Making A Splash

Kurt Bland Discusses Acquiring Foster Lake & Pond Management

By Sandi Schwartz

It’s not every day that we hear about two separate entities of the landscaping world collaborating and merging into one company. The new year brought a new vision for syncing landscaping and water management as Bland Landscaping Company Inc., a leading North Carolina provider of commercial landscaping management services, acquired Foster Lake & Pond Management.

With offices in the Research Triangle and Greater Charlotte Metropolitan Area, Foster tends to lakes, ponds and fisheries across the state of North Carolina, upstate South Carolina and southern Virginia.“We believe this is the first merger of its kind to combine our two respective disciplines, and we expect to see more such activities as stormwater and green infrastructure management continue to have an increasing role in the development and management of real estate throughout the rapidly growing markets we service across the Carolinas,” notes Kurt Bland, president of Bland Landscaping Company.

Building Synergy
For the last 20 years, the two companies worked alongside one another. Kurt speaks highly of Johnny Foster, founder and president of Foster Lake & Pond Management, and his skilled team of lake and pond management professionals.

Foster's Training

“We teamed up on projects, co-hosted marketing events and have gotten to know each other as professional friends,” Kurt explains. “When Johnny decided to sell, he called and asked if we were interested in adding this line of business to our platform, and I did not pause for one second before saying an enthusiastic ‘yes.’”

Bland Landscaping, based in Apex, is one of North Carolina’s leading full-service providers of landscape design, installation, enhancement and maintenance services. The company’s customers include offices, hospitals, universities, municipalities and homeowner associations statewide. Bland Landscaping has about 600 full-time and 200 to 300 seasonal employees, including turfgrass and horticulture managers, landscape designers, lawn care technicians, irrigation technicians and floriculturists. An additional 40 staff members were added to the team by bringing Foster on board.

Kurt is enthusiastic about the strategy and synergy that comes from Foster joining Bland Landscaping. “Foster is a true thought leader in the aquatics market, and we are excited to expand our capabilities to provide our customer base with a full suite of landscaping and aquatic services,” Kurt says. This comes at an opportune time, as the vast majority of developments constructed in the region over the last 30 years have been required to build lakes, ponds, bio-retention structures and other stormwater control measures as a means of retaining, treating and releasing stormwater onsite. “Foster has a long and rich history as the most experienced practitioner of fisheries management and aquatic services in the area.

"We believe that integrating these multi-disciplinary
elements to complement our existing services will
offer our clientele improved results & less headaches."

Many view this as a bold move. Even though these two disciplines are so intertwined, there is a lack of “systems thinking” by most of the industry when it comes to integrating them. These disconnects have led to both areas of expertise growing alongside one another as opposed to being unified under one roof.

Boosting Environmental Protection
But leaders at Bland and Foster envision a collaboration that can result in making more of an impact environmentally by working together. Both companies are green industry pioneers operating in complementary industry sectors. “If we handle and manage stormwater on-site, we reduce flash flooding and erosive activities downstream and keep pollutants out of critical watersheds that provide our drinking water, serve as estuaries for aquatic species and better protect our natural resources as a whole,” explains Kurt.

"We manage landscapes, but we also
have to think about the bigger picture
& realize that we are stewards."

“Land development destroys natural ecosystems. But these practices help lessen the damage and help replace natural ecosystem services, such as groundwater replenishment from the earth’s surface into the aquifers we draw our water supplies from.” As an outdoorsman, scuba diver and avid fisherman, Kurt is passionate about these efforts as he has seen firsthand the importance of stormwater management.

Looking Forward
This collaboration is truly forward-thinking and something to pay attention to in the industry. This is a natural progression into not only consolidating services and responsibility from the HOA point of view, but it also adds a lot of value by understanding pond management with regards to reducing mosquito population, being able to control growth in the ponds and ultimately offering a better solution to commercial clients.

“I would not be surprised to see more consolidation like this start taking place,” predicts Kurt. “Both sectors have enormous amounts of investment dollars chasing their industries, and it stands to reason that they will come together not only for the scientific and applied benefits of systems thinking but also because of the natural tendency for investors to do vertical and horizontal integration as industries mature.”

While the two companies are now integrated as one business, the Foster Lake & Pond Management brand and website will remain as is. However, Bland Landscaping Company now has a stormwater page on its website to highlight the newly added services.

GET IN TOUCH WITH...

Kurt H. Bland
CEO of Bland Landscaping Company
Phone: (919) 387–0010
Email: kbland@blandlandscaping.com
blandlandscaping.com