TruGreen, originally known as ChemLawn and later as TruGreen ChemLawn, is the largest
lawn care
A lawn () is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawn mower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purpose ...
company in the United States. The company was founded in 1969 and provides lawn care and tree and shrub care treatments on a
subscription
The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...
basis (except in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
where it is by
contract
A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...
basis). The treatments and services include
weed killing,
moss suppression,
pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all p ...
s, insect control, disease management,
aeration
Aeration (also called aerification or aeriation) is the process by which air is circulated through, mixed with or dissolved in a liquid or other substances that act as a fluid (such as soil). Aeration processes create additional surface area in t ...
,
overseeding, and
fertilizing. The company neither offers
lawn mowing service or
landscaping
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following:
# Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal ...
as a sellable service. Tree and shrub services as well as several insect control programs are offered by TruGreen.
The TruGreen brand is also used for lawn services in Canada through a
Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...
–based company named Greenlawn Ltd. that does business as TruGreen. The TruGreen brand, under
Servicemaster, also is used in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
The company's history includes several changes of ownership and the absorption of other lawn servicing operations including ChemGreen (originally founded in 1974) and
Scotts LawnService (originally founded as Emerald Green Lawn Service before its purchase in 1997 by the
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Marysville, Ohio, where O.M. Scott began selling lawn seed in 1868. The company manufactures and sells consumer lawn, garden and pest control products, as ...
).
History
ChemLawn was founded in 1969 by Paul and Dick Duke in
Troy, Ohio
Troy is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Ohio, United States. The population was 26,305 at the 2020 census, making it Miami County's largest city and Ohio's 55th-largest. Troy lies along the Great Miami River about north of Da ...
, and it became a large service provider in the 1970s.
The Dukes had previously been
sod
Sod is the upper layer of turf that is harvested for transplanting. Turf consists of a variable thickness of a soil medium that supports a community of turfgrasses.
In British and Australian English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', ...
farmers and had owned a gardening center.
[
A separate company called ChemGreen, considered to be the precursor to TruGreen, had been founded in 1973 in Michigan.][ ServiceMaster also bought ChemGreen in 1992, and rebranded the combination as "TruGreen ChemLawn" and then just as "TruGreen" in 2007, trying to distance the brand from negative perceptions about the intensive use of chemicals and convey a greater sense of environmental responsibility.
The Dukes sold ChemLawn to ]Ecolab
Ecolab Inc. is an American corporation headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It develops and offers services, technology and systems that specialize in treatment, purification, cleaning and hygiene of water in a wide variety of applications. F ...
in 1987 for US$376 million, but Ecolab found it was unable to make the operation profitable, and it sold the business to ServiceMaster in 1992 for US$103 million.[ As part of ServiceMaster, the operational headquarters were moved soon after the acquisition to Memphis, ]Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, where ServiceMaster was headquartered at the time and where TruGreen remains headquartered today.Orkin
Orkin is an American pest control company that was founded in 1901 by Otto Orkin. Since 1964, the company has been owned by Rollins Inc. Orkin has held research collaborations with universities around the country and with organizations like t ...
lawn care brand to TruGreen. TruGreen was then spun off as a separate company from ServiceMaster in January 2014. The private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC (CD&R) is an American private equity company. CD&R is the 24th oldest private equity firm in the world. CD&R has managed the investment of more than $30 billion in approximately 90 businesses, representing a bro ...
had majority ownership along with company management.[
Another lawn servicing company, Emerald Green Lawn Service, had been purchased in 1997 by the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and rebranded in 1998 as Scotts LawnService. In April 2016, Scotts LawnService was merged with TruGreen to operate as a joint venture, with Scotts Miracle-Gro Company retaining partial ownership. The Scotts branded operation continued to operate within TruGreen as a subsidiary for some period of time.
In 2019, Scotts Miracle-Gro sold its 30% minority stake in TruGreen for approximately $234 million.]C-suite
Corporate titles or business titles are given to corporate officers to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used by publicly and privately held for-profit corporations, cooperatives, non-profit org ...
to Franklin, Tennessee
Franklin is a city in and the county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About south of Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020 Uni ...
, near Nashville
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
although the headquarters remain in Memphis.[https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2024/07/16/trugreen-moves-exec-team-to-nashville.html]
References
External links
*
*{{official , https://www.trugreen.ca/ , Official TruGreen Canada website
Agriculture companies established in 1969
Companies based in Memphis, Tennessee