News and Media
Succession Planning - plan for success case study
One of Australia's most respected turf industry families has recently embarked on the greatest challenge of their 20-year business life - a succession plan.
Charlie, Michael and Anthony Muscat have worked together every day of those 25 years in their family-run business, GreenLine Turf.
But after more than five years deliberating, the trio, with their spouses, have put steps in place to allow them to integrate the next generation.
The plan has meant GreenLine divided its assets and customer base to enable them to expand operations and commence trading as three individual entities - Green Life Turf, Greener Lawns, and Greenway Turf.
The hardest step initially was keeping plans under wraps for more than five years while we problem solved every scenario possible before eventually nutting out the finer details of the plan before executing it during 2008,Michael said.
Inevitable step
With 14 offspring between them, the Muscats knew a succession plan was inevitable at some point.
We all knew the time was coming but we kept putting it off and putting it off, they said.
All three partners had children passionate about turf production, who continually displayed a keen interest in pursuing turf dreams to become more involved in their family-run operations.
We really were motivated by our children to make it happen in the end - they were all so keen - you can't dampen that enthusiasm, Alexandria Muscat said.
The way the new generation has embraced their role within their individual businesses has been one of the greatest rewards to come from the transition for all families.
The boys (young Muscat offspring) are all striving and thriving to go forward - and are enjoying working with their parents to contribute to driving new success and sustained business growth simply by integrating their own ideas, Margaret Muscat said.
While the Muscat brothers said they no longer had each other to lean on in the way they had done traditionally, they were now tending to share ideas and discuss issues at a decision-making level with their kids and wives (who are all also entrenched in the businesses).
Read more.......click to open PDF
Turf takes center stage in media launch
The profile of turf in the media has received a major boost recently with the new Turf Marketing Plan starting to swing into action.
The engagement of media personality Jody Rigby as Turf Australia's new ambassador has also significantly strengthened the campaign roll-out.
Well known for her Backyard Blitz days, Jody has also appeared more recently on The Outdoor Room and Garden Angels.
Jody currently operates her own Horticultural Consultancy business and has developed contacts with many in the turf industry over the years.
Lawns and lawn-care were the focus of a series of media briefings for "home and lifestyle media" at a series of briefings held last month.
Hosted on the lawn of a graceful Sydney home, media discovered how turf creates a home and met industry development manager Matthew Holmes, turf grower Anthony Muscat and turf ambassador Jody Rigby.
Highlights included Jody's turf laying demonstration which encouraged media to promote the ease of turf laying.
Other key elements included a heat lamp demonstration that showed the cooling value of turf over pavers and artificial grass as well as discussions on the features and qualities of different turf varieties.
Briefings were attended by Burkes Backyard Magazine, Handyman, Gardening Australia, The Lifestyle Channel (pay TV), Radio 2GB and Graham and Sandra Ross' Garden Clinic. Journalists from Burkes Backyard Magazine used information from the briefing session in their presentation at Grand Designs Live - attended by some 250,000 house-proud renovators.
"Research showed that the media has "forgotten" the importance of turf. These briefings were just the first step in a larger media outreach to promote environmental and lifestyle value of a beautiful lawn," says Matthew Holmes.
The next phase of the campaign will see Jody Rigby undertake media interviews to advise homeowners on preparing their garden for summer, followed by the announcement of research on the additional value that turf can add to a home.
Joseph and Patrick Sir Walter award winners!
Greener Lawn congratulates Joseph and his cousin Patrick on their recent win! Joseph will be attending a Farm Study Tour in August 2011 visiting four of Australia's leading turf farm operations. He will experience farming, harvesting and operating systems in Brisbane & Melbourne.
Joe has already experienced an upraising of turf farming first hand and has now been working at the family business from the very beginning in 2008 when Greener Lawn Supplies opened.
Joseph's role on the farm varies, he's pretty much hands on from Production & Chemical & Fertiliser application, Farm Maintenance & improvements, Machinery Maintenance, Turf Harvesting & delivering turf to clients on occasion. This is a great experience for Joe as I'm sure he'll come back with many new ideas on improvements that we can implement here at Greener Lawn.
