SOUTH ROXANA - The story of Country Club Lawn-Tree is something that sounds as American as it comes.
Matt Brooks started the company out of a garage and a small home and it recently marked the beginning of its 16th year in business, starting in 2001. Brooks’ partner, Mark Black has been in the business almost from the start and the two share a variety of responsibilities. The office for the business is located at 410 Broadway Ave. in South Roxana. Recently, the business had an open house to thank customers for all their years of prosperity and support.
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Brooks beams with pride of how far the business has come over the years. Today, it is a household name with customers throughout the St. Louis and Metro East Illinois region, centrally located in South Roxana.
When asked what the secret to Country Club Lawn-Tree’s success was, Brooks said he believes it is still the “quality of work and customer service” offered by the business.
“We have always put quality over quantity,” he said. “That has been the secret to our success in my opinion. We have had a lot of customer referrals. We have tried to stay away from telemarketing and operated more of our service efforts. We take pride in our work.”
Brooks said the business today has customers all over Madison and St. Clair counties, with a huge concentration in Edwardsville, Glen Carbon and Maryville areas.
“We have a high concentration of customers in several of the neighborhoods there,” he said of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon and Maryville. “We usually get one or two customers in a neighborhood and it spreads.”
Often, the Country Club Lawn-Tree staff will place signs in yards that take care of and that seems to lead to others wanting to join the group, Brooks said.
Mark Black has been with Brooks for the last 12 years. He said Brooks is excellent with tree estimates because he is a licensed arborist.
“We do free estimates on lawns and trees,” Black said.
Country Club-Lawn Tree service today has a 2.5-acre property with a 9,000 square-foot building with 2,000 square-foot of office space. The County Club fleet now possesses 17 vehicles.
“Honestly, it feels like I just started yesterday,” Black said. “It feels good to be able to say we have self sustained. To me the measurement of success is that we supply and provide for 20 families within County Club Lawn-Tree. To me, that makes me happier than anything else.”
Leslie Huber, office manager for Country Club Lawn-Tree, said the business goes all the way to Jerseyville, to Belleville, Shiloh and even Trenton.
She and Black said if one person likes the service, they tell another.
“We go by word of mouth, mostly with referrals,” they said. “This has grown quite a bit since Matt started out of his garage in Cottage Hills.”
Research has shown that a nice lawn and landscaping can improve a person’s home value as much as 10 percent or more.
“Some Realtors will contact us to do an application or two of properties that are not kept up to sell it,” Brooks said. “It is very important to the value of a home to have a nice yard and we help people maintain that.”
The company offers everything from tree and shrub care, to vegetation management, soil samples work, athletic field turf management, Bermuda grass suppression, organic based lawn care, aeration and over-seeding, total lawn renovation and commercial lawn care.
For more information, contact Country Club Lawn-Tree at www.countryclublawnandtree.com or call 618-254-8300 in Illinois and 314-838-4300 in Missouri.
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