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Profile: Sampuran Khalsa, President and Founder

Interview by Leslie McGuire, managing editor

Sampuran Khalsa, President and Founder, Nanak’s Landscaping
Images courtesy of Nanak’s Landscaping

Sampuran Khalsa started his business as a landscape contractor in 1973 with a single lawn mower. He remembers, “Interestingly enough—back in 1973—in Florida, we were going through a recession following a building boom. The economic conditions were much like they are today. I was a young man who had a child on the way and needed to make a living. As a kid growing up in Hawaii I had loved working in our yard and taking care of all the tropical plants.

“So starting a landscaping company seemed like a natural fit. I never imagined for a minute that the company would grow to become one of the largest landscape maintenance contractors in Florida.”

“Working in Central Florida, Hotels and Resorts are one of our most important markets” explains Sampuran Khalsa, President and Founder of Nanak’s Landscaping. “In a resort environment our teams have to be prepared to interface with guests on site, often answering gardening questions about tropical plant material or even giving directions around the property. Each project has its own unique horticultural and logistical challenges. We have become experts at working around special events, receptions and weddings.

“The biggest challenge growing as a company in those early years was learning how to delegate and build a professional organization. We have been very fortunate to have a lot of incredible people build their careers here. For example the average tenure of the 70 people who make up our management team is 11 years with the company.

Really I think we have been successful because we have been lucky enough to surround ourselves with a group of very talented people. All of our managers have come up through the field and bring their years of landscaping experience to the decisions they make,” says Khalsa.

“We have succeeded over the years because we love landscaping and have paid close attention to what is important to our customers. We understand that we are in business to help our customers succeed. I believe we have grown over the years by consistently delivering on our promises,” remarks Khalsa. “In our current economic climate it’s important to understand our customers’ business challenges. Many of our customers have needed to lower their costs, so we have focused on helping them do that.”

Economies of Scale

“It takes a lot of communication to succeed, not only with our customers which is crucial, but within our own organization,” Khalsa explains. “One of the things we realized many years ago was that people needed the right information to make good decisions. It’s important to have clear financial reporting and job cost information readily available. It’s a team effort to keep these systems accurately functioning. Job estimates are constantly being compared to the job costed hours from the payroll system so our operational managers know if they are making money on a particular job on a weekly basis.

We service over 800 commercial jobs so without good accounting practices we would never know if one particular job was having a problem. A lot of our software has been specifically modified to reflect the way we do business, rather than the other way around.”

The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, with 2,500 guest rooms and suites, has 87 acres of grounds, 17 restaurants, five swimming pools, and a white sand, freshwater beach, so Nanak’s provides a full range of landscape maintenance services, including daily beach maintenance and special events management.

Helping People Get What They Need

“One hundred percent of our revenue is from the landscape maintenance business,” points out Khalsa. We made a decision 20 years ago to focus all of our energy on what we did best. As a part of our full service program we also provide irrigation system repair, fertilization, pest control, arbor care and landscape enhancements.”

“We have six Branch offices in Florida,” he continues, “Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota and our newest office, which we started in November, Fort Meyers/Naples. Over the years we have opened operations in new cities at the request of our existing customers. Quite a few of our customers have properties in multiple cities in Florida.”

“Many of our customers have launched sustainability initiatives within their own companies. It’s becoming a key factor in buying decisions,” Khalsa points out. “We see Green Practices as an important trend and landscape contractors can deliver value to their customers by leading with best practices in this area. In Florida we are seeing greater regulation of fertilization, pest control and watering practices. It’s a great differentiator for a company to be out in front of these developments.”

“Recently we’ve been experimenting with Empire Zoysia and Seaside Paspalum grasses, which require less water and have less need for pesticide applications,” explains Khalsa. “We’re always trying to use the best practice possible. We have lots of lakes here in Florida so we have to be very careful when applying fertilizers and chemicals to keep runoff in mind and mitigate that. All our pesticide applicators are trained and licensed.”

“Over the years our management team has created a companywide culture of operational efficiency. Each property is mapped out and a work plan developed for the best way to approach that particular site. This way crews have clear goals to accomplish on each visit. In addition all employees are trained in the company’s Standard Operating Procedures for each job function. When you are dealing with the activities of hundreds of people having a plan and working that plan make a huge difference in results,” Khalsa says.

Dealing With the New Normal

“Our commercial maintenance customers are in several market categories, Hotel and Resort, Commercial Properties, Home Owners Associations, Multifamily and Governments. At this point in our economic cycle all of them are experiencing different levels of financial stress. They’re all looking for greater efficiencies which require that we deliver results to them at lower overall costs. We have streamlined our organization and developed programs to take advantage of this trend.”

With a grant from the Florida Alternative Energies Act, Nanak’s installed $160,000 in solar roof panels at their corporate headquarters. Not only did they get back $80,000 from the state, along with a 35 percent Federal tax credit, Khalsa calculates that he’ll make a 15 percent return on his investment. On weekends and holidays Nanak’s is selling their extra solar electricity back to the grid. “We recognize that the need to do more with less is the new normal and are moving towards it.”

Ring Power is one of the largest Caterpillar dealers in the Southeastern United States. Nanak’s began working for L.C. “Ring” Ringhaver at his original facility in Jacksonville, Florida 20 years ago. As Ring Power grew, Nanak’s grew with them.

Smart Focus

“We’ve had success in the past buying smaller companies and may consider doing so again if the right situation becomes available. Several of our key management people have come to us when we bought their company and now they work here,” says Khalsa. “We have a lot of established systems that a smaller company often doesn’t have the time or resources to build. Often the owner and key managers of a smaller company are looking to become part of a bigger team. In the right situation it can be a real win-win.”

“Information is Power. A team of Nanak’s employees has spent the last several years using the power of “Cloud Computing” to map out all the potential landscape maintenance jobs in our market areas,” explains Khalsa. “It’s an interesting business conundrum. Once built the properties themselves never change but the ownership and management personnel change fairly often. How do we keep track of the latest time sensitive information on tens of thousands of properties across Florida? We needed a dynamic solution that would allow our people to be in the right place at the right time talking to exactly the right person when they needed our services. Now any member of our Business Development Team can access, search, sort and update our system from anywhere in the State on their laptops or smart phones.

Nanak’s provides the landscape maintenance for Epping Forest Yacht Club, a 58-acre estate that was built in the late 1920s by American industrialist Alfred I. Dupont. “Over the coming years we are going to see horticultural practices in Florida changing. It is our job to help our customers adjust to those changes,” says Khalsa.

This is an investment that will pay off for us over the years.”
Explains Khalsa, “Our Business Development Team of 14 people are members of key trade associations in each of our markets. We exhibit at 25 trade shows per year and get involved with the business community, which allows us to get to know people. We’ve been in business for 37 years so now our name is very well known. We have a lot of friends in property management and ownership. It’s not uncommon for us to have followed our good customers from job to job as their careers have developed. Our branch offices are only in Florida, so we live the horticulture here. That’s what makes us experts.”

“We recognize and embrace that for the successful landscape contractor, delivering greater results with less resources has become the new normal.”

“Nanak’s Landscaping employs 700 people who work out of six branch offices here in Florida. During the winter our staff count goes down to the 500 range as the seasonal workload decreases. We maintain our properties all year long in Florida. There is work to be done in every season to keep our properties looking sharp.

“Another project we are very excited about is the Orange County Convention Center, which is the 2nd largest convention center in the country,” Khalsa states. “With 2.1 million square feet of exhibition space, this popular event destination is visited by one million people a year. An important part of our responsibility involves safely managing and scheduling our work around the flow of people. Our crews manage 89 acres of landscaped garden areas at the Convention Center, so it’s important for them to follow detailed operational plans as they move through the work cycle.”

Important Tools For Success

“Your most important tools are your people. That sounds cliché but it’s so true! It is important to pull your top people together, share the information, and then listen to everyone’s input. Very often, it’s your guys from the field that who will come up with the most innovative solutions. After all they are the ones who are closest to the action. We always say, landscaping doesn’t happen in the office! People will put tremendous energy and intelligence into doing well as long as they understand what impact they’re having.”