Going for growth
Love of plants drives firm’s founder to help improve workplaces
IN THIS week’s SME Focus, we hear from a horticultural entrepreneur who has drawn on his love of plants to build a business that has helped transform workplaces across the UK.
Name: Jimmy Gilchrist.
Age: 46. What is your business called? GP Plantscape. Where is it based? Lanark. What services does it offer? We provide commercial interior and exterior landscaping services, aiming to ensure the environments in which Scotland’s office workers operate are conducive to health and efficiency. Whom does it sell to? We work with a range of small, medium and large businesses, organisations and charities throughout Scotland and beyond, including Gleneagles Hotel, The Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, Standard Life, Barnardo’s and Skyscanner. What is its turnover? £8.5m. How many employees? 90. When was it formed? The Gilchrist family have been in the horticulture business for four generations. At first, like many others in the area, we grew soft fruits and tomatoes, diversifying as markets changed and in the 1980s ran a retail garden centre.
GP Plantscape was founded in 1997 by myself after the family business was sold in 1992.
At the same time, my father went on to develop GP Green Recycling, a composting facility based at Blantyre. Why did you take the plunge? Following the sale of the business in 1992 there was a debt to be serviced and trading, with a lot of hard work required to put the business back on its feet again.
I turned to what I knew and kicked off GP Plantscape as soon as I could.
At the time the main drivers for interior and exterior landscaping were aesthetic but customers are slowly switching on to the notion of staff wellbeing and in turn the benefits that interior plants can provide.
We have seen evidence which proves that planting increases workplace productivity and reduces absence levels, as well as enhancing surroundings and enabling businesses to make a statement about their brand, culture and the quality of their organisation.
One study we completed, with a large university, showed that offices who implement interior landscaping within their common areas often see increased morale in their staff, as well as a significant drop in absenteeism. What were you doing before you took the plunge? I have always been involved in the business to some degree but, encouraged by my father to experience life more broadly, I spent time working abroad before eventually returning to the family business of which I am so proud. How did you raise the start-up funding? The start-up funding was largely bank borrowing. What was your biggest break? Winning the contract with the Clydesdale Bank, to provide all interior planting and exterior grounds maintenance for head offices and the branch network. This is a contract we still hold today incidentally, although now it’s through a facilities management company Andron. Not only did the contract provide financial security but it provided a spring board for other national contracts. What was your worst moment? As the industry has changed we now service many of our customers through facilities management companies rather than directly with the end user.
This, to a large extent, takes control out of our hands. At one time we lost a large national contract as the facilities managers changed over and although the end user was delighted with our service the new successful FM had an alternative preferred supplier for interior and exterior landscaping. What do you most enjoy about running the business? Building a business where people can develop their skills and knowledge through horticulture. Many of the small business that existed when I came into the industry are now gone and the other alternative route of working with the local authority is of a much smaller scale.
It’s a privilege to be able to offer people a career, not just a job, in horticulture. We recently celebrated National Apprenticeship Week (at the start of March) with our blog featuring the progress of our two young guys who are currently studying for their SVQ in amenity horticulture. What do you least enjoy? Being stuck in the office. I have a passion for horticulture and being customer facing and it is not always possible to be out and about when running the business. What is your biggest bugbear? That horticulture is still viewed largely as an unskilled job when in fact the amount of skill and knowledge required to properly maintain exterior and interior landscapes is significant and takes a long time to develop. What are your ambitions for the firm? We deliver services from Milton Keynes to Inverness and we aim to continue to develop our customer base and geographical coverage. What are your top priorities? People: To develop the people within the business to ensure they develop their skills and knowledge and have opportunities to follow a career path in the business.
Service: To deliver our services with a focus on excellent service delivery to all.
Profit: To continue to deliver an excellent service whilst delivering a profit for reinvestment.
Innovate: To continue to develop new products and services.
Fun: To do all this and still have fun. What could public authorities do that would help? Planning regulations often stipulate that landscaping that has to be included at development stage but there is no current legislation which defines the standards that the landscaping should be maintained to. What was the most valuable lesson that you learned? Customers still value good service and creating the right culture in your business is the key to good service delivery. How do you relax? I am the new chairman of the Gardening Scotland event which takes place in Edinburgh from 3-5 June 2015.
Whilst a very busy role, it does allow me to do something other than run my own business and watching other people feel inspired and excited by their own gardens gives me a sense of peace and relaxation.