New York, April 20, 2011 – Town & Gardens Ltd a premier landscape installation and maintenance company operating in Manhattan, New York City has concluded the sale of their business to a strategic industry buyer. Town & Gardens Ltd and the acquirer are both regular PLANET award winners for their design, installation and maintenance services.

Three Point Group, Inc. was engaged by Town & Gardens Ltd in 2008 to establish a transition and succession plan for the owners with the idea that they and the employees would continue to work for the company. The plan created with key employees and facilitated by Three Point Group, Inc. resulted in the sale of the company this month. Three Point Group, Inc was the primary advisor on the deal including the search for and identification of the buyer, the negotiations on price and deal structure and the consummation of the purchase agreement. The buyer is a long time industry leader - Ultimate Services Professional Grounds Management, Inc. based in Wolcott, CT.

The combination of these two companies makes great strategic sense with overlapping client and services business and opportunities in the Manhattan and Connecticut residential and commercial markets.

The owners of Town & Gardens will remain with the company and assist in the integration of business systems and sales growth. Both companies are excited by the potential created by this deal and look forward to the synergies that will enable rapid growth in the future.

Don Sussman, President and largest stockholder of Town & Gardens Ltd. : “Although we had a very strong company that generated a lot of interest, finding a buyer that had similar values and embraced our company culture was the critical factor in making this transition happen. Only a few weeks into our new structure we are already seeing the wisdom and benefits of this approach.”

John G. Chiarella, Jr. President and CEO of Ultimate Services: “ We could not be more pleased to unite our families with those of Town & Gardens, Ltd. The synergies we had hoped to realize have been more than surpassed in the short time we have been together. We are excited about the future of what our companies can achieve through our joint efforts, and are looking forward to fulfilling our mutual goal of being the premier service provider in the southeastern Connecticut / New York City region.”

Town & Gardens, Ltd. will continue to operate in the Manhattan NYC offices as usual.

For more information:

Three Point Group, Inc.

Kevin Kehoe, of Three Point Group, Inc. advised on this transaction. Three Point Group works with green industry business owners to create, execute, and monitor plans that help businesses and their owners grow smarter, maximize business value, and create wealth by executing an exit strategy. For more information visit: www.3pgconsulting.com : Kevin Kehoe, kevin@3PGConsulting.com or (714) 401-2389

Town & Gardens Ltd.

Established in 1995, specializes in commercial and residential landscape design, installation, maintenance, and other related services. For more information on Town & Gardens Ltd. visit www.townandgardens.com.

Ultimate Landscape Professional Grounds Management, Inc.

Established in 1971, landscape design, installation, maintenance, and other related services for both commercial and residential properties. For more information on Ultimate Services, Inc. visit www.ultimategrounds.com.

Everyone talks about innovation as if it were something that can be managed, when in reality it is primarily the result of experimentation in the face of adversity.  In other words, most of the time necessity is the mother of invention.

For a seemingly low-tech industry, the landscape business is experiencing extraordinary levels of innovation since 2008 primarily driven by adversity in the form of economic imbalances in supply and demand in the commercial real estate market and unemployment and housing prices in the residential market.

Yet with all this adversity - by hook or crook – innovative landscape companies have not only survived, they have prospered.  Industry performance benchmarks clearly tell this story of innovation.  Consider some of the following benchmarks we once accepted as conventional wisdom and the magnitude of the change in such a time.

Pre 2008 benchmark for sales growth: 25%               2010 benchmark: 10%

Pre 2008 benchmark Ground Maintenance Gross Margin: 55%                    2010 benchmark: 45%

Pre 2008 benchmark Design Build Gross Margin: 50%                     2010 benchmark: 40%

Pre 2008 benchmark Bid Build Gross Margin: 35%              2010 benchmark: 15%

Pre 2008 benchmark Overhead Leverage Ground Maintenance: 2.35           2010 benchmark: 2.65

Pre 2008 benchmark Overhead Leverage Design Build: 3.10            2010 benchmark: 3.50

Pre 2008 benchmark Net Margin Top 10%: 14%                   2010 benchmark: 10%

Pre 2008 benchmark Annual Sales per Salesman Ground Maintenance $500,000                               2010 benchmark:             $1,000,000

Pre 2008 benchmark Annual Sales per Salesman Design Build $1,000,000                                        2010 benchmark:             $2,000,000

Pre 2008 benchmark Annual Sales per Salesman Bid Build $2,000,000                                             2010 benchmark:             $4,000,000

Pre 2008 benchmark Annual Sales per Account Manager Ground Maintenance $1,000,000              2010 benchmark: $2,000,000

All these gains in performance were driven by a simple necessity – the same impetuses that drive everything in our wonderful capitalist system:  (1) providing a quality product to the customer at a more attractive price, and (2) getting more productivity out of our primary assets – people.

Price:

Providing the customer with a more attractive price requires innovation in several areas:  estimating, job hour management, and sales.  The facts are:

• Our prices were too high.  Revising estimating factors including production rates, markups and margins is essential and will reduce gross margins.  But this is precisely the gateway to gaining sales and market share. 

• There was too much waste in production.  Implementing GPS and integrated work order scheduling software is becoming essential.  It reduces wasted hours offsetting some of the gross margin loss in estimating.  Of course, it is not free requiring an investment in information systems.

• Sales were generated primarily by referral.  Customers came to you.  Adapting big company sales and marketing strategies can increase sales volume further offsetting the effects of declining gross margins if/when volume grows faster than overhead cost.  Again this is not free, but neither does it require the type of fixed cost investment that information systems require.

Market innovation requires focus and simplicity.  In today’s market being everything to everyone ignores these two cardinal principles.  Take the case of a mid-west grounds maintenance company that executed these price related strategies. 

Their first step was to redesign their estimating system to drive pricing down in their core services:  mowing, enhancements and snow.  The net effect was to consciously choose to bid work at lower gross margins to increase sales close rates.  From 2008 to 2010 while gross margin fell by 5 percentage points sales close rates increased from 15% to 22% helping volume offset gross profit dollar shrinkage. 

Step two was the installation of an integrated work order/schedule management software system.  The net affect was to reduce labor hours per job and indirect labor hours in total.  From 2008 to 2010 sales per production hour increased by 5% while indirect hours fell by more than 30%.  While this did not offset the price reductions entirely, it certainly buffered them.

The final innovation was hiring a sales professional and reorganizing internal staff dedicating an operations person to measurement and estimating thus freeing up the sales person to – sell.  Combining this investment with investments in a CRM pipeline software and a marketing story promoted via email blasts and web blogs increased bid and close volumes in excess of 2010 goals.

In less than two years, this company grew from $2.1MM in revenues to $3.4MM.  The big win was net profit, which increased from 5.1% to 10.7%.  Management understood that the old way was a recipe for failure.

People:

Getting more productivity out of your people requires innovation in several areas:  job tools, compensation and staff composition.  The facts are:

Most managers and supervisors act out of habit and narrow assumptions of cause and effect relying on the “same old solutions” to now very different problems.  It therefore becomes essential to produce daily reports using numbers instead of “feel” to make decisions.  The result is immediate cost savings instead of deferred problems.

The industry pays too little and “expects” too much from people in key positions.  I am not suggesting your expectations are wrong for performance, I am saying however that we too often hire a 100 horsepower engine when we need a 200 horsepower engine to pull the load.  The only way to change this is to pay more per person and have fewer people in total.  While this costs money in the short run, it reduces costs in the long run.

Finally, most people are most effective in a single sphere of their jobs.  There are four spheres of job capability: management, sales, operations, and administration.  Asking one lower paid person to perform more than one of these roles highly effectively is usually a recipe for low productivity.  Specialization coupled with higher compensation schemes pay off.

Like market price, asset productivity, too, requires focus and simplicity.  In today’s organizations everyone doing everything ignores these two cardinal principles.  Take the case of a southwest grounds maintenance company that executed these people related strategies. 

Their first step was to design several simple reports for each key manager/supervisor to use everyday.  For example a field supervisor can look at a report to help him quickly determine labor needs by route, by crew and by job two weeks in advance at the same time highlighting jobs where hours exceed budget and formulating a recovery plan.  As a result from 2008 to 2010 while pricing fell by 10%, gross margins declined by less than 2% on base contract revenues.

Step two was to change the compensation plans for sales and account management people.  By developing a senior and junior account management job they were able to recruit experienced talent from competitors with a combination of higher base and commissions based on the expectation of managing a book of business 40% larger than a less expensive junior level account manager.  As a result, overhead costs in relation to revenue has declined, turnover is near zero percent, and junior people get hands-on job training learning from the senior staff.

The final innovation was to align job descriptions with talent and focus each job on simple primary objective like new sales, up-sells, retention, hours or safety.  The results are that people have more time to invest in their primary functions improving personal results.  The biggest payoff was in customer retention rates, which in comparative dollars increased from 85% to 92%.

Since 2007, this company grew from $7.5MM in revenues to $8.9MM with net profit increasing from 3.1% to 8.7%.  While these changes were not greeted with overwhelming happiness at first, people can barely remember the days when it was anything other than it is now.  That may be the most wonderful aspect people; their uncanny ability to adapt, especially when they see their lives and pocketbooks improve.

Would these companies have innovated as they did without the economy going south?  Yes, probably in the long run, but certainly not at the accelerated pace they did.  The real lesson is that innovation is not the child of brilliant ideas, but the province of hard work and clear thinking born out of adversity.

You may have a strategic plan, but this doesn’t mean you have a strategy. A strategy does one thing – it increases enterprise value. Enterprise value is the financial worth of your business, and is calculated by multiplying EBITDA by an EBITDA multiple. Your strategy must address this simple mathematical reality. The only way to achieve this goal is execute a competitive advantage in three key areas – customer, organization, and systems strategies. And if you haven’t recognized it yet, the business platform upon which you are standing is burning. What worked in the past WILL NOT work in the future. You need a new strategy. That’s where our ROADMAP comes in.

HERE’S HOW WE DO IT…

Step 1: Determine your current enterprise value

Step 2: Compare your business performance to critical high performance customer and revenue benchmarks : average job size, retention, bid/sale volume, sales price/avg. wage rate

Step 3: Compare your business performance to critical high performance people and organization benchmarks : staffing/sales volume, sales/sales staff, performance pay dollars/base pay dollars

Step 4: Compare your business performance to critical high performance operation and financial benchmarks : budget hours/actual hours, shop cost/revenue, GP margins, NET margins

Step 5: Project future winning valuation for your business

HERE’S WHAT YOU GET…

· Current Business valuation

· Three year financial and operation plan to get to your number

· Detailed comparative benchmark analysis with key recommendation

· Strategic business plan with step by step execution plan and timelines

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS…

1. Sign up for our RoadMap program

2. Provide us with information per our Roadmap Prep List

3. Conduct conference call on your valuation and benchmark results

4. Meet with 3PG Team (Frank, Jeff, Kevin) for 1.5 day work out

5. Receive final strategic project plan

WE HELP YOU GET REAL AND MAKE THE TOUGH DECISIONS TO ADDRESS THE BURNING PLATFORM AND THE GAP BETWEEN CURRENT AND FUTURE-ENTERPRISE VALUATIONS

Whether it is sales growth, profit improvement, acquisition and/or finding the right buyer for your business, Three Point Group has the answers to your burning questions! With over 100 years in industry experience working with over 300 of the country’s top companies, we are experts in helping you get off the burning platform and make the right strategic moves to increase your enterprise business value.

$15K all included for the valuation (basic), projection, benchmark report, strategic plan and 1.5 days onsite with expenses included

Certainly not what we wanted to hear, but there is activity and where there is activity there is opportunity. This puts the ball squarely in our court – we are in control – our ability to plan and to execute will prove to be the linchpin of our success.

If we haven’t already, now is an opportune time to put our planning hats on - mid

summer when from a strategic standpoint you will be addressing two important issues on our plates:

            1. Updating and revising the plans for the current year

            2. Creating the strategic initiatives for the coming year

First to the issue of revising this year’s operating plans. We have a rolling budget which looks at the twelve months of this year by month.  We are at mid-year, so we should have 6 months actual performance plus the remaining 6 months projection, updated for how we see the year completing. Take a hard look at the second six months – make sure that the results we expect are reasonably achievable and not only possible in heaven. This updated picture is probably the best ‘early return’ of the year end results we can generate.

Reason why? If we are maintenance, we know what is renewed, what is sold, what is likely in the pipeline for starts in the next 4 to 5 months – we also know the enhancement activity which is likely to finish the year. If we are installation, we have our backlog and our pipeline for what is likely to be signed for job starts in the near term. Follow the same process for revising our direct cost and overhead expectations. If our information is solid, we can anticipate our year end results to within a surprising degree of accuracy. Now how good is that?

If we do not like where we are slated to end up, change course! We have 5 to 6 months to make a difference. If we like where we are headed, make sure everyone on the management team is plugged in and make it happen. Oh, and now is also a terrific time to take the first look at year end tax planning.

Our second responsibility is to take our first pass at the game plan for next year. Now this is not so much a detailed numeric preparation, but rather a strategic session where with our management team we will want to address more weighty issues such as targeted growth (sales goals),  pricing adjustments, organizational changes, capital wish lists, policies governing payroll – wage and benefit adjustments, cash flow and banking and major calls on capital such as debt reduction, expansion of or to new facilities or perhaps even an acquisition.

Get your heads around the 50,000 foot view of next year.  Key to that is establishing the pricing structure for 2011 for its selling season is about to start if not already. Sometime around the September / October time frame, we will want to document those strategic plans we made with a more detailed picture in numbers.

The message here is plan, plan, plan. Look at every eventuality and get prepared for the 50 year flood. Be a Boy Scout (Be Prepared) and make sure there are no surprises.

Developing a sales machine is the most important investment a landscape contractor can make in his business.  Given pricing conditions and the negative impact this is exacting on gross profit margins, generating increased revenue volume is necessary to achieve net profit dollar goals.  At the heart of this revenue generation effort is the salesman.  They have never been more important and the management of the sales force never more critical.

Since the sales game is a tough one and lack of success can cause even the best to get in a slump, keeping your sales staff motivated is essential.  The primary motivators are (1) a need for achievement, (2) a desire to get better, and (3) the opportunity to make money.  To produce these motivators a sales manager should employ the classic carrot and stick approach.

Carrot
Goals and commission programs provide the carrot.  Goals should be set weekly for number of sales calls, monthly for the dollar value of bids required, and quarterly for every quarter for closed revenue volume.  Software such as Excel spreadsheets, SalesForce, Method, ACT and others can be deployed to manage this process.  In my experience most managers set goals too low.  Low goals provide little pressure, and most sales people are motivated by pressure.

Commission plans are essential.  A successful salesman should be the second or third highest paid employee in the company.  I prefer a first year 60/40 base/commission structure graduating it by the third year to a 40/60 with unlimited upside for the salesman.  In addition I like contests where there are non-cash rewards.  One company, short on revenue through August, challenged the salesman to get the company back on budget.  He did and the company rewarded him with a big screen TV - as promised. It was a one-time event.  Salesmen are motivated when there is something at risk.  When pay is guaranteed, I don’t think they run as hard.

Stick
Dashboards and coaching provide the stick.  Most contractors do a good job managing production.  Yet they don’t apply this same principle to the sales. Salesmen perform better when they are focused on high return activities. The dashboard is the pipeline report and it is a necessary stick because too many sales people (1) spend too much time selling to people they know and too little to those they don’t, and (2) working on prospects that ultimately have little chance of closing.  For example, I reviewed one salesman’s pipeline recently.  He had 243 prospects and appeared that he had enough leads to make his number.  Upon closer review it became clear that only 10 - 12 of these would likely close.  He needed to spend more time developing new leads to get back on track.

Salesmen need feedback.  Every good salesman has had the experience of wishing they had been quicker or smarter at some point during a call.  Making joint calls and engaging in post call “curbside chats” applies the stick gently and motivates them to become better.  In working with salesmen I have discovered some typical bad habits that can be easily addressed by this method.  These include (1) talking too much, (2) not asking the right questions, (3) arguing with the customer, and (4) failing to ask for the business and get a signature.

No salesman is immune to these behaviors.  Some years ago in an important sales presentation, a customer actually said to me more than once, “Kevin, ask me if I want to sign this contract.”  Apparently I did not hear this and proceeded to provide him with proof and testimonial to my wonderfulness until he finally became adamant.  He said. “Ask me!” At this point I said, “Would you want to sign this contract?”  He said, “Yes. Now let’s talk schedule.  When can you start?”  I was so busy talking and avoiding the potential rejection that comes with “NO” that I never asked the closing question.  It is a lesson I have never forgotten.  Salesmen require the coaching stick.

The best salesmen, in my experience, are hard wired for the job.  This is not say that someone cannot be taught to sell, but all the training in the world does not replace a natural predisposition to the task.  Salesmen at their best are capitalist athletes.  They like to win.  At their worst, when they are not winning, they are high maintenance time wasters.

Estimate accuracy: For newer customers, we can compare our job time to our original estimate so we know how close we came to modeling the correct number of hours. If we consistently over-estimate our hours, it helps explain why we consistently lose bids. If we are under-estimating we may be winning jobs but potentially losing money, effectively pricing ourselves out of business.

Operational efficiency: If we track our job time at the site, we can compare this to our budgeted hours to see how efficiently we are performing the actual job tasks. To make this work, our budgeted and actual hours must consist of only the job-site time (no travel time). Operational efficiency has a direct and substantial effect on the labor margin for our business, which is typically our highest cost. We usually see a direct correlation between the operational efficiency we record from the labor tracking and the Gross Profit we realize.

Route/Crew efficiency: We can compare the job site time to our overall paid hours for a given crew to see how efficiently we are working when include travel time, paid down time, etc. Route density has a substantial impact on this metric. The tighter our routes, the less time we are wasting from site to site. This leads to lower direct labor costs and lower estimates for clients who can easily be plugged in to the route.

If you are not tracking labor right now, you will not know the element(s) of labor on which you need to focus for improvement. The result is reduced cash flow and lower company valuations. This is a metric which can be tied to incentive programs to drive your supervisors and managers, creating a company that exceeds industry benchmarks and creates the most profit and value.

The Labor Tracking Tool…just one of the many services Three Point Group offers. Want to find out more? Contact us today! 678-366-0333

For more information:

Unilock®, a family-owned and operated business, originally introduced the paving stone to North America back in 1972. Backed by family values and a commitment to quality and innovation, Unilock® has grown to become the premier manufacturer of paving stones and retaining walls. Traveling the globe in search of new inspirations, Unilock® strives to stay in touch with the illuminating world of fashion, design and manufacturing techniques, all to ensure its mix of products continually reflects the evolving wants, desires and sense of style of its customers.  Visit www.unilock.com

Some background regarding the industry outlook is in order before talking about the winning strategies.  Unemployment will remain high and housing prices depressed curtailing consumer spending.  The commercial real estate bubble will burst reducing construction and maintenance spending.  Unemployment will continue to create new contracting firms increasing the supply while demand stays flat or falls reducing prices further.  As a result, many firms will fail or be acquired this year and next, at the same time companies embracing the new rules will lead the way in improving revenue and profits.  This is not just my view of the world.  IBIS World a third party firm that provides SIC Code forecasts for bankers and investors clearly states this is EXACTLY the outlook they are forecasting for the contracting industry through 2014!

If it is necessary to clarify the situation further, the table below shows the effect of the economy on the sales and profits from 2007 to 2009.

as the Tables shows, revenue growth in every segment is a far cry from the heady days of 2007.  Gross Margin Percentages (GPM%) are falling in all segments.  GPM% is calculated by subtracting from revenues direct job costs for labor, material and subcontractors.  Another ratio shows the impact of falling revenues and stubborn overhead costs - the Revenue / Overhead ratio.  It is calculated by dividing sales dollars by ALL OTHER COSTS:  these include salaries for sales, operations, shop and office, occupancy/utility expenses, insurance expenses, and all equipment costs including depreciation.

It is clear that the effects of the economy are significant and likely to be lasting at least in terms of pricing and GPM% performance.  But the impact on the Revenue/Overhead ratio is reversible.  In simplest terms, if gross profit margins are falling, overhead becomes a bigger nut to cover on a percentage basis.  The only way to make Net Profit then is to expand revenues faster than overhead.  The winning strategies - currently being employed with the solid results by several companies - are:

Build sales staff and systems to increase revenues

Acquire competitors to grow revenue and talent

Re-organize people and systems to get more done with fewer staff

STRATEGY 1: Build sales staff and systems to increase revenues

Adjust your pricing and do it now.  Even your 2008 pricing models are way off from the lowest prices in the market now.  While it is not necessary or desirable to be lowest in the market, you must be within 7% of the lowest to win a sufficient amount of work.  This may require price adjustments for some of as much of 20%.

Divide and conquer to bid more work.  The old model where salesmen prospect, measure, design, estimate, write proposals, make appointments, make calls, do presentations and follow-up and close is history.  In the new model these tasks are three separate jobs - prospecting, bidding, selling.  Since most companies already have capacity to use administration and production staff to measure and bid work, the only new hire is a part time prospector freeing the salesman to focus on - selling!  The payoff for this investment is substantially increased sales volume.

Keep your prospects close and your customers closer using email and the web.  Invest in a database system to manage your prospect pipeline.  Managing the salesmen this way accelerates the sales cycle - lead to decision - and minimizes inefficient activity.  In addition this database provides you with a marketing platform to maintain regular contact with your current customers and prospects.  Excel databases and software like ACT provide this platform.  The cleanest contact method is “newsletts” (brief electronic newsletters) that replay - in different forms - the same simple message near and dear to all your customers - how you save them money.  The Table below makes clear what the customer values these days - Price.  I know it wasn’t that way in 2007.  But this is 2010.  The rules are different.

What the customer values

The Table shows the responses to the question. “What is most important to you in your purchase decision?”

STRATEGY 2: Acquire competitors to grow revenue and talent

Any $3 million dollar company with a solid bankable balance sheet should be considering buying smaller competitors.  The ideal candidate is 25 - 30% of your revenues, has an owner good at sales and not so good at business, and is NOT in serious financial trouble (i.e.; having lots of debt and on COD with every vendor in town).

According to industry statistics there are 75,000 landscape contracting companies - of which 85% are smaller than $1 million in annual revenues.  This provides you with a target rich environment.  The candidate you want is capital depleted since the banks are not loaning money to most contracting firms, and management poor where the owner is unable or unwilling to make major investments in staffing to grow.

Without going too deeply into the anatomy and psychology of the purchase you want to pay the right price, and more importantly, buy the right person to keep them in a sales position.  You reduce the risk of paying too much by using less cash at closing and instead structuring the deal using earn outs, stock appreciation rights, salary and non-competes to maintain the seller’s lifestyle.  You reduce the risk of buying the wrong person by selling them on the vision of a future payout versus present payout (and they undertand it!), and by simple things like going to dinner with the spouses to learn about them as people, confirming that the proper values and chemistry are present.

STRATEGY 3: Organize people and systems to get more done with fewer staff

There’s no way around it.  The organization structure of the future will require sales, service, and production overhead staff to produce bigger numbers.  The Table below provides some simple comparables for these positions in the grounds maintenance segment.  These are not theoretical numbers.  High profit companies are doing this right now!

The only way to achieve these kinds of results is to (1) improve your management reporting through computer systems and stop relying on cell phones and paper, (2) specialize each job such that account managers deal with customers but not crews, salesmen sell but not estimate, field supervisors manage foremen but not customers, and finally (3) put the right person in the job, raise the bar and the reward, and make a better hire if they cannot adapt to the new way.  This may sound unforgiving and harsh, but as one client told me, “My father once told me that your employees are your best friends right up to the day you declare bankruptcy.”

These are strategies being employed by the winners.  They are designed to address falling prices and declining revenues and profits.  These are not the old strategies that worked so well for so long.  These are the strategies for the new reality.  As much as we hanker for them, we are NOT returning to the good old days this year or next.  We must all learn the new rules - no matter how scary they may seem.  The alternative is to resist like the old poker pros and get consistently beat by the young guns.  This concludes the memo.

Three Point Group, Inc advised Owens on the buy-out assisting with its, valuation, funding and deal structure. Jeff Harkness, managing partner stated, “This was a team effort in getting this deal structured and closed. We worked closely with the other shareholder’s advisors and ultimately I think the collaborative effort got the deal closed.  This is a win-win for everyone and I know Robert is excited. The buy-out creates great momentum for the company’s growth strategy and we are looking forward to continuing our consulting relationship.”

Robert Owens added, “I’m excited about moving on and growing this company to new heights. We have a great team, customer base and business model. I feel like we can expand the brand and with a continuing focus on people and processes we can provide our clients with the best service at the right price. The Three Point Group team was a major key in getting this done and I’m looking forward to their counsel as we grow a smarter more profitable company.”

For more information:

Three Point Group, Inc.

Jeff Harkness, of Three Point Group, Inc. advised on this transaction.  Three Point Group works with green industry business owners to create, execute, and monitor plans that help businesses and their owners grow smarter, maximize business value, and create wealth by executing an exit strategy. For more information visit: www.3pgconsulting.com : Jeff Harkness, jeff@3PGConsulting.com or (678) 366-0333

Landscape Management Services, Inc

Landscape Management Services is a full-service Landscape contractor specializing in landscape maintenance services for the Atlanta metro area.  For more information on LMS contact:  Robert Owens at (678) 410-2290

February 26th, 2010 - Shareholders Adam and Todd Thomas formally announced that they have sold CRI Irrigation Services to long time manager Russell Hulsey.

Three Point Group, Inc advised on the buy-out assisting with its valuation, funding and deal structure. Todd Thomas, managing partner stated, “A change in our business model made this deal a no brainer. It is a great opportunity for Russell, but more importantly allows Adam and I to streamline and focus on our business plan. We have worked closely with Russell for a long time and will continue that relationship moving forward. We appreciate Three Point Group helping us get this closed!”

“The decision to shift the direction of the business model to include landscape maintenance services will allow us to better serve our fantastic customer base stated partner Adam Thomas. We are very pleased that this deal got done. It’s a win-win for both parties.”

Russell Hulsey added, “I’m excited about taking this company and the CRI brand to the next level. It’s nice to call this company my own and I believe the timing is right in the market for CRI to diversify its client base. With the drought behind us I feel we are well positioned to provide superior installation and repair services to the metro area. Our dedication to smart systems and water conservation not only helps the environment, but it allows our clients to save money through better water management programs! We feel CRI is and will continue to outpace the competition.”

For more information:

Three Point Group, Inc.

Jeff Harkness, of Three Point Group, Inc. advised on this transaction.  Three Point Group works with green industry business owners to create, execute, and monitor plans that help businesses and their owners grow smarter, maximize business value, and create wealth by executing an exit strategy. For more information visit: www.3pgconsulting.com : Jeff Harkness, jeff@3PGConsulting.com or (678) 366-0333

CRI Irrigation

CRI irrigation is a full-service irrigation contractor specializing in complete water management systems for both commercial and residential properties.  For more information on CRI Irrigation contact:  Russell Hulsey, Rhulsey@cri-irr.com.com or (678)725-1629