scotts lawn care

[heather]

I have just seen a new scotts lawn care truck in my area.Has anybody heard anything about scotts. I have yet to see them do any work though. Not sure if they are cutting or just doing fert. Just wondering if they are another Tru green. You know-come in and play lawn grab! :angel:

[Runner]

They seem to be doing alright, and gaining alot of business in this area, but yes, they are another Trugreen. They socked the N down super early this tear, so all their customers had the first green lawns on the block. (This kind of fools evrybody into thinking they must be better - the general custome public is ignorant when it comes to this stuff) However, yes, they are another Trugreen. Straight N, cheapo fertilizer. Oh, and do they spread Scott's "quality brand" fertilizer? Absolutely NOT They use Lesco! Now, this is NOT saying Lesco is s cheap fertilizer, by no means, because in all actuality, it is very high quality, but what I meant by cheapo, was the straight N, and nothing else.

[Big G]

I think they also do aeration and seeding. They do not cut or dethatch.

Big G

[Kent Lawns]

Scotts Lawn Care uses Scotts products.

[Runner]

Gee, that's odd. I've seen quite a few trucks around here on several different occasions, and they NEVER had Scott's products in their trucks. Always loaded down with Lesco 46-0-0. Besides that, Scott's doesn't manufacture their round two products such as the liquid Pre and post M. I know they use "Scott's" brand spreaders to spread the stuff, though. Maybe it's a regional thing.;)

[Kent Lawns]

Weird.

Their literature all says they use Scotts.
They are a fertilizer manufacturer, I wonder why they would use their competitors product?

46-0-0? just the bottom on the barrel.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

I am with Runner on this one.

I have looked in thier vans to see lesco bags with Scotts lables over the Lesco lable or just plain old Lesco bags.
It says Scotts on the sticker lable but Lesco on the flip side of the bags, hummmm makes you wonder.

What else is funny is they don't sell a 50# bag of anything.

Scotts prides themselve on the small partical ferts so Kent why do they use large partical ferts?

Scotts is now TGCL junior. Same marketing plan, same applications, same no brain applicators.


To make it even worse the vans here in St Lewy use Lesco spreaders hahahaha.

Even better I have seen the lesco truck at thier shop unloading pallets of fert.

[Soupy]

LAWNGODFATHER, I have seen them over on the East side. My Brother-n-Law works for Chem-Lawn and was complaining how they are steeling his customers. So they must be takeing a chunk out of Chem-Lawns Profit.

Soupy

[Runner]

Think about it - they have SUCH an advantage in the marketing realm. Their name says so much. When you hear the name Scott's, it kind of brings to mind a certain "familiarity" stigma that we, as Americans can all relate to. It's kind of like that "Good ole' Breyers ice cream, or "Coca-Cola". With Scott's, it makes us want to think of nice green drop spreaders with those familiar orange wheels that we were all used to seeing and knowing as kids, Then, we think of the nice lush family lawn that is pictured on the label under their well known typesetting for their name. They convey a message of "homeliness", (not like as in a homely person,) but as home and family life. This is a WORLD of advantage, just in itself. We have a private LCO around here, that HIS name is Scott's Lawn Care. I hope they don't go after him and try to make him change his name. I remember Orkin took this approach some years ago, but I don't think it went over quite as well, because I think more "lawn loving" families probably related them to "pesticides" and "bug killers" more than anything else. I don't know if they even do fert.s anymore. They don't anywhere around here, anyway.

[Scotlawncare]

sounds like i need to change my business name. I didn't think they were going buy Scott's lawn care. If so then i prob should have registered my company name a few years ago.

What do you guys think? My company name is Scot lawn care. spelled with one T.

Scot

[Dennis E.]

The "big dogs" can fall down just as easily as the little guys. Big does not necessarily mean good work.
It'll happen. Just wait and see.

[odin]

Scotts is around here in my area of chicago an they look like a chemlawn clone to me.
Trugreen chemlawn has bought up all the regional fert companies around here .
It will interesting to see how they deal with scotts

[heather]

Tru Green is slowly taking buisness in our area and was just curious about Scotts. thanks for the replys. Tru Green already crosses state lines(over an hours drive)to service a handfull of accounts in our town. Don't know how they can turn a profit. Most all fert. accounts go to lawn doc around here. We even get there flyers at our shop. Thats cool because I can keep up with their pricing.

[Harvestman]

I was told trhat Scott's uses anderson ferts in our area.

[Tony Harrell]

I'm pretty sure Scotts is a franchise thing. Don't worry about it, independent operators will always survive and prosper despite franchises of any kind because they can control quality better and usually have better rapport with their customers.

[Brickman]

I am with Tony on independant guys always being around.

I use Chemlawn for weed control. They do a half azzed job of it, most of the time it is ok. I have way too much to do to already with out trying to be a spray applicator. We have Chemlawn and Nitro Green which uses an even WORSE useless brand of chemicals than Chemlawn does. And one locally owned spray outfit named Mile HI. I have never used him, as he is always tons higher than Chemlawn and will not budge on prices. I have Chemlawn spray a ton of stuff for me over the year.

I think I have seen Scotts in Denver. I know I have back east when traveling.

[dougaustreim]

I'm not sure specifically about Andersons, but Scotts has bought up quite a few other companies over the last few years. It is very possible that they own Andersons.

I know that some of their retailers are not very happy. My cousin owns the local True Value store and sells a ton of Scotts products. He is not very happy with his customers getting pitched by mail and phone for Scotts Lawn Service Its as if Scotts is competing directyl with their own dealers. He doesn;t object to my service because it is different enough that it doesn't appear that we are using the same products. In fact he has us do his lawn.

If they stay as franchise, they probably will be reasonably on the up and up. When TGCL went from franchises to corporate branches is when most of the problems with them began.

Doug

[Lech615]

I sen t away for the franchise material to see what they were al about. They claim that they only use scotts products. They do all the marketing, and send you for training. The start up costs range from 25,000 to 35000 just for the name. Then you have supplies and marketing. I figured it would cost about $85-100,000 to start up and then you pay royalities and $10,000 yearly marketing expenses. I guess it would be good if you wanted a quick start and did nothave the drive to work at building your own name. Unfortunately, I think they will do very well. Scotts is a name that everyone knows and trusts. Before people went to other applicators because they did not want to do it themselves. Now they can get Scotts without having to do it themself. I wonder how well a person would do with all that franchise overhead.

Carl

[tremor]

I wouldn't know where the lines are drawn, but The Anderson's does own & manufacture the entire line of Scotts Professional line of labels. On those occasions you see the old brown Scotts Pro bags, they are made by The Andersons. I see them here in CT. They're fairly agressive when it comes to buying up accounts too.

Steve

[hustlers]

my neighbor and former friend got
a scotts franchise last year.
stole some jobs, but i got them back\\
Terrible service, good salesman,

The lawns were growing twice the normal
speed and we had to triple cut.

The bills said all SCOTTS products applied
my buddy worked for them and said he
cant afford to use scotts expensive
products

Stay away from them-they telemarket
and always sending stuff in the mail./