Greenlawn Commercial Package Business

3 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

See all articles by Brandt R. Allen

Brandt R. Allen

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Abstract

This case is used to study cost-based decision analysis. It has incremental, variable, semi variable, and sunk costs in a classic cost-price-volume situation, set in a service business.

Excerpt

UVA-C-2161

Rev. Jun. 19, 2009

GREENLAWN COMMERCIAL PACKAGE BUSINESS

Memorial Day found Amy Carter in her office putting the final touches on her plan for transforming Greenlawn Inc.'s Commercial Package Division. Her New Era project would be a hat trick for the division: she would recommend replacing most of the company's fertilizers and pesticides with a new generation of products that were easier to apply, lower cost, and more environmentally friendly. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Greenlawn was the largest lawn-care and landscape-services company in the United States. Daughter of Greenlawn's chairman and CEO, Avery Carter, Amy Carter had been with the firm just over one year. A graduate of Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, she had become the division's “thought leader” when it came to biological engineering and the environment. As New Era was also her first big proposal, she hoped she had not forgotten anything important.

History

Greenlawn began in 1971 as Chemcare, a division of a large science and technology company headquartered in Michigan. A spinout in 1989 followed by rapid growth in the 1990s had expanded its business from residential-lawn-care products and services into the commercial-landscape industry. By mid-2002, the company also provided total lawn and landscaping services, including mowing, edging and trimming, irrigation installation and maintenance, and landscape design. Greenlawn was the industry's technology leader, developing environmentally responsible pesticide and fertilizer spraying and delivery systems such as contained-spray applicators and dual-line spray guns. Specially built, compartmentalized, computer-controlled trucks with the bright Greenlawn logo were a common sight in residential neighborhoods and in industrial parks. Greenlawn even maintained the White House Rose Garden.

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Keywords: cost behavior, decision analysis

Suggested Citation

Allen, Brandt R., Greenlawn Commercial Package Business. Darden Case No. UVA-C-2161, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1276602 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1276602

Brandt R. Allen (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States
434-924 -4842 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/allen.htm

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