Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping

Comments on Gooding's Nursery, by Denny Abke


Early in the fall of 2000 I had the pleasure of visiting the Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping Company. R J Gooding founded Gooding's Nursery in 1950. It expanded in 1975 by adding a landscape contracting division, and in 1982 the company became incorporated and formed a board of directorÕs. The Board of Directors consisted of Richard J Gooding Chairmen, Richard F. Gooding President and General Manager, Philip C. Gooding Executive vice President, Retail and Production Manager, and Violet Gooding Secretary and Treasurer. Since the formation of the board, R J Gooding passed away but the remainder of the board still resides. Gooding's landscape division has grown to produce about 77% of the company's profit. They serve both commercial and residential design / build accounts while striving to grow and providing a quality product for their customers.
Richard Gooding describing a landscape job done by the company	About 20% of Gooding's landscape jobs are commercial and the other 80% is residential design / build. Their services include installation, maintenance, arborist services, mowing services, and designs and appraisals. These services combine to produce $806,666 of Gooding's gross sales in 1999. To provide such a wide variety of services Gooding's has set up four types of landscape crews that are specialized for specific purposes. The landscape installation crew is made up of three men, a two-ton truck and a trailer. The maintenance crew is made up of two men and a one ton truck. The landscape health care crew is a one man crew and a truck. And finally the mowing crew is made up of two men and a one ton box van. These crews provide a service area of 50 miles targeting Dover, New Philadelphia, Carrollton, and Cadiz. The nursery division of the company sets on 89 acres near Sherrodsville. It produces about 16% of the company's profit. Although small, the nursery provides a great place to hold stock for the landscape division while providing its customers with quality plants. Altogether Gooding's employs fifteen full-time employees and twenty-three seasonal employees. And with this labor force they had gross sales of $1.057 million in 1999.
My personal impressions on Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping were very good ones. This company really cares about its employees. Of the employees I met and talked to they all seemed very happy with what they were doing and the services they provided. Even in the company's philosophy they state that they strive to treat their employees fairly and as the company grows so will the employee's wages and benefits. It seems to me that job security is not an issue with this company once you establish yourself as full-time employee. I also noticed that this company really cares about the environment and its customers. I could really tell by the landscapes that they showed us and by the condition of the nursery that the environment is a major concern of this company. I also would have to say that this company treats its customers better than any company I have ever visited. During the tour Mr. Gooding could call all his customers by their names and recite all their landscape needs and what his company did to meet those needs. He even went so far as to take a picture of our class to show an older client because he knew that it would make her day to know that we were all there enjoying her landscape. All in all Gooding's was a very professional business that was passionate about what they do and how they get it done.