Ian Drummond At that point, Ed stepped back from an operational role and we were pretty much running things. That incentivised us to have the confidence to buy the remainder of the company in January 2013 when Ed and Brita retired.
Pippa Robinson Ed didn’t want us swallowed up by a multinational, he wanted the legacy of high-quality service to continue. The business still has a family feel to it and I think there was an element of relief among staff that we took over.
David Grace During the discussions that we held around the management buy-out Ed wanted to hold on to a small shareholding but it wouldn’t have allowed us the freedom to do what we want with the business. Our visions are different than Ed’s vision. We’ve moved into areas that perhaps he was less comfortable working in.
Ian Drummond We were doing them anyway. Hotels and restaurants were areas we never used to touch. They are run quite differently to the rest of the business.
Pippa Robinson Most of our work is concentrated inside the M25, although we reach Edinburgh, Glasgow and north-west and eastern England. I see us expanding geographically, taking on more staff and looking after high-end private clients.
David Grace We run the business by consensus decision. There are advantages of working that way and sometimes slight disadvantages because perhaps we don’t move ahead as quickly as maybe we might want to. But we all need to be comfortable in decisions we are making.
Pippa Robinson We all love horticulture and getting our hands dirty. There is a lot of crossover between our roles but as joint managing director [with Grace] I oversee client liaison for the interiors operations, health and safety, and HR.
David Grace I’m responsible for the finance, day-to-day running, exterior elements of the business and installations like atriums.
Ian Drummond My role as creative director revolves around sales, marketing and landscaping. I oversee our Christmas designs, visual merchandising for Harrods and Selfridges, and landscape events such as Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara Ball and a [RHS silver medal-winning] garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Pippa Robinson We have fallen into the areas we are most comfortable dealing with. That is why we work so well as a team. The penny dropped at a training session many years ago. In each corner of the room was a list of different skills. When asked to stand in a corner that best represented ours we all stood in different corners.
Ian Drummond The 2009 recession hit us like a sledgehammer. Turnover dropped but we didn’t make any of our 47 staff redundant. The number has increased year-on-year.
David Grace Last year, we grew by almost four per cent and the previous year by almost eight per cent. Our turnover is £2.75m. When we bought the company our plan was to double its size and increase its profitability proportionally. In five years’ time, we’d like a turnover of around £5m.
Pippa Robinson Prior to the recession we were achieving 10 per cent annual growth. Some clients have cut back on interior landscaping while continuing with exterior landscaping. We haven’t lost any of them.
David Grace Cutting back on plants might look like an easy cost saving for a client to make but research shows that interior landscaping increases productivity, delivers health benefits to employees and cuts down on absenteeism. We’re working hard to get that message out.
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