APHIX Acquires Sunrise of Nashville; Founder Bob Wellerding Stays On

What happened

APHIX, a Kentucky-based commercial landscaping company, has acquired Sunrise of Nashville, a landscape maintenance, design, and irrigation contractor in Nashville, Tennessee. APHIX announced that Sunrise is now under its ownership, and Bob Wellerding, Sunrise's founder and president, will continue to lead the Nashville market for APHIX alongside Sunrise's existing leadership team. The announcement did not disclose financial terms.

The seller

Sunrise began in 1980 as a residential mowing service run by two David Lipscomb graduates, Wellerding and Steve Gaines, working with a few string trimmers, blowers, and two riding mowers. As commercial clients asked for a single contractor to handle their grounds, the company took on full maintenance, then landscape design and installation, completing its first large project in 1984, and added irrigation installation in 1986. A total landscape renovation at country singer Lee Greenwood's house made the landscape division a permanent part of the business.

Its customers are HOAs, estates, schools, banks, and other commercial properties, and it has worked for townhome and condominium communities and office and industrial parks. The company has been a member of the Community Associations Institute and the Institute of Real Estate Management. Wellerding is licensed with the State of Tennessee in horticulture lawn and turf and is a Tennessee Certified Nursery Professional.

"Building Sunrise of Nashville over the past four decades has been the honor of my career," Wellerding said of the sale.

Sunrise's contact information stays the same under APHIX, and its Larmon Drive location is now listed as the APHIX Nashville office.

The buyer

Allen Sweeney founded APHIX in 2004 and remains its president and CEO. The company provides commercial grounds maintenance, landscape enhancement and construction, irrigation, and snow and ice removal from offices in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina. Caltius Equity Partners became its first institutional investor in 2022, and APHIX completed six acquisitions during that partnership. Gauge Capital acquired APHIX from Caltius in July 2025. APHIX ranks No. 63 on Lawn & Landscape's 2026 Top 100 list, up from No. 87 in 2025.

How APHIX has structured its 2026 deals

Sunrise is one of several companies APHIX has taken over this year. North Carolina Turf Care, a Raleigh-area company Ryan and Travis Tyrell founded in 2004, was reported by Lawn & Landscape in June as APHIX's move into the Carolinas, and the Tyrells continue to lead the North Carolina market for APHIX with branch manager Anthony Cowan. Triangle Landscape Group, in Garner, North Carolina, is also now under APHIX ownership. In September, APHIX acquired Piedmont Landscape Management in Augusta, its first Georgia branch, where owner Patrick Wells and the Piedmont team keep their day-to-day leadership roles. Owners weighing a sponsor-backed buyer like this one can read our guide on selling a landscaping business to private equity.

What this means for landscaping owners

At North Carolina Turf Care, Sunrise, and Piedmont, the people who owned the business before the sale stayed on to lead it after, whether they had founded it in 1980 or bought it in 2019. For owners of long-established companies, that makes the owner's role after closing something this buyer makes public at the deal, and a term to settle in writing early rather than leave to the integration.

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 Tennessee.

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Source: APHIX - https://aphix.com/sunrise-of-nashville-x-aphix/