Davey Tree Flipbooks

163 162 Growth Rings rare streak for a historically low-margin service line. e 2019 Davey Annual report attributes the increased sales in 2019 to Eastern Utility services and the Davey Tree Surgery Company western operations " … driven by new contracts, expanded scopes of work, improved productivity and new initia- tives," the report states. "Eastern Utility has been focused on reassessing … contracts and pursuing business relationships with both existing and new utilities that share our business philosophies. e Davey Tree Surgery work in California continues to expand, even as the Company focuses on reducing risk into lower risk wildfire areas." e economy followed a clear trend from bad to booming during the lifespan of Vision 20/20. Numerous, severe natural disasters also transpired during this period of company operations. In decades past, Davey has experienced, but not relied on, boosts in the fourth quarter related to emergency storm responses following hurricanes in the Southeast. From 2013 to 2020, the Atlantic region experienced below-normal hurricane activity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Despite fewer hurricanes, the region still suffered severe damage from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Irma and Harvey in 2017, and Florence and Michael in 2018. In traditional fashion, Davey sent hundreds of employees to assist clients and communities in their emer- gency cleanup efforts following each storm. In the West, wildfires, amplified by the effects of climate change, continued to ravage forests and landscapes during this same period with seemingly increasing "As with anything, I think we had some luck involved with the early successes realized through Vision 20/20," Covey said in a May 2021 interview. "When we set the 2020 objectives, it seemed it would be a bit of a stretch for us at the time, but then we did end up hitting our revenue goal a few years early. And there was a lot of effort that went into that." When Davey executive management gathered with field managers at a confer- ence center in Litchfield Park, Arizona in March 2013 to announce the ambitious objectives spelled out in Vision 20/20, the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 7.3 percent while businesses worked to replace the 8.7 million jobs lost due to the Great Recession, which officially lasted from 2007-2009. e economy was struggling when Davey announced the rollout of Vision 20/20, but by the time the strategic plan approached its zenith, the economy was booming, and by 2018, when Davey hit its early revenue target, the U.S. economy had entered its ninth straight year of economic expansion. By the end of 2018, the U.S. economy had grown for 114 months straight since the recession's end. Covey pointed to the company's merger and acquisition activity as making a signif- icant contribution to the early revenue goal success. Between 2012 and 2019, the Davey Company made 33 total acquisitions. Many of those were concentrated in the South and Southeast and included firms located in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. Such geographic targeting contributed to an increase in the company's year-round sales. During the implementation of Vision 20/20, evolving trends in the utility line clearance market emerged to the benefit of the Davey Company. Many large, investor-owned utilities prioritized contracts that emphasized strong safety records and production-based measurements. As a result, by 2018, Davey's Utility services segment began a three-year run of double-digit, year-over-year revenue increases – a Employees in Davey's Northwest Seattle Residential/Commercial services office work on the campus of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle in 2018 in Seattle in 2018 in the shadow of the city's landmark Space Needle.. Davey partnered with the Summit Metro Parks in 2018 to adopt the Signal Tree and provide long-term care to the more than 300-year-old bur oak (left). e Signal Tree is a landmark in Cascade Valley Metropark in Akron, Ohio. Chapter 11

• Cover