Growth is now the goal for Scotland’s Best Landscaping Company winners GGM

Despite being so young, he was already skilled at both gardening and tree surgery, having started work at weekends and school holidays when he was only 14-years-old in order to support his mother and Nanny (gran).

And it is his late Nanny’s advice that he has kept at the forefront of his mind during the phenomenal growth of GGM.

“She used to say that if you look after people and do a good job you will reap the rewards so I knuckled down to that,” said Mr Grant.

There is no doubt his philosophy has paid off as the company were last year voted Best Tree Surgery company before triumphing at the Scottish Home Improvement Awards this year.

“We are delighted to have won as we have kept a high standard within the business and are committed to delivering an excellent service” said Mr Grant.

His aim is to keep on growing the company while maintaining his high standards.

“Our goal is to be the household name in Glasgow for all gardening needs,” said Mr Grant. “We are the only company that specialises in everything, including garden maintenance, tree surgery and landscaping and there is no reason why – if we keep doing what we are doing and do it right – we can’t become the biggest and most well known garden company across Scotland.”

Having started with just one van he bought for £250, Mr Grant now has a fleet of nine vans, two diggers and HGVs. There are nine permanent staff and a large squad of trusted contractors working for him all over the country.

The business has also partnered with Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to launch an apprenticeship scheme which has already successfully trained several young people who have not had the easiest start in life.

Mr Grant is passionate about giving these youngsters the opportunity to overcome their backgrounds as he knows from experience how difficult it can be.

“I have come from nothing – just a small house in Eastfield where I was mostly brought up by my Nanny,” he said. “My mum was there too but suffered severe mental health problems and with that being the case I had to just get out and work and bring in the money.”

He started by cutting grass and hedges in Cambuslang then began learning tree surgery with a local company, before moving into landscaping.

“By the time I was 21, I was one of the youngest, most experienced tree surgeons in Glasgow” said Mr Grant.

His business took off so quickly he was able to bring in other young workers but then wondered how to take it further.

“Our industry has a lot of white van men and people who are not accredited so we looked at how we would get the accredited staff if we kept expanding,” Mr Grant explained.

His solution was to begin training his own workers and so he set up South Lanarkshire’s first private tree surgery apprenticeship. That was four years ago and the first apprentice is now running one of the tree surgery teams.

In order to take on more apprentices, the company then teamed up with SDS to make a framework for an inhouse apprenticeship scheme which has taken on several young people every year.

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“They are flourishing,” said Mr Grant. “We don’t plan to stop growing which means we are not capping where they can go in the business and their own growth potential.”

While he praises his team of workers, Mr Grant is always striving to make sure his clients are happy and believes client feedback is imperative for growth.

“It is important to have a good relationship with our clients,” he said. “People want value for money and from the first point of contact we try to take as much information from the client to find out exactly what they are looking for and why, so we can design a garden around their needs. We try to make sure it is very tailored to the client as what people want depends on their age and where they are in their life.”

The work hasn’t been easy in the last six months because of the amount of rain this summer but Mr Grant said it was important that people could enjoy their gardens as much as possible when the weather is good.

“The past six months have been really hard because the weather has been really miserable,” he said. “We have been up against it but we just have to roll with the punches because we are based in Glasgow and while I would like to think the weather is going to change, being realistic it is not.

“People don’t want to work in their gardens when the weather is bad but we can create a space that is both easy to maintain and a place to enjoy when the sun is out,” Mr Grant said.

glasgowgm.co.uk