You want your hairstylist to have great hair, your personal trainer to be ripped, and your dentist to flash an impressive smile.
And when you show up to your landscaping supply company to buy fertilizer, well, Sean Wimble sums it up pretty well.
“We’re in the landscape irrigation business. If our facilities don’t look good, how are our customers going to trust that the products we sell will make their properties look good?” says Wimble, divisional Vice President of Texas and Louisiana for Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply.
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When the irrigation and landscaping experts chose a company to do the landscape maintenance at their six Central Texas locations, they hired North by Northwest.
Here’s a look at how the Austin landscaping company takes care of one of its own.
A “Crown Jewel” Location
Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply is the largest family-owned supplier of landscape and irrigation products in the country, with more than 200 locations.
The company supplies professional landscaping contractors with irrigation supplies, landscape and turf products, outdoor living needs, landscape lighting, water features, erosion control, and more.
The company’s main headquarters is in Phoenix, but they operate six properties in central Texas, including a main office at 1400 Cottonwood Creek Trail in Cedar Park, outside Austin.
While Ewing's other area locations are mainly warehouses filled with irrigation parts, fertilizer, holiday lights, edging, and shovels, Cedar Park is a hands-on showroom, showcasing an outdoor kitchen, landscape lighting, water features, and more.
“Customers can go there to get an up-close look at products and ideas,” says Jordan Martin, vice president at North by Northwest. “It’s like their crown jewel location. It’s important for it to look good.”
This is where most of the landscape maintenance happens. While the warehouse locations mostly need just mowing and weeding, Cedar Park has a full 42 visits a year packed with services.
But unlike most of North by Northwest customers, Ewing handles its own irrigation and fertilizing, so they can test their own products.
North by Northwest crews tackle the big and little tasks that keep the property looking great, from weeding to pruning, mowing and blowing.
When Ewing opens a new location, they handle the land clearing in preparation for construction.
They keep the mulch fresh, collect the debris that falls from the property’s mature pecan trees, change out seasonal flowers three times a year, from vinca and petunias in spring to snapdragons, zinnias, and ruffly purple kale in the fall.
“They’re creative, so we have them do bed work for us,” Wimble says. “We change out the color in front of the building three or four times a year. And It never looks the same.”
“They’ve Watched Us Grow”
When Ewing hired North by Northwest for its landscape maintenance in 2006, the Austin commercial landscaping company was already pretty familiar with the property.
They were regular customers.
“They provided us with quality products and helped us develop skills,” Martin says.
Those skills helped them land Ewing as a customer.
“The drawback of working for a landscape supply company is there are other landscapers there,” Martin says, “so it’s easy to criticize. But on the flip side, all these landscapers have watched us grow from a mom and pop operation into a multi-million-dollar landscaping company. We get a lot of compliments, and now people ask us for advice.”
Here’s some advice: your landscaping should always look great, no matter what you’re selling.
“Other supply companies don’t always consider landscaping a priority,” Martin says. “They figure they’re just selling pipe, so it doesn’t really matter. They might have weeds or unkept beds.
“But Ewing’s approach is different,” he says. “They want a really nice-looking property. When you pull up and see that nice, thick turf you think, ‘Wow, I want to use whatever they’re using.’”
Bingo.
Finding That “Just Right” Company
“We’ve succeeded so well because we’re versatile,” Martin says. “We’re willing to learn new things. We offer multiple services, not just mowing.
“And we charge a fair rate.”
That part was important to Ewing, Wimble says.
“The first company we had doing the property maintenance here was extremely expensive,” he says. “We were actually being overcharged for a lot of services they weren’t doing. Then we went with a significantly cheaper company and that didn’t work out so well, either.”
It sort of reminds you of Goldilocks and the three bears. One company was priced too high. One company was priced too low and offered service that reflected it.
Enter the company that was just right — North by Northwest.
“We didn’t want to be ripped off, but we weren’t afraid to pay what the service was worth,” Wimble says.
This is Personal
“It’s a business relationship, but it’s also a personal relationship,” Martin says. “We still buy products from them three times a week. Sean and I go fishing together and play golf.
“I've known all the current managers now since they were behind-the-counter employees.”
Longtime relationships pay off.
“I really enjoy working with these guys,” Wimble says. “They’re able to meet every need we throw at them.”
The result? An impressive property that reflects the high-quality products and stellar service inside.
“It’s very important to us that when our customers come in, they notice, ‘Hey, our landscaping company’s landscape looks good,’” Wimble says. “I don’t want to have to worry about it, and North by Northwest does that for us.”
Need an Austin Landscape Company that Handles it All? Trust North by Northwest
It means a lot to us that a premiere landscaping supply company trusts us with their landscape maintenance.
We bring that same level of service and attention to detail to all the properties in our care.
Hire pros with experience at handling all the pieces — and the stress — so you can rest easy.
Our services include landscape maintenance, landscape design, commercial irrigation management and landscape construction in Austin, Cedar Park, Leander and Georgetown, TX.
Are you ready for stress-free landscaping? Schedule a time to meet with one of our experts today. We’ll gather the details, create a customized plan just for you, and you can stop stressing as we improve and beautify your Austin, TX property.
