46 | ‘One-stop shop’ for lawns Owned and run by Mike and Debbie Glasson, Lawn and Turf Contracting offers the complete lawn-laying package. T T Hugh de Lacy Lawn and Turf Contracting CONTRACTING Market demand is thankfully easing for Mike and Debbie Glasson’s Lawn and Turf Contracting Ltd after reaching an intensity that was “crazy, out of control” towards the end of last year, according to Mike. “The market’s been extremely buoyant – over-cooked, in fact – over the last couple of years, so it’s something of a relief to see it ease back this year into something more manageable.” Mike and Debbie launched Lawn and Turf Contracting, which is based at Paterangi, near Ohaupo on the Waikato Expressway, in 2001 to meet increasing demand for lawn-laying services from the region’s vigorous housing and civil construction sectors. Today the company has nearly 30 staff, including Debbie and Mike, and runs one eight-wheeler and two six-wheeler trucks all fitted with hydro-seeding equipment, with a fourth seeder built on a trailer. The company offers the complete lawn-laying package – “We’re a one-stop shop,” Mike says – from the spraying out and cultivating of sites, to ground preparation, levelling and hydro-seeding, all carried out with Lawn and Turf’s own fleet of bobcats and tractors. Beyond the laying of lawns, the company offers on-going aftercare and maintenance, fertilising and weed-spraying, as well as a full range of irrigation installation and maintenance services. While the bulk of the demand for its services comes from residential housing, Lawn and Turf does extensive work with local councils and civil companies, including re-seeding and maintenance of sports fields. “We have a very diverse range of clients, from new building owners to a lot of repeat customers,” Mike says. Mike came to the lawn-laying industry naturally enough from a background as a qualified golf course greenkeeper, not only on New Zealand courses – Te Awamutu, North Shore and Remuera among them – but also at the Formosa First Country Club in Taiwan, which held a PGA Open tournament on greens he prepared. Debbie gives the full complement of commercial skills needed for an operation like Lawn and Turf, with a degree in Business Management from Waikato University. Together Debbie and Mike have steered the company through the challenges of formation to the equally challenging environment of a red-hot market, and Mike can now see local demand easing back to something more manageable. “Rising mortgage and lending interest rates are probably the main cause of the slower market, and we could see that affecting the residential building market towards the end of last year. “There are still projects going on, and the Government seems committed to giving a big boost through Kainga Ora to the lower-end sector of the new house market both in the Waikato and elsewhere,” Mike says. He doesn’t see Cyclone Gabrielle affecting the outlook much: where Lawn and Turf operates in the wider Waikato region the damage from the cyclone is nowhere near as devastating as on the East Coast, Gisborne and Coromandel. “With Cyclone Gabrielle and the other extreme weather events we have been experiencing, we are looking at more work in the form of erosion control and hydro-seeding, particularly on slips and roading improvements,” Mike says. The degree of extra demand that the cyclone has generated may take some time to filter through to the market – the devastation is such that getting people back into decent housing is the priority – but Lawn and Turf Contracting will be ready for it when it happens. • Section Contouring/Levelling • Shed Sites/Concrete Prep • Driveway Maintenance • Tracked Bobcat, Auger, Bale Grab & Laser Levelling • 18 years In Business 021 275 8733 | mcbobcats@xtra.co.nz
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