Family-Owned Bartlett Tree Experts Acquires Reilly Tree and Landscape

What happened

Bartlett Tree Experts has acquired Reilly Tree and Landscape, a tree care, lawn care, and landscape company in Plainville, Massachusetts. The announcement did not include financial terms.

What this means for tree care owners

For tree care owners, this deal puts a family-owned operator among the buyers already working in the region. What an owner sells to this buyer is a crew and a customer list that join a branch network, running plant health care programs backed by the company's own research laboratories. An owner weighing selling to private equity can set that path beside a buyer whose acquisitions become its own offices.

The seller

Neal Reilly founded Reilly Tree and Landscape in 2003, and the company serves southern New England from Plainville. It works on residential and commercial properties. Its commercial customers include the Hockomock Area YMCA, Dean College, and An Unlikely Story Bookstore.

Tree work is the core of the business. Its certified arborists handle structural, ornamental, and safety pruning, along with tree removal, stump removal, and tree and shrub fertilization. The company also runs a lawn program, 6 Step Green Lawns, as a division of its own. It designs, installs, and maintains landscapes, including walkways, patios, and retaining walls. A tick and mosquito program applies an organic-based mixture to wood lines and mulch beds.

Neal Reilly took the company through the Tree Care Industry Association's accreditation process in 2012, and it is a nationally accredited member of that association. It is also a member of the Massachusetts Arborists Association and holds the Massachusetts Certified Arborist designation.

The buyer

Bartlett Tree Experts is a fourth-generation, family-owned tree and shrub care company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. Francis A. Bartlett founded it in 1907, and it now runs more than 125 offices worldwide. Its Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories evaluates plant samples, identifies disease-causing organisms and insects, and performs soil analysis.

Reilly follows Bartlett's acquisition in southern New Hampshire in March. In June, Bartlett bought T.F. Morra Tree Care of East Providence, Rhode Island, which gave it two Rhode Island offices, in East Providence and North Kingstown. Bartlett also has a location in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Terms of the T.F. Morra deal were not disclosed.

Bartlett's record in Massachusetts shows what happens to the people at a company it buys. When it acquired The Haupt Tree Company in 2023, 20 Haupt employees joined Bartlett, and the deal added a new Bartlett office in Sheffield. Erik H. Haupt had founded that company in 1957, and it served western Massachusetts, eastern New York, and northwestern Connecticut. With Sheffield, Bartlett operated nine offices in the state at the time.

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

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Source: Lawn & Landscape - https://www.lawnandlandscape.com/news/bartlett-tree-experts-acquires-reilly-tree-and-landscape-in-massachusetts