Turf Masters Brands, based in Roswell, Georgia, has completed 19 acquisitions and 12 in the last year alone. Andy Kadrich, founder of Turf Masters Lawncare LLC, senior advisor and board member to Turf Masters Brands, says he formed Turf Masters Brands along with All Turf Holdings, LLC and Green Group Holdings in 2022 with the goal of taking care of their customers and teams. This mission set the stage for adding future businesses that shared their same approach.
Now, Turf Masters Brands has 40 branches across 12 states. Brad Twombly, VP, general counsel and head of M&A for Turf Masters Brands, says they continue to grow organically and via acquisitions.
“Our acquisition strategy helps us bolster the organic growth by speeding up the process to enter new markets and strengthening our presence in existing markets,” Twombly says.
The company also partnered with private equity firm CenterOak Partners.
“CenterOak’s believes in a collaborative approach to their investments, providing guidance to the management team on a variety of areas while remaining hands off in the day-to-day and allowing the turf care experts to run the business,” Twombly says. “CenterOak supports our people-first culture as the key foundation of how we run the business.”
CenterOak Partners is involved at the board level, working with the management team to develop the strategic plan for the company. Twombly says they can provide perspective and guidance on how other companies have handled scaling to much larger organizations.
“The partnership with CenterOak has been great,” Twombly says. “With the right partner, it provides the ability to grow quicker and scale through acquisitions and strategic advice.”
Despite economic uncertainty, Twombly expects their pace of acquisitions to continue or improve as their integration team and processes continue to improve and mature.
“The industry is well-positioned to weather economic uncertainty, and owners looking for a retirement path will continue to look for acquisition partners in times of uncertainty,” Twombly says. “At times, uncertainty can actually increase the volume and receptivity to acquisitions.”
Turf Masters Brands primarily focuses on acquiring business with residential customers. Often, they have a small piece of light commercial work, but the residential market is their focus. Currently, they serve over 215,000 residential customers.
“It is important to stay in the lines of service where you have the full expertise to continue to deliver quality service,” Twombly says.
They also seek out best-in-class brands that share their people-first values by prioritizing their employees and providing great customer service.
“We look for companies with well-tenured employees who will be ideal candidates for promotion as they join a larger, growing organization,” Twombly says.
Twombly says typically, the owners of their acquired companies are ready to retire and hand the business over to someone who will honor their legacy and treat their employees and customers with the same level of respect.
They’ve been able to retain their acquired employees and clients by avoiding a cookie-cutter approach.
“We approach any changes through the lens of making sure it will be a net-positive, or at worst net-neutral effect on the employees and customers,” Twombly says. “If the change is going to result in a net-negative, we pause and assess what we can do differently to change the outcome.”
Turf Masters Brands takes on all the backend aspects of the business, such as payroll and recruiting, so the acquired company can focus on operations. Twombly says they also invest in their employees through improved benefits and career development opportunities.
The company opts to maintain the branding of the businesses they acquire.
“We have a variety of amazing brands that have served their local communities for decades,” Twombly says. “Customers have grown attached to their local brands and operations, and we haven’t seen much value to the employees or the customers in changing to a national branding approach.”
When it comes to the integration process, Twombly recommends remaining humble and approaching every acquisition with an inquisitive mindset.
“Our integration process involves us asking more questions about how they operate than telling them how we operate,” Twombly says. “Knowing that there is no one right way to run a business and being open to adopting new ideas from the companies we acquire has improved our entire organization and shows the newly acquired team that we value their ideas and respect the business they’ve built.”
Twombly recommends that other companies looking to acquire remember that this process is a lot of change for associates.
“While the organization may have completed several, it is all new for the next acquisition,” Twombly says. “Embedding them into the culture and processes and making sure they have the support and assistance is very important.”
This article was published in the November/December issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Edge magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
