes according to clientele needs.

Franchising a successful operation, while always an option, is not the grand objective of Puetz, who said his first goal is to grow the business to a good level of service in the community.

“My desire is not to throw something out here to cookie cut and then sell the cookie cutter.” He would not provide a 2004 revenue forecast

The store will be open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m.-noon Saturday.

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