Landscape Juice

BALI landscape awards are a world away

I wonder if the term landscaper has now become a misclassification for some members of the landscape and horticulture industry?

The reason for my wonderment has been stirred by the recent BALI landscaping awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel where The Landscape Group - turnover £50m and employing 1,100 staff - has just won BALI's Grand Award for its landscaping of the Broadway development in Salford, Manchester.

BALI do have an award category for domestic landscaping covering projects from £20,000-£50,000 but the emphasis definitely seems to be on projects from £100,000 to £1.5m.

Isn't BALI trying now to spread itself too wide and missing the domestic landscaper? Only a very tiny proportion of companies in the UK, and I'd classify them as bordering on civil engineering, have turnovers of over £1m and employ over 10 people.

Philip Voice of Landscape Juice speaking with Ray Baxter of BALI

Ray Baxter the Brintex Events Organiser for the Bali Show said that the Creating Landscapes show looked smart and clean and that it is good to meet up with other event's organisers whether competitors or not.

Ray said that it is a pity that sometimes there are barriers across the gates when organisations have a disagreement. Phil also agreed that it is not what people wanted. Bali had its first show for many years in 2011, they approached associations to come on board trying to bring in all groups under one roof, such as BALI, the IOG, the HTA. Phil said that this was also the aim of Creating Landscapes to bring people together and that he thought it could be difficult to break through the entry limits of an association to make sure everybody was welcome.

Are BALI playing by their own rules?

"Our members' contracts are as keen as they can be and they get increasingly frustrated when they find the work they hoped to get has been taken by people who are not VAT registered and not fully aware of the legislative position. The world has changed so much - with Work at Height Regulations, for instance, that are not just affecting tree work. You have to adapt work practices to conform to legislation.

The above is a quote by the then BALI CEO, Sandra Loton-Jones, in an interview given to Hort Week - I wrote about it here.

Fast forward two years and it seems as though it's its own members who might not be playing it fair either.

I spoke yesterday with a landscaper who has designed a garden and then provided a quotation to carry out the work.

After submitting the price, he learned they'd not been successful only to find that a BALI company won the work by being 30% cheaper.

The person I spoke to conceded that they weren't the cheapest company around and if they'd been beaten by 5-10% then it would not have been a big deal but at 30% less he felt the contractor was 'buying the job' and couldn't possibly be making a profit.

The landscaping associations have been urging members not to devalue themselves by reducing prices. This case - and I'm sure it's not isolated - is evidence that members might not have a choice.

Have you lost work due to unreasonably lower quotes recently?

BALI's AGM minutes hint at tough times for itself and its members

It's normally very difficult to find too many facts on the rather secretive British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) but the release of minutes from their recently held AGM perhaps gives us a little insight into the kind of challenges even BALI, let alone its members, have faced in the last twelve months.

Paul Cowell's chairman's report told of the upheaval at the BALI HQ - I assume when Sandra Loton-Jones left her post - whilst the treasurer's report stated that BALI only made a profit because it no longer employed a CEO.

The sponsorship of the third year of the World Skills Challenge lost BALI £10,000 and bizarrely a contract for a lease on a photocopier took £5,000 from the bottom line.

There's no denying that trading conditions are extremely tough but rhetoric from landscaping trade associations tends to gives the impression that their members are 'above the clouds' and immune from the difficulties of us lesser mortals.

Landscape industry set to be further polarised?

In a statement set to cause further concern amongst landscapers and garden designers, APL chairman Mark Gregory has called for the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) and the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) to join together and form one unified landscape association. Gregory also said that they [APL] should forge closer ties with the Society of Garden Designers (SGD).

A combined APL and BALI would only represent less than 5% of the whole of the landscaping industry but close association with traditional horticulture trade press means only those who operate within these organisations will be promoted.

In an article on the Hort Week website [it's no good linking to it because the page is now behind a paywall] Gregory called the unregulated landscaping industry 'a tramps' trade' and said: "Anyone can call themselves a garden designer or a landscape contractor and charge whatever they want."

APL start talking the talk as Mark Gregory takes office

Last year, I spoke at length with incoming Association of Professional Landscapers' [APL] chairman, Mark Gregory, about the the landscaping industry and how he's planning to be different during his tenure.

He's certainly got his work cut out after admitting that the organisation is broke and heavily reliant on the HTA for financial assistance and resources. Whether there will be enough funds with which to work with is another matter.

Mark is held in high esteem by his industry peers and I really do think he'll have a positive impact and to be honest, there's probably not a better choice to head up the APL at this crucial junction of their history and I genuinely wish him well.

It doesn't mean I'm going to give him an easy time though.

BALI national landscape awards 2010

Winners of the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) national awards Grand Award for 2010 are Bowles & Wyer Ltd with their domestic scheme over £250,000.

The BALI National Landscape Awards took place on Friday the 3rd of December. Just under 800 of the UK's leading landscape professionals gathered together to celebrate 2010's finest award winning schemes.

There were 125 Award entries from 65 BALI members throughout the UK. 81 of the 125 schemes submitted won a BALI Award.

To see all other finalists and winners - click here.

See the full list of winners here.

Exclusive interview with APL chairman Mark Gregory

Mark Gregory has had just over five weeks as the new chairman of the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) and made contact with me here at Landscape Juice after I questioned whether it will be 'same old same old' during his tenure.

Mark and I spoke for just over and hour on Friday morning in what turned out to be one the frankest discussions I've had with anyone from either of the UK's landscaping and horticulture associations.

Mark talks candidly about how dissatisfied British Association of Landscape Industries' (BALI) members, under the leadership of Alan Sargent, broke away to from the APL and why he wishes he was 'mature enough' to talk Sargent out of the move and encourage him to sit down and work out their problems and how the APL is not able to operate without the financial support of the Horticulture Trades association.

What are BALI's business priorities right now?

I read an interview with new British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) chairman Paul Cowell on Hort Week yesterday and it got me wondering if Paul has come into the BALI job with his priorities in the right order?

First I have to declare something: I spoke with Paul for an hour and three minutes yesterday and we talked widely about the landscaping industry and I agreed that the content of (although as I called to talk to Paul about the HW interview, I have included some of his responses here) shall remain between the two of us. I do however hope to speak to Paul in the near future and with his permission, publish the content.

Paul says in the interview that he attended a symposium on biodiversity and was 'frustrated' that he was the only landscaper in the room - for those as 'frustrated' as me that Hort Week didn't add a link to the symposium, so that we could get a grasp of what Paul talks about, here it is 'The First Global Business of Biodiversity Symposium'.

Mark Gregory takes APL chairmanship but will it be 'same old same old'?

Mark Gregory is the Association of Professional Landscapers' (APL) new chairman and comes into office promising change as the APL goes into a new phase of development.

In his first interview since taking over the role from Adam Frost, Gregory told David Curtis of the Landscaper Magazine (October issue - read online) that the APL has to move on and address the needs of its members.

Gregory, however, offers very little by the way of assurance that there has yet been any kind of direction agreed and it's rather disturbing for the APL's membership to continue to hear how the association is still only researching and looking into forums and social media - despite a brand new website less than two years ago, APL members still don't have an in-house method of sharing information and exchanging documents and ideas on a one-to-many basis.