Howard Rose (left) and Steven Cohen of BCLS Landscape Services will now join Birmingham-based Landscape Workshop under the new acquisition. (Courtesy BCLS Landscape Services)
A private equity-backed firm has bought its way into the Richmond area’s landscaping industry.
Birmingham, Alabama-based Landscape Workshop last month acquired Ashland’s BCLS Landscape Services, the company announced recently. The deal closed on March 1. Terms were not disclosed.
BCLS, which is led by CEO Howard Rose, chief visionary officer Steven Cohen and Vice President Melannie Huber-Cohen, was founded in 1994. Since its founding, the company has provided a host of services, including landscape management, design and build, and commercial irrigation to clients.
Cohen and his wife Huber-Cohen acquired BCLS in 2016, with a 10-year exit plan that included being acquired by a private equity-backed company. At the time of the Cohens’ acquisition of BCLS, the company had 23 employees. The company has grown steadily since then, and now brings 90 employees over to Landscape Workshop.
BCLS went to market around a year ago, Cohen said, looking to find a private equity-funded buyer that was ready to make the jump into the Richmond market. BCLS is Landscape Workshop’s first Virginia acquisition.
“In the eight-and-a-half years we’ve owned the company, we’ve built an incredible company culture and that culture is ‘frontline worker first,’” Cohen said. “In looking for an acquirer, that was something that was very important to us, and Landscape Workshop came out on top.”
Landscape Workshop was founded in 1984. Backed by Carousel Capital and McKinney Capital, the landscaping firm has a hand in 38 Southeastern markets across 11 states. As a full-service grounds maintenance company, the landscaping company offers many of the same services as BCLS, albeit in a greater number of markets.
Landscape Workshop has a hand in 38 Southeastern markets. (Courtesy Landscape Workshop)
With this acquisition, Cohen, Huber-Cohen and Rose will join the Landscape Workshop team, with Rose taking on the general manager of landscape management position, Cohen stepping in as interim general manager of construction services and Huber-Cohen joining as a consultant in the interim.
The BCLS name will go away, rebranded under the Landscape Workshop umbrella. BCLS’s offices at 12134 Washington Highway in Ashland and at 500 Musselman Road in Fredericksburg will remain, both now under the Landscape Workshop name.
BCLS was represented in the deal by local attorneys Lisa Hedrick and Toviya Nabugero of the Hirschler law firm. Alabama attorneys Stuart Maxey and Butler Sparks of the Bradley law firm served as Landscape Workshop’s legal counsel in the acquisition.
Private equity firms have taken a keener interest in the landscaping industry in the past five to eight years than in years prior, Cohen said. That’s partly due to the recurring revenue of landscape services in the commercial sector, he added.
“It started as a trend that’s now become very popular where consolidation of landscape companies has become very active,” Cohen said.
Yet the Richmond market has been relatively quiet on the trend, he said, noting there have only been a few local-based acquisitions, such as the 2018 acquisition of James River Grounds Management by Aspen Grove Landscape Companies, and the more recent majority recapitalization of Waverly-based Schultz Landscapes with Chicago-based Pritzker Private Capital’s portfolio company HeartLand LLC earlier this year.
Locally based Virginia Green, which offers fertilizer, weedkiller, seeding, aeration and other non-landscaping lawn service applications, also took on private equity money in late 2023.
With the BCLS deal closed and now on board at Landscape Workshop, Cohen said a core focus of his new role will be looking for smaller landscaping companies to roll up under the company’s umbrella.
“Becoming the platform within central Virginia for Landscape Workshop…Landscape Workshop’s strategy now is to grow central and eastern Virginia into a probably $45 million to $60 million market,” Cohen said.
Cohen said he and the Landscape Workshop team will look at acquisitions not only in Richmond, but in Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg and other nearby cities.
“This deal is not the end of the legacy BCLS has built over the last eight years, it’s actually the beginning,” Cohen said.
Howard Rose (left) and Steven Cohen of BCLS Landscape Services will now join Birmingham-based Landscape Workshop under the new acquisition. (Courtesy BCLS Landscape Services)
A private equity-backed firm has bought its way into the Richmond area’s landscaping industry.
Birmingham, Alabama-based Landscape Workshop last month acquired Ashland’s BCLS Landscape Services, the company announced recently. The deal closed on March 1. Terms were not disclosed.
BCLS, which is led by CEO Howard Rose, chief visionary officer Steven Cohen and Vice President Melannie Huber-Cohen, was founded in 1994. Since its founding, the company has provided a host of services, including landscape management, design and build, and commercial irrigation to clients.
Cohen and his wife Huber-Cohen acquired BCLS in 2016, with a 10-year exit plan that included being acquired by a private equity-backed company. At the time of the Cohens’ acquisition of BCLS, the company had 23 employees. The company has grown steadily since then, and now brings 90 employees over to Landscape Workshop.
BCLS went to market around a year ago, Cohen said, looking to find a private equity-funded buyer that was ready to make the jump into the Richmond market. BCLS is Landscape Workshop’s first Virginia acquisition.
“In the eight-and-a-half years we’ve owned the company, we’ve built an incredible company culture and that culture is ‘frontline worker first,’” Cohen said. “In looking for an acquirer, that was something that was very important to us, and Landscape Workshop came out on top.”
Landscape Workshop was founded in 1984. Backed by Carousel Capital and McKinney Capital, the landscaping firm has a hand in 38 Southeastern markets across 11 states. As a full-service grounds maintenance company, the landscaping company offers many of the same services as BCLS, albeit in a greater number of markets.
Landscape Workshop has a hand in 38 Southeastern markets. (Courtesy Landscape Workshop)
With this acquisition, Cohen, Huber-Cohen and Rose will join the Landscape Workshop team, with Rose taking on the general manager of landscape management position, Cohen stepping in as interim general manager of construction services and Huber-Cohen joining as a consultant in the interim.
The BCLS name will go away, rebranded under the Landscape Workshop umbrella. BCLS’s offices at 12134 Washington Highway in Ashland and at 500 Musselman Road in Fredericksburg will remain, both now under the Landscape Workshop name.
BCLS was represented in the deal by local attorneys Lisa Hedrick and Toviya Nabugero of the Hirschler law firm. Alabama attorneys Stuart Maxey and Butler Sparks of the Bradley law firm served as Landscape Workshop’s legal counsel in the acquisition.
Private equity firms have taken a keener interest in the landscaping industry in the past five to eight years than in years prior, Cohen said. That’s partly due to the recurring revenue of landscape services in the commercial sector, he added.
“It started as a trend that’s now become very popular where consolidation of landscape companies has become very active,” Cohen said.
Yet the Richmond market has been relatively quiet on the trend, he said, noting there have only been a few local-based acquisitions, such as the 2018 acquisition of James River Grounds Management by Aspen Grove Landscape Companies, and the more recent majority recapitalization of Waverly-based Schultz Landscapes with Chicago-based Pritzker Private Capital’s portfolio company HeartLand LLC earlier this year.
Locally based Virginia Green, which offers fertilizer, weedkiller, seeding, aeration and other non-landscaping lawn service applications, also took on private equity money in late 2023.
With the BCLS deal closed and now on board at Landscape Workshop, Cohen said a core focus of his new role will be looking for smaller landscaping companies to roll up under the company’s umbrella.
“Becoming the platform within central Virginia for Landscape Workshop…Landscape Workshop’s strategy now is to grow central and eastern Virginia into a probably $45 million to $60 million market,” Cohen said.
Cohen said he and the Landscape Workshop team will look at acquisitions not only in Richmond, but in Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg and other nearby cities.
“This deal is not the end of the legacy BCLS has built over the last eight years, it’s actually the beginning,” Cohen said.
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PE money is flooding everything nowadays and the only people better for it are owners and shareholders. Sigh.
And even them only in the short term
congrats to the owners and all that, but man, I miss the time when the point of starting a business was to own and run a business. I’m also curious to see how the PE ethos fits with a front line worker first mentality.