Customized Landscape Care, 25-Year St. Louis Organic Gardening Company

$1.2M

Revenue

$588K

SDE

1.0x

Multiple

Subscribe Free

Read the full deal writeup

Get Free Access

Already a member? Sign in

Full Editorial Writeup

Customized Landscape Care is a 25-year-old organic gardening and landscape maintenance company operating out of a leased 5,700 square foot facility in St. Louis County, Missouri. The company delivers dependable, tailored landscape care using organic methods, serving clients who want healthy, sustainable gardens maintained year over year. With a long-standing reputation and a team of 20 (3 full-time, 15 part-time, and 2 contractors), it runs on a recurring maintenance model where the same customers return season after season.

The financials are the headline here: on $1.2M of revenue the business throws off $587,620 in seller cash flow, a roughly 49 percent margin that is exceptional for a landscape services operation and suggests either a lean cost structure, high owner add-backs, or premium organic pricing. At a $600,000 asking price the deal is listed at just over 1x cash flow, an unusually low multiple that demands scrutiny but, if the earnings hold, offers a very short payback period.

The seller is retiring and traveling, offering a short 2-week handover. The business includes $10,000 in inventory and $290,000 in FF&E, and operates a compressed 4-day weather-dependent schedule (Monday through Thursday with Friday makeups), which points to seasonal recurring maintenance routes as the revenue engine.

Why we like it

Earnings quality looks strong on paper: $587,620 of cash flow on $1.2M revenue is a ~49 percent margin, far above typical landscape maintenance comps that run 10-20 percent. That kind of margin either reflects a genuinely premium organic niche with pricing power or heavy owner add-backs, and confirming which one is the entire deal.
Durability is real: 25 years in business with an excellent local reputation and organic positioning creates switching costs and referral flywheels that newer competitors cannot replicate overnight. Recurring seasonal maintenance routes mean the same customers come back by default rather than being re-won each spring.
The service is recession-resistant. Property owners who value maintained, healthy landscapes keep paying for upkeep through downturns, and the organic angle attracts a stickier, less price-sensitive customer base than commodity mow-and-blow operators.
The price is the story. At just over 1x cash flow, this is priced like a business with a problem, so a buyer who diligences the earnings and finds them durable is buying a sub-13-month payback. Even meaningful haircuts to the stated cash flow still leave an attractive multiple.

How to improve it

Immediately verify and document the recurring maintenance base: pull the client list, contract or auto-renewal terms, and annual retention rates so routes can be systematized and defended. Locking customers into seasonal contracts rather than ad-hoc requests smooths revenue and increases resale value.
Institute price increases across the book. A 25-year organic brand with a loyal base almost certainly has under-priced legacy customers, and a 5-10 percent annual escalator on maintenance contracts flows almost entirely to the bottom line.
Reduce owner dependency in the first 90 days by promoting or hiring a lead operations manager to run crews and scheduling. The seller is active daily, so building a management layer both de-risks the transition and makes the business saleable later.
Add adjacent high-margin services to existing customers: seasonal cleanups, mulching, irrigation, tree and shrub care, and organic soil programs. Selling more to a trusted base is cheaper than acquiring new clients and raises revenue per account.
Modernize demand generation with a simple website, Google Business Profile optimization, and a referral incentive. A 25-year reputation likely means most work comes by word of mouth, and even light digital marketing can fill the crew calendar and reduce weather-dependent gaps.
Extend the weather-dependent 4-day schedule into higher utilization by layering winter or shoulder-season services where the St. Louis climate allows, such as leaf removal, snow-adjacent property work, or dormant pruning. Idle capacity is lost margin.
Tighten labor and route efficiency using scheduling and routing software to cut drive time and overtime across the 20-person team. Small gains in crew productivity compound directly into the already-strong margin.

Diligence notes

The 49 percent cash flow margin is extraordinary for landscape maintenance and is the single most important item to verify. Reconcile the $587,620 cash flow to tax returns and bank statements, separate real owner add-backs from operating expenses, and understand exactly why margin sits so far above industry norms.
Understand why a profitable 25-year business is priced at just over 1x cash flow. Confirm the retirement reason is genuine and probe for hidden issues: customer concentration, a key employee who actually runs the business, undisclosed owner labor being counted as profit, or margin that will normalize downward once the owner leaves.
Assess the lease and location risk. The lease ends 09/2027 with one 3-year option and only $2,098 monthly rent, so confirm the option is exercisable and whether the current rent is at or below market, since a large renewal increase would erode margin.
Evaluate the labor model closely: 3 full-time, 15 part-time, and 2 contractors on a weather-dependent 4-day week suggests seasonality and turnover risk. Verify crew retention, wage rates, contractor classification compliance, and whether key horticultural knowledge walks out with the owner.
Validate the recurring nature of revenue. Determine what share of the $1.2M comes from repeat maintenance contracts versus one-time project work, and quantify true customer retention, because the multiple and durability thesis both depend on the recurring base being real.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →