Faced with increasingly stringent watering restrictions, a growing number of Vancouver residents are generating business for companies that paint lawns green.
More than 20 local painting and landscaping companies are buying a non-toxic, green dye from Vancouver-based LawnLift Canada and applying them on client lawns, said Craig Lundy, who owns Imperial Painting and three years ago bought the Canadian rights for a U.S. product called LawnLift as a sideline venture for his painting company.
“Last year we didn’t sell much at all and revenue was in the tens of thousands of dollars,” Lundy said. “This year we’re shaping up to generate revenue in the six figures, and that’s from all across Canada.”
Sales have also shifted from being primarily in Ontario and Alberta last year to now being in B.C.
Lundy is so busy with Imperial Painting, which paints homes and businesses, that he doesn’t paint grass himself. Instead, he wholesales LawnLift to painting and landscaping businesses and sells the product online.
Evan Wicklund’s rapidly growing Pure Luxe Painting (PLP) is one of Lundy’s customers. He started marketing its services last month and has already averaged painting approximately eight lawns per week in Metro Vancouver. Wicklund said each lawn generates, on average, about $250 in revenue.
PLP’s revenue last year from painting homes and buildings was about $250,000, and Wicklund projects his three-year-old business will quintuple that amount in 2015 thanks largely to the company opening a second office, which is in Saskatoon.
PLP’s business remains primarily painting homes and buildings, but Wicklund is impressed with how fast the grass-painting sideline is growing.
“We have just started marketing to realtors as well, and we expect an exceptional return from that,” he told Business in Vancouver.
Wicklund anticipates painting 30 lawns per week by August.
He added that the product is safe for both children to play on and for pets.
“It’s basically a dye so it does not dry hard,” he said. “Obviously, if the grass is already dead and burnt, it will feel as bad as that when you walk on it.”
Lundy said the movie business is another sector that has been buying LawnLift. One of his clients used it on a football field for a movie shoot last year.•
