Davey Tree Flipbooks

83 82 Growth Rings structure, the goal of the new corporate center was to serve the company for years to come as it grew and expanded. "We […] believe it will be a landmark of pride for Davey personnel everywhere and a testimonial of our conviction that the future holds even greater promise than the past," Joy wrote in a letter to shareholders. A planning committee initially formed in 1982 to consider the concept of a new corporate office. e committee included Dave Adante, treasurer; Robert Browne, director of purchasing and properties; Eckel; Edward Johnson, vice president, field services; Joy; and Pohl. e committee considered more than a dozen sites, including land near the Kent Shop south of downtown and a large piece of property just north of Standing Rock Cemetery (that land would eventually become a residential allot- ment). e committee settled on a 55-acre plot of land across from the cemetery, next to Kent's eodore Roosevelt High School. Construction started on July 12, 1984, as the Davey Company celebrated 75 years since its incorporation in 1909. Corporate personnel moved to the new facilities less than a year later, on June 24, 1985. e $4.5 million Williamsburg-style brick complex cemented the company's future in the Tree City. e office complex was designed in a way that a third wing could easily be attached to the first two to accommodate future growth. e campus included a separate, 10,000-square-foot building to house the Human and Technical Resources Center (previously known as the Davey Horticultural Institute) complete with a laboratory, large classrooms, and a greenhouse. Retired Davey chairman Doug Cowan recalled that, to a certain degree, the employees considered the new headquarters both a logistical necessity and a statement to the city, the green industry, and the Davey family. e new Davey headquarters could have been built almost anywhere given the nature of the business, but both Joy and Pohl were committed to the idea of Davey remaining in Kent, where it had been founded. at sentiment hearkened back to the days of Martin L. Davey, Sr., who played a pivotal role in the success of the Kent community and had a certain affection for his hometown. M.L. Davey, Sr., first ran for mayor of Kent, and won, in 1913 at the age of 28. As "the boy mayor," he oversaw the adaptation of such modern amenities as paved roads and Kent's first sewage treatment plant. Prior to that, in 1910, as a member of the Kent Board of Trade he helped successfully lobby the state to locate the Kent State Normal College in the village. Later, as governor of Ohio in the 1930s, he signed a bill that officially changed Kent State University from a college to a university. Today, the university employs thousands in Kent and draws tens of thousands of students to the city each year. A lifelong Kent resident, M.L. Davey, Sr. was laid to rest in Standing Rock Cemetery, like his father and many other members of the Davey family. An Important Internal Merger As employees settled into the new corporate center, the company officially combined the Tree Care and Lawnscape services under a single district manager to create the Residential/Commercial service line, forging a full-service approach targeted at homeowners. is internal merger was done under the supervision of Don Shope, as the company combined office facilities across the continent, opened new offices, developed a sales and marketing strategy, and created a new computer system to keep track of clients and billing. is reduced the number of Davey's core service lines from three to two. Now, instead of Tree Care, Utility, and Lawnscape services, as had been established in 1978, Davey Tree's new core service lines were simply Utility and Residential/Commercial services. Combining the two services represented a major change in company philosophy. Company executives also acknowledged that, by consolidating the two operations, Davey's lawn care service would never grow as large from a revenue standpoint as it could if it were left to develop on its own. Originally, the company created 10 full-service territories designed to provide comprehensive landscape service primarily to residential clients. Creating the R/C service line did start to solidify the company's reputation as a one-stop shop where customers could go to address all their land- scape care needs. By the end of 1985, Davey Tree had 18 full-service offices, 29 tree care offices and 12 lawn care offices. By the end of 1986, the company consolidated further to establish 28 full-service R/C offices. Ultimately, putting both tree care and lawn care services under one roof proved immensely profitable for the Davey Company, but it was not a smooth transition. Combining the two operations created angst on both sides. Jim Stief, executive vice president, U.S. residential operations, recalled in a 2017 interview that the segmented nature of the services had fostered a rift between tree and lawn care operations. At the time, Stief was district manager of the lucrative North Atlanta office. "ere were lawn care and tree care guys, absolutely," Stief recalled. "We were primarily tree care because I'm a tree care guy. At that time, we needed to do more lawn care, and I was never a lawn care guy because I had no lawn care background." Ultimately, Stief increased lawn operations at the office – to considerable financial benefit for the territory, thanks in large part to efforts made by Miles Stephens, who would later become a district manager in the Pittsburgh area. Steve Marshall, retired executive vice president, had started with the company in 1977 as a Lawnscape technician in the Akron office. He was promoted to district manager of the lawn care operation in 1979 and grew the lawn care service from a few hundred thousand dollars in annual sales volume to $1.3 million – more than the tree care office's annual revenue. Marshall would eventually become district manager of the full-service office in 1986, when it became the second largest R/C territory in the company with $2.5 million in annual sales. "e first year, [we] doubled the size of the tree care business. at's excluding Lawnscape sales," Marshall said. "We were geared for selling. Our lawn care sales representatives, managers and assistant managers were used to making 15 to 25 stops a day, and we were marketing oriented. I think we had great people. e majority of our people at that time, not that this is a recipe for success, were college graduates. And there were no perceived walls in terms of the two operations." Chapter 5 Johnny Wilson operates a DitchWitch for the Southern Bell Telephone account in 1987 as part of the company's buried telephone wire services, which proved lucrative in the 1980s and 1990s. Davey's experience managing buried telephone wires dates to 1967 in South Carolina. A Davey crew treats a utility right-of-way in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Utility services remained the company powerhouse during the 1980s by accounting for the majority of Davey's total annual revenue. In the early 1980s Davey started combining the residential Tree Care offices with the Lawnscape operations. e joining of these two, previously independent, service lines created Davey's Residential/Commercial services. By the end of 1985, Davey Tree had 18 such full-service offices. at figure would rise to 28 by the end of 1986.

• Cover