Russo Lawn & Landscape

Nov 30, 2018

Bayer to cut 12,000 jobs The move comes after the company's acquisition of Monsanto. Bayer plans to slash thousands of jobs as part of a corporate overhaul following its acquisition of Monsanto. CNN reports that the chemicals and pharmaceuticals group said it would cut 12,000 jobs out of its global workforce of 118,000 by the end of 2021. A significant number of reductions will be made in its home market of Germany. More than 4,000 jobs will go at the company's crop sciences division, a consequence of Bayer's acquisition of US rival Monsanto earlier this year. Bayer (BAYRY) spent over $60 billion buying Monsanto. To gain regulatory approval for the deal, Bayer agreed to sell assets including its seed business and some herbicide brands. The company expanded its reach into Connecticut and Massachusetts with the acquisition. During the reveal of its fourth quarter and fiscal year results via webcast on Wednesday, BrightView announced it acquired Russo Lawn & Landscape earlier this week. Russo, located in Hartford, Connecticut, services 26 cities in the state and six more in Massachusetts. The commercial landscaping company has been in business since 1990. The purchase marks BrightView's fifth acquisition this year, all of which account for an estimated $117.6 million in aggregate annualized revenue. BrightView CEO Andrew Masterman said during Wednesday's presentation that his company prefers to bring along acquisitions slowly, over the course of 12-24 months, to preserve customer relationships and to keep the companies' crews. Fred Jacobs, BrightView's vice president of communications and public affairs, said the company declined further comment on the Russo acquisition. Masterman and BrightView Chief Financial Officer John Feenan primarily spent the presentation discussing the company's record-setting revenue. It achieved a fiscal year revenue of $2.35 billion, an increase of 5.7 percent from 2017. This spike in total revenue was largely supported by growth in BrightView's maintenance services segment and development services segment revenues. The company also reported a net loss of $15.1 million, or $.18 per share, in 2018, compared to its $37.4 million net loss reported in 2017.   announced the latest release of their new software. The new flexible platform tracks equipment and facilities across multiple locations in real-time. The platform was designed to improve efficiency for businesses with real-time equipment monitoring, increase efficiency by reducing day-to-day operational frictions, and enable consistency and quality across all platforms with real-time critical alerts and diagnostics sent directly to an email or text. “At Energybox, we are always investing in our research and development with a key goal to allow our multi-unit enterprise customers to simplify their businesses by automating their operations and processes,” said Tony Carrella, co-founder and president of Energybox . “Many of our customers have multiple locations, across the globe. With the new software, we are able to provide a highly flexible platform that enables our customers to easily add features and functionalities that are tailored to their specific needs. This enhanced level of flexibility ensures that Energybox will help our customers grow and adapt to dynamic and changing business conditions.” The new software offers operational monitoring solutions that collect real-time data from wireless sensors, which is then processed, aggregated, and stored in an encrypted and secured Energybox cloud. Along with an integrated data system, the software allows users to interface with existing software tools and applications. With the latest update, customers are able to interpret the data collected to improve efficiency, save money, mitigate risk, and use valuable resources more efficiently. The new system provides the following four automated solutions: Operational Monitoring: Wireless sensors accurately monitor temperatures and door access across all equipment. Set custom thresholds and parameters with tiered notifications. Equipment Tracking Sensors: Sensors connect with existing circuit breakers to live track equipment and optimize energy costs, Food Monitoring: Monitor the conditions that help ensure food safety, including temperature, humidity and equipment performance. Atlanta, Ga., – Takeuchi-US  announced Skyworks as a new dealer in Fort Myers, Florida. This follows Skyworks’ acquisition of Southern Gulf Equipment, a Takeuchi dealer and general rental company. The dealer will continue to sell and rent the full Takeuchi product lineup, including excavators, skid steer loaders, track loaders and wheel loaders. Skyworks will also stock parts and perform equipment repair, and it will retain all 32 employees from Southern Gulf Equipment. Established in 1999, the family owned and operated business originally served as an aerial rental specialist, but in the past few years Skyworks has converted most of its stores to general rental. Along with its new location in Florida, Skyworks has 15 locations throughout New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Tennessee, Maryland, and Virginia. “This is a new chapter for our company as it is our first full-blown general rental store,” said Jerry Reinhart, owner and CEO of Skyworks. “We are hoping to learn from this and someday all our stores will be the same. We are excited to now be able to offer Takeuchi equipment, which has already been established throughout the area and will continue to succeed under our company’s direction.”   “We are excited to work with Skyworks, which is a great family owned business and very well-respected organization,” said Todd Granger, director of dealer sales at Takeuchi-US. “By keeping the staff from Southern Gulf Equipment, we should have a smooth transition for all involved parties. We look forward to Skyworks continuing to grow the Takeuchi brand in southwest Florida.” Dripio was developed to solve a chronic problem for landscapers: the ability to water a diverse range of flora with the right amount of water, at the right time of day, and with the right frequency. “My garden is my pride and joy,” said Alex Zehnbacht, Dripio’s creator, “but caring for all the different plants requires so much attention to detail, not to mention a lot of time. I couldn’t find any product on the market that would help me water my garden how and when it was required. That’s why I created Dripio Dripio’s system knows when an how much your plant need watering. It is preloaded with watering schedules for different types of plants and scenarios, but can easily be reprogrammed to fit the specific needs of any garden. Dripio leverages today’s technology to assist in its management, with the ability to customize watering needs based on local weather conditions among other variables. Dripio With its prototyping and testing phases over, the team behind Dripio has chosen to engage in a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to fund its initial round of production. “As we’ve been sharing the Dripio story with others, we discovered the sincere passion so many people have for gardening,” said Zehnbacht. “We decided to pursue the crowdfunding route because we knew that not only would it be a great way to raise money, but it would also help us connect with the gardening community in a genuine way.” Dripio’s