When Scott Humphreys and a mate started a landscaping business more than 30 years ago he didn’t picture it growing to more than 170 staff or being sold to a family office owned by a Japanese billionaire.
After leaving university, he travelled to the United Kingdom where he found old schoolmate Simon Price, who shared the same passion for landscaping.
“Back in 1990 it was ... a station wagon and a wheelbarrow and roping mates into helping,” Humphreys says of Humphreys Landscaping.
The pair were in their 20s when they started out, taking residential and commercial landscaping jobs whenever they could.
Once back in New Zealand, Humphreys and Price set up the Auckland business and continued together for 15 years, before setting up a business in Queenstown which Price now owns and operates.
It wasn’t until Humphreys met his wife Claire that his vision grew for what the business could become.
“Claire and I were dynamic when we knew what we wanted to do.”
“A lot of it was brand. We spent quite a bit of money getting the look on the vans and that’s Claire , she is all about that.”
Rather than getting down and dirty, he emphasised how his team’s systemised, clean processes were influential in attaining the business’ now highly affluent clientele.
Humphreys won’t name his customers, but testimonials from the business include Maui Capital director Brent Lawgun and others from around the well-heeled suburbs of Remuera, Herne Bay, Parnell, and St Mary’s Bay.
Humphreys’ focus is on the organisational side of the business, with a clear focus on the quality of the work produced.
“Our whole ethos was about having a trade service which was a real step up from what else was available.
“We’re a trust model, you know, so we’re all residential, we don’t do any commercial work. It’s always been the case.”
Part of building trust with the business’ clientele is the image associated, ensuring that vans are maintained to the highest cleanliness and organisation, with uniforms expected to be held to the same standard.
It’s the small details that stand out, things like ensuring ladders are stored within the gardener’s vans rather than on the roof, says Humphreys.
“They turn up in the house, the neighbour down the road goes, ‘yeah, I’d really like them at my place’.”
According to Humphreys, this even extends to the hiring process, ensuring everyone who joins the team fits the ethos required.
There are roughly 170 members of Humphreys’ team, with around 30-35 dedicated office staff across three Auckland precincts to cover the administrative side of the business.
The rest maintain the almost 2000 gardens and pools of some of the most prestigious and luxurious homes in New Zealand, many worth well into the millions.
Designing award-winning gardens is a perfected craft for Humphreys, noting that his clients often come to him for his expertise.
As for fielding client suggestions, they come rarely, with Humphreys amusingly recalling one client’s interesting request.
“One wanted to rip out a lawn and put in a fake lawn, you know that happens. That can surprise us.”
The business tries to stay away from the latest trends, instead preferring those that are classic and timeless.
Architecture is a key influence on everything considered, believing any design should reflect the character of the house.
“There’s all sorts of things to consider, like neighbours, privacy and space in the garden, how much can you fit in. But also making it look like it’s been there.
“Really what we want to do is be able to leave and it looks like it’s been there forever, as opposed to leave and it looks like it’s just been done today.”
The company has acquired a number of other smaller businesses since 2013 to widen its maintenance repertoire, including the largest pool valet business in Auckland called Pool Magic.
Humphreys said he and Claire were especially grateful to Doug McKay and Ken Boler, who offered plenty of guidance on business acquisitions.
In May, Humphreys Landscaping was acquired by a family office called Still.
Run by Japanese foreign national Hideaki Fukutake, the firm has a unique portfolio which includes the World of Wearable Arts, Consult Recruitment, design firm DDMMYY, and historic Queenstown hotel Hulbert House as well as other gardening-related businesses.
“They [Still] bought Kings Plant Barn and then they bought Awa Nursery,” says Humphreys.
“Our advisor Andrew Williams, who’s a good friend of Claire and I, owns Alvarium, and so he was connected with him through investment, so knew about him as well.”
Williams, who has helped boost the business’ growth over the past five years, suggested Humphreys should contact Fukutake and learn more about his family office.
Fukutake’s grandfather, Tetsuhiko, and father, Soichiro, founded and oversaw the growth of the Japanese Benesse Corporation into one of the world’s largest educational service providers – at one point owning the Berlitz language schools.
Soichiro Fukutake, a billionaire (on the Forbes rich-list Japanese top 50) took up residence in New Zealand in 2009, drawn here initially by his passion for sailing and flying.
Hideaki Fukutake followed shortly after with his young family and he has watched his children grow up here as Kiwi kids. Now Auckland-based, his father’s retirement sees him managing the Fukutake family investments.
Still has an interesting proposition under its banner of Still 100, which is set to acquire 100 New Zealand companies and keep them for 100 years.
For Humphreys, that level of ambition was enticing, not just because of his longtime interest in the Japanese style of business, but because the proposition came about at the right time.
“As much as we were looking for someone to buy the business, they really had to be someone we wanted to sell it to.”
While Humphreys was shy about how much the business was sold for, he’s confident in his decision.
“It’s generational. It’s three generations and that’s what 100 years is. That’s what really resonated with us and appealed to us.”
Still has full ownership of the business, but the Humphreys are still in charge of the day-to-day running of it.
Humphreys emphasised that while the business has been acquired, he’s still driven to “complete the dream”.
That dream is a mix of expansion, consolidation and a state-of-the-art landscaping depot.
“The building, like the van with its compartments and all the tools in it, I’ve got a vision of how that has to be for us.”
He envisages an expansive base with all the amenities necessary, from a full-scale car wash to save time cleaning the work vans to petrol tanks located on site.
Humphreys hopes the depot is a place that’s completely set up for his staff, creating a space that they really want to be a part of.
The new base will facilitate further expansion of the business beyond Auckland to places like Matakana, Waiheke Island and Mangawhai.
He revealed the business did look at expanding into Tauranga and Christchurch, but he believes there is still opportunity for growth right where they are.
As for the legacy that Humphreys Landscaping will leave behind, he had no hesitation.
“I want to be able to leave a legacy behind where it’s a company of real scale that operates like a small business.”
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.