Atlantic Coast Landscaping Services Acquired in Mosaic's Southern Shade Tree Deal

What happened

Atlantic Coast Landscaping Services, a landscaping company based in New Bern, North Carolina, was acquired in a deal that Mosaic Capital Partners and Southern Shade Tree Co. (SST) announced on August 11, 2026. The acquisition was announced simultaneously with Mosaic's investment in SST itself, a Fort Mill, South Carolina landscaper with operations across the Carolinas. Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

The seller

Trent Jarman, a New Bern firefighter, founded Atlantic Coast in 2003. He and his cousin Carlton Tyndall co-owned and ran the business as a family company, with Jarman as president and Tyndall as chief executive, and the leaders of Atlantic Coast will remain in their roles. The owners describe it as the largest landscape company in the New Bern area.

Atlantic Coast designs, installs and maintains landscapes for residential estates and commercial properties across New Bern and the surrounding parts of eastern North Carolina. The work runs from lawn care, mowing and turf care to irrigation and hardscape construction, and the company also sells landscape materials and supplies. Its employees are immediately eligible to participate in the new Employee Ownership Trust that Mosaic set up at SST.

The buyer

Founded in 1954, SST works with national and local homebuilders to install and maintain new-home landscaping, and also serves land developers and homeowners associations. It is a design-build operation covering grading, irrigation, planting and sodding, with supporting maintenance capabilities, and employs more than 350 people across 12 operating locations. Through Bentwood Farms, which it acquired in 2020, SST cultivates more than 4,500 acres of sod and 100 acres of tree and shrub nurseries on eight farms.

"We found SST's vertically-integrated business model to be highly differentiated relative to other landscaping operations, particularly in the Carolinas," said Steve Buchanan, a partner at Mosaic. Chief Executive Scott Roberts and President Brent Lovett, both with the business for more than 20 years, continue to lead SST, and management retained meaningful ownership. Longtime owner Roger Braswell kept a sizable stake and remains involved. Roberts called Atlantic Coast's market "a key expansion market for us," adding that "the cultural fit is equally important and we are excited to join forces."

Mosaic, SST's new private equity backer, is a Charlotte-based firm that invests in lower-middle-market companies through employee ownership transactions. Its stake was not disclosed. The trust it set up gives every SST employee a share of the upside. "Having participated in many transactions throughout my career, I found Mosaic's employee ownership solution refreshing," Braswell said. SST is the only landscaping company in Mosaic's portfolio, which spans medical transportation, staffing, manufacturing and steel; the most recent investment before it was Ickler Electric, a Southern California electrical contractor, in 2025.

What this means for landscaping owners

Because Atlantic Coast was bought at the same time Mosaic set up SST's employee ownership trust, a 23-year-old family business in New Bern came into the deal with its employees eligible for the plan from the start. That gives an owner a specific term to raise with any buyer: whether an ownership plan set up at the platform reaches the companies it acquires, and from when. Our guide on selling a landscaping business to private equity covers the rest of that conversation.

OffDeal is an advisory firm that helps lower-middle-market business owners sell with confidence. Reach out to learn more about our expertise with landscaping businesses in North Carolina.

Own a landscaping business with $5M–$100M in revenue? We’re glad to give you an honest read on what it’s worth and who would buy it — no pitch, no pressure. Get a free valuation.

Source: Mosaic Capital Partners - https://www.mosaic-cp.com/mosaic-capital-partners-invests-in-southern-shade-tree/