Guest articles

Back in 1978, David McBryde launched Planters Horticulture LLC in the UAE with a drive from London to the UAE in a lorry full of materials and plants and one hotel client that needed help and just couldn’t find the quality required in the region at that time.

Fast forward to 2018 and newly appointed CEO, Adam Broom (me) was brought in to change things up. With 20 years in media and zero knowledge of landscapes, it was a bold move by David but one that appears to have paid off.
The company now serves almost 2,000 corporate clients and designs and installs more than 800 new landscapes every year with a turnkey suite of products including interior and exterior environment maintenance, landscape design, supply of live plants, artificial foliage, bespoke fibreglass production, vertical planting systems and preserved natural plants.

Having moved through Covid-19 with record revenue and profit and an expanding set of products and services deployed across the GCC we have never felt more optimistic about the opportunities in the region.

In 2022 we have decided “why” (I recommend searching out Simon Sinek for more information about finding your corporate why!) Planters is here:

‘Everything we do we seek to improve on what was done before and to empower every person in our team to achieve that goal.’

This is informing all of our management and shareholder thinking and has put us on a clear path forward.

This has pushed us to audit our carbon footprint and will be followed by setting targets for carbon neutrality. It has strengthened the way we think of our team and the requirement to create career opportunities for all levels. And finally, it has changed the way we measure success where P&L is a byproduct of success but momentum is the key performance indicator.
Our aims for the future are simple, apply technology and training to landscape maintenance to provide the highest levels of sustainable environmental management and be at the forefront of biophilic innovation in landscape design.

When we speak of sustainability we don’t just think about what’s good for the environment which can often be the focus. We think about the lifecycle costs of environments and how to reduce these for our clients to ensure mature environments are allowed to flourish without prohibitive FM expenses.

So I guess that leads to the question who is our ideal client? And the answer is any company that wants to maintain and create an environment where their team and their customers, can thrive.

The importance of a connection to nature for human well-being is well researched and has consistently demonstrated benefits for productivity and profit and our team is always on hand to talk anyone through how to enhance their environment.

Within the BBG I’m personally looking to learn and am always open to meeting with like-minded business leaders, the kind of people that are trying to develop new ways to manage a business, new ways to think about team development, new ways to think of creating efficiencies, and new ways to think of financing expansion.

If anyone out there feels like they could be a good mentor for a CEO that constantly wants to learn or for any potential partners that think they can help the landscape industry change for the better, please reach out to me directly.