Turner Tree & Landscape is celebrating its 30th year in Southwest Florida, and its recovery from most of the ravages of the recession.
The company began in 1981 with one employee. Today there are more than 100, and the company’s billboards are on projects throughout Southwest Florida.
Sales that first year were around $200,000. Now they are running at an estimated rate of $9-10 million per year. The company sagged with the decline in construction over the past couple of years, but is nearly back to its sales levels before the recession.
It all began with Darrell Turner’s driving a truck from Virginia south to Bradenton to take part in the building of the Interstate highway which links the region. Today, Turner operates tree farms from Myakka to Ellenton, and is a familiar sight for southbound travelers on I75, where the Turner farms extend for 2 ½ miles.
The company has pioneered many ideas, including an “orphan” program which digs up trees to make way for construction, as at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Sarasota, nurtures the trees at Turner farms, and then re-plants them when construction is finished. Sometimes big trees are involved, some of them more than 10 times taller than Mr. Turner.
Turner Tree and Landscape is headquartered at 2504 64th Street Court East, Bradenton FL 34208. Telephone 941 745 2101. [email protected]. Web site www.turnertree-landscape.com.
