The loss of that contract, effective May 1, was a slap to Shane Pliska, whose father, Larry, started Planterra in the 1970s and has grown it from a small retail shop into a landscape and events business with $5 million a year in revenue. It has such high-end clients as Somerset Collection in Troy and the Mansion at MGM Grand, an exclusive suite hotel in Las Vegas. The company creates living green walls and elaborate interior gardens as well as throws lavish parties in Planterra’s 11,000-square-foot greenhouse.
“They don’t care about Detroit,” said Pliska, referring to Rentokil. “They don’t care at all. We’re proud of our local airport. It’s a real pride point to do business (there).”
Planterra continues to service the airport’s larger McNamara Terminal through a direct contract with Delta Airlines Inc. The large trees in the terminal are artificial and don’t require maintenance, but Planterra handles Delta’s club lounges and some of the airline’s concessionaires.
Rentokil was incorporated as a British pest control company in the 1920s and expanded into other business services in the 1990s, including interior landscaping. (It originally called that division Rentokil Tropical Plants but later rebranded as Ambius.) In 2006, Rentokil bought Pennsylvania-based J.C. Ehrlich Co. for $141.8 million to “build up its U.S. bug-killing business,” according to Bloomberg News.
That gave the British company a foothold in the U.S., and it soon expanded its interior landscaping business here, too. Ambius has been involved in the renovation of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the African pavilion of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
It was Ambius — doing business under the name of its sister company, J.C. Ehrlich — that bid against Planterra. It scored the three-year contract for $127,053. Planterra bid $167,416.
When the issue came before the Wayne County Airport Authority Board on Thursday, all present board members except for Chairman Alfred Glancy III voted yes; Glancy abstained.
Before the vote, the authority’s lawyers confirmed that Rentokil scored contracts several years ago with Gadhafi. British newspaper accounts suggest those contracts came in exchange for Britain releasing the Lockerbie bomber at Gadhafi’s request.
In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was scheduled to fly from Frankfurt to Detroit with stops in London and New York City. A terrorist bomb destroyed the flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crewmembers.
A Libyan citizen was convicted of carrying out the terrorist act. He spent more than two decades in prison, until, in 2009, the Scottish government set him free, calling it a humanitarian nod to his ill health.
But Gadhafi’s son claimed, in The Telegraph, the release was linked to trade deals the British government had arranged with Libya for British companies. One of those companies was Rentokil, which in 2009 signed a contract with Gadhafi for pest control, including on the leader’s personal ranch, according to the newspaper.
“It makes we wonder, does anyone have a backbone? Real people died in the Lockerbie bombing,” said Pliska, 33. “Michigan victims were on that flight. Why would the airport authority knowingly grant this contract when they have legitimate local alternatives?”
Because the bid was lower, explained Conway, reiterating that neither Rentokil nor J.C. Ehrlich is flagged by the State Department.
“The contract expired and we put it out to competitive bid,” he said. “We just rebid the retail vendors, for example, and some existing retailers didn’t win the bid because there was another bidder who generated more revenue for the airport authority.”
The airport authority relies on revenue from the airlines and what it generates from retail, parking, car rental and taxi concessions to make its budget.
The authority charges airlines to land planes, based on a particular aircraft’s maximum gross landing weight.
Any budget deficit is contractually made up by the airlines that use Metro, and they, in turn, lean on the authority to further trim costs. Conversely, any budget surplus is refunded to the airlines.
Pliska said the bulk of the terminal landscaping contract is actually labor costs, so he suspects Planterra’s bid was higher because he pays higher local wages than J.C. Ehrlich. For maintenance workers, Planterra pays an hourly wage of $11-$17 after training.
Neither J.C. Ehrlich Co. nor Ambius would comment for this story.
“Labor is our biggest expense,” said Pliska. “We invest in our people. We’ve had one horticultural technician with us since 1976. He’s taken care of the GM Tech Center that entire time.”
Losing the contract will not hurt Planterra’s bottom line, however, Pliska said. The terminal represents one of the company’s larger interior landscape-maintenance accounts, but only a small fraction of its annual sales.
“We are fortunate to be diversified,” he said.
The bulk of Planterra’s business is its corporate interior landscaping, but that is followed by its onsite events service, which designs everything from food to décor for weddings and other celebrations in the company’s conservatory. The company has 55 employees.
The glass-encased botanical garden is frequently rented for corporate events, as well.
Finally, it does off-site events and special displays, such as the current Easter-themed plantings for the Somerset Collection.
Amy Haimerl: (313) 446-0416, ahaimerl@crain.com. Twitter: @haimerlad
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