Lawn Care: Inflation and Supply Chain

Posted on: Nov 18, 2021Luis M Pérez

You have probably heard a lot about inflation and supply chain issues recently. It seems you cannot go anywhere without hearing at least one of these two terms. In this article, we are going to discuss how inflation and supply chain issues are affecting the lawn care and pest control industries. In addition, what Dr. Green is doing to minimize the impact.

Inflation

First, we will discuss inflation, which is basically a reduction in the purchasing power of money caused by an increase in the overall cost of goods and services. Inflation is going to have a major impact on the lawn care and pest control industry in 2022. Virtually every cost from fuel, insurance, labor all the way to fertilizer is going up. Currently, a pound of fertilizer today is 40% more expensive than it was one year ago. You have all seen the increase in the cost of fuel at the pumps.

There is nothing we can do to prevent inflation; however, we always try to limit the amount that these expenses are passed onto our customers. We recently raised our prices by roughly 4%. This increase is very low when considering the considerable rise in our expenses. We are hopeful that these inflationary prices will level off in which no further price increases will be required. On average most of our competitors appear to be raising their prices by 5% to 10%, so our pricing will remain among the most competitive in our industry in 2022.

Supply Chain

Supply chain issues have been hurting our business, and others, for this whole year already. Simple replacement parts for our vehicles and equipment used to take days to arrive and now they take weeks or even months. While this makes it harder for us, we have thus far been able to keep our services running on a proper schedule. There were a few weeks this spring and summer where our scheduling fell behind. We had not received certain products or parts, but we were able to catch up easily.

One of the things we have done this fall has been to pre-ordered and pre-purchase almost all our fertilizer, chemicals, paper goods, and parts for 2022 ahead of time. Dr. Green did this preemptively just in case the supply chain issues are not corrected. We think this was a smart move. This will help us control our costs. Lastly, it will mean that we will be able to meet 100% of our service commitments in 2022.

Our Commitment

We are fully prepared and ready to fulfill our commitments to all our current customers and still have the capacity to add 25% to 50% more clients if necessary. As such, our Dr. Green customers do not need to have any concerns about our ability to provide timely and effective service in 2022. We believe many of our competitors will struggle to do this in 2022.

In summary, inflation and supply chain issues are impacting the lawn care industry but we are very prepared to deal with these challenges. We believe, in a way that will dramatically minimize any impact on our valued customers. You can rest assured that Dr. Green will be able to provide the best products at the best price in 2022. Our services will be completed on schedule all year long.

Any Question?

If you have any questions about these topics or anything else, please contact us at 1-800-465-2934 or email me at luisp@doctorgreen.com