Gary Armstrong Email & Phone Number

Houston, Texas, United States

Houston, Texas Area

Manage $1.5-2.0M of commercial landscape accounts, including multi-family, HOAs, distribution centers and warehouses. I also manage all enhancements that I sell, such as seasonal color installations and landscape upgrades. In FY21, I sold $900K of enhancements, excluding snow/ice removal. FY22 YTD I have sold $660K of enhancements. All while maintaining a customer retention rate of >90%.

Houston, Texas Area

Managed a portfolio of $1.2 million of maintenance contracts consisting of Class A multifamily properties, office campuses small HOAs and cemeteries. Regularly visited properties to assess our performance and met with clients at least monthly to discuss their landscape needs and upcoming services. Identified potential landscape upgrades and created proposals. Assisted business developers with bid reviews, ensuring bids accurately reflected the scope and that budget hours were sufficient to successfully perform the work. Built a preventive maintenance tracking tool to ensure vehicles and equipment were serviced regularly. Created a simple asset numbering system to improve and accelerate monthly inventory counts and provide a sense of ownership to the respective crews. Developed and updated schedules and routes for 5 maintenance crews. Worked with crews to further develop talent and identify training opportunities. Held weekly safety meetings to discuss safety topics and review incidents. Interviewed and hired laborers and supervisors. From May, 2017 until October, 2018, I acted as the operations manager for the Houston branch, in lieu of a full time branch manager, overseeing the day to day operations, facility management and security, budget preparation, and regional and corporate reporting.Achieved a 90% customer retention each year from 2015 - 2018; sold over $350,000 of enhancements annually.

Houston, Tx

Located plant material and provide cost estimates for customers; answered customer questions about products both on the phone and in person; issued purchase orders and placed orders for plant material for nursery stock and customer orders; scheduled deliveries to the nursery and to customers’ job sites; created invoices for purchases and applied payments. Assisted estimator with completing bid takeoffs, as well as locating and pricing plant material for projects.

Houston, Tx

Managed the daily operations of a small retail and wholesale nursery. Created work schedules for yard crew to limit overtime expense; processed biweekly payroll, accounts payable, billing and collections; invoiced customers and applied payments; sourced plants and provided price estimates for customers; scheduled deliveries to the nursery and shipments to customers. Updated the nursery’s website and managed the email distribution list for the weekly availability.

Houston, Tx

Analyze the business processes for a $25 million landscape maintenance division and create and implement process improvements. Developed a formal annual contract review process that resulted in an additional $155,000 in annualized revenues through strategic increases. Created monthly job costing reports and rankings for review by branch and division managers. Monitor toll usage to identify high usage vehicles, reduced toll expense by $23,000 over 12 months. Assist branch managers with monthly forecasting, overtime control, annual budgeting and variance explanations. Provide labor trend reporting to division manager and vice president. Assisted with the development of company’s customer retention strategy. As safety coordinator, reduced TRIR by 56% over two years by developing a new hire orientation process in partnership with HR, creating an enhanced safety training program, establishing processes and procedures for injuries and accidents, and implementing a field safety audit program. Established relationships with medical providers to reduce recordable injuries; resulted in two departments exceeding 500 days without a recordable injury. Manage workers’ compensation, GL and auto claims processes, post-accident drug testing and OSHA record keeping. Make presentations to customers regarding company’s improved safety performance. Serve as leader of the company’s safety committee.

Total PnL responsibility for a $2.5-3 million branch. Managed the month end close process and reported to regional and corporate management on branch performance and variances. Developed annual budget and tracked performance to budget on a monthly basis. Managed a contract portfolio of $760,000 and was responsible for monthly contact with the branch’s top 10 customers to highlight our successes and to identify issues and develop corrective actions with landscape quality audits. Assisted the business developer with the proposal and presentation for the University of Alabama campus which became the Birmingham branch’s largest maintenance contract in 2008. Managed subcontractors that performed turf chemical applications and serviced a group of accounts that did not meet company requirements.In 2006, led the Memphis branch to its second highest net profit, both as a percent of revenue and net profit dollars, since 2002. Exceeded budgeted net profit dollars by 6.5% on a 6% revenue miss. Finished the year ranked #5 out of 99 branches based on net profit percentage.

Greater Memphis Area

Controlled the accounting and collections processes of the branch; implemented new systems, processes and procedures and provided branch training as needed. Completed monthly contract billings and weekly work order billings. Processed vendor invoices for payment and reconciled monthly statements. Compiled weekly reports for management review and assisted branch manager with annual budgeting process. Reviewed reports to complete month end process and reported variances to branch manager and region accountant. Assisted area managers by creating proposals and assembling proposal packages. Prepared branch for annual HR audit and consistently scored 85% or better. Supervised one full time payroll clerk/administrative assistant; reviewed and approved weekly payroll. Served as branch HR contact for employees and made presentations regarding annual benefits enrollment at employee meetings.Selected Achievements:-Maintained bad debt expense as percent of net revenue below .6% per year every year through focused collections efforts;-Awarded Best Accounts Receivable – Midsouth Region, 2003;-Trained new Branch Administrators in Knoxville and Birmingham on company systems and processes;-Served as interim Region Information Services Manager for the Midsouth Region for 6 months providing systems support to three branches in Tennessee.

Greater Memphis Area

Designed and priced seasonal color displays and presented proposals to customers; sourced plants and materials for spring and fall installations; scheduled installations and managed installation crews of 4-8 people; performed routine maintenance of seasonal color including deadheading annuals, insect and disease diagnosis and making chemical applications.

Sourced plant material and provided price quotes for customers; arranged direct shipments of plant material from growers to customers or jobsites; assisted customers with plant selection and loading orders; worked with the yard crew to unload shipments of plants and loading orders for delivery; responsible for maintaining landscape supplies inventory including tools, fertilizers and seeds, straw, soil amendments and chemicals; completed the sales process including invoicing and processing credit card payments; responsible for weed control on the nursery property using pre- and post-emergent herbicides and the required recordkeeping of chemical applications; assisted yard manager in the general organization of the nursery including keeping plants properly labeled and priced and neatly arranged; assisted with setup of vendor display at SNA and GGIA trade shows and worked on a rotating schedule to staff the booth during the trade shows.