BURNCO sells landscape centres across Western Canada

The company’s chairman and CEO, Scott Burns, said over the past few years, BURNCO has developed strong relationships at the leadership level with United States-based SiteOne.

He told Lethbridge News Now the relationship between SiteOne and BURNCO goes back to around 2013. Burns said SiteOne had acquired John Deere Landscapes, a former John Deere-owned company.

Initially, there was interest to form a partnership when SiteOne was going public.

However, that fell through.

“What then happened is we just got to know these guys,” Burns said.

Last year, he explained that BURNCO was in Seattle scouting for new acquisitions for its landscaping venture. In a twist of fate, Burns said one individual they spoke with had already exited to SiteOne.

He jokingly said they were “late to the party” by about a week or two.

Eventually, talks between BURNCO and SiteOne continued.

“We wanted to make sure that we were going to have a situation of continued supply of product and service. Here’s this SiteOne that [landscaping] is their core business, whereas for BURNCO this has been a subsidiary, [a] side business,” Burns told LNN.

“So, here we are in the same kind of situation – in a small way of what John Deere Landscapes was all those years ago to John Deere. We decided that it would be the best scenario to have someone who is only concentrating on the landscape business.”

SiteOne has around 600 stores.

Burns said they’ll now be able to put more focus on their core businesses, domestically and internationally. The company plans to expand its market position for its high-quality aggregate, pacing asphalt and ready-mix concrete business units and subsidiaries.

Burns could not get into the financial details of the sale.

BURNCO Landscape president Morgan Martel, voiced excitement in a release from BURNCO.

“SiteOne has a proven track record of acquiring businesses that provide strong future growth potential. While it’s difficult for me and our employees to say goodbye to the BURNCO organization, this is the best outcome for all parties,” Martel stated.

The chairman and CEO of SiteOne, Doug Black, said, “BURNCO expands our product offering to now include hardscapes and landscape supplies in Western Canada to complement our current irrigation and Agronomics capabilities.”

“We are also thrilled to have Morgan [Martel] and his very talented team join us as we push forward on our mission of being the best full-line distributor to landscape professionals in the U.S. and Canada.”

The transaction includes the transition of BURNCO Landscape’s management team and employees. Scott Burns said no job losses are expected as a result of the sale.

“There will be sort of normal course layoffs because of all of our businesses, it’s probably the most seasonal one we’ve got, so, as the snow start to fly, people are less interested at that moment in investing in their garden,” he said.

“Then it’s the next season afterward [and] I fully presume those same individuals would be back looking for employment and SiteOne would be keen to employ them.”

BURNCO Rock Products Ltd. is a fourth generation family business that was started in Calgary in 1912.

by Justin Goulet

BURNCO sells landscape centres across Western Canada

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