Generations

As a teen, Bill McEwen Jr. saw his destiny anywhere but with the family’s Alberta-based business, Blue Grass Nursery, Sod and Garden Centre. “When I got out of high school, I had no intention of working in the business,” he says, reflecting the sentiment of many youths growing up in the shadow of a family business. “I wanted to get out into the real world.”

So he left the family’s sod and landscape supply business to pursue his path in the Canadian oil sands in northern Alberta. But as the years passed, McEwen began to appreciate the tremendous opportunities Blue Grass could offer him.

“I realized I was not going to get an opportunity like this anywhere else,” he says of rejoining the Blue Grass operation. “Plus, I loved this industry. It’s fantastic, and it’s treated us well.”

Upon his return, McEwen was instrumental in expanding the family’s operations into the Calgary market and was soon running the office there.

“The fantastic part about this industry is you can stand back and see what you’ve accomplished and see what you’ve actually done,” he says. “And the beautification aspect of what we do is so huge. It’s what keeps me going day to day in this industry — helping people improve and beautify the outside of their homes.”

Today, McEwen is the CEO of Blue Grass and shares ownership and management duties with his brother, Bruce, who is president and the principal of the family’s Red Deer-based sod operation. As third-generation leaders, they maintain the family’s entrepreneurial tradition that stretches back nearly 75 years to their grandfather, who founded a company based on grass. While both first and second generations of senior McEwens passed away some years ago, Bill believes his father and grandfather would approve of how the business has evolved in recent years.

“My grandfather wouldn’t be able to fathom what we’ve actually achieved with Blue Grass,” he says of the company’s evolution, diversification and prosperity. “And my dad would be extremely impressed and proud of what we’ve built and that it’s grown beyond their expectations.”

Traditions

Blue Grass traces its roots back nearly three-quarters of a century, when Bert McEwen started harvesting native pastureland for developments in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1950. An opportunity presented itself in 1969, when the Calgary Housing Authority began requesting sod for various construction projects. Bill Sr. and his wife Gail (Bill and Bruce’s mother and father) scouted out 155 acres of Red Deer native pastureland for its soil quality and the region’s higher-than-average rainfall. Bert would go on to manage the sod farm and progress toward producing a registered nursery-grown turf.

After quite a bit of research, the McEwen family chose a sod blend of 80% blue grass and 20% fescue, and by 1976, the entire property was dedicated to producing premium sod. While the mixture has evolved over time, it would become the standard for quality turfgrass.

Over time, Blue Grass would grow to two locations — Calgary and Red Deer — with multiple depots throughout Alberta. Its operations have expanded into more than 2,000 acres around Red Deer and neighboring Irricana and Markerville, as well as more than 250 acres of caliper trees (larger diameter trees used to give a new landscape and established look) in Central Alberta.

Today, the brothers carry on the tradition and culture their forebears established in Blue Grass.

McEwen says his mother and father instilled in them a strong work ethic, which has been invaluable as they transitioned into the company and worked to take the operation to the next level. “They taught my brother and me not to be scared of work and of getting our hands dirty to make things happen,” he says. “And my father taught us not to be scared to try something and that if you start something, you have the opportunity to finish it. Whereas if you never try, then you never get the opportunity to finish.”

It’s about service

As stewards of all things natural, Blue Grass operates a full-scale nursery and garden center that provides residential and commercial clients with a wide variety of landscaping products, as well as professional landscaping and snow and ice management services. And while sod production is the foundation of the Blue Grass business, McEwen describes it today as the “milk in the back of the cooler.”

“Landscapers and the general public come to our place to get a few pieces of sod or a pallet of sod,” he says. “But then we also supply all of the rest of the products that go along with that – topsoil, gravel, decorative rock and mulches. And we have the annuals and perennials, potted plants, shrubs, and caliper trees. So, we’ve become a one-stop shop for whatever you need outside your house. So, while sod is still an important part of what we do, it’s not the number one thing anymore.”

This product diversification is one of the keys to Blue Grass’ enduring success. “One of the reasons people keep coming back to Blue Grass is we have probably the largest selection of [landscape] products that people expect a garden center to sell,” McEwen says. “And the quality of the products we sell is second to none compared to what people find at big-box stores.”

Another critical key is the caliber of customer service it provides its clients. In fact, McEwen says it’s what sets Blue Grass apart from its competitors and has kept them competitive and successful in its markets. “Service is a big part of what we do,” he explains. “We all sell, more or less, the same products. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the service we give after the fact and how we address our customers’ needs.”

Without hesitation, McEwen points to his staff as the instruments for delivering that above-and-beyond level of service, many of whom have been valued Blue Grass team members for 10-plus years and some for as long as 30 years.

“A big part of delivering our level of customer service is having knowledgeable, experienced people who actually know how to work in this industry,” he says. “And a big key for us to deliver that [expertise to clients] is to maintain a very low [employee] turnover rate. We’ve got a lot of fantastic people on staff working in our organization. At the end of the day, you want people who are passionate about what they do and about being part of the service industry, which means helping people.”

In turn, Blue Grass does all it can to foster, provide continuing education and promote up the company ladder those valued employees who want to be a part of its culture and carry out its mission. For example, if an employee wants to better themselves and gain more professional skills — horticultural, mechanical or even business classes — Blue Grass will support those educational pursuits.

“From [competitive] wages, sending people to school, to just accommodating different employment scenarios for people as far as working in the business is concerned,” McEwen says. “We just try to work with our people and take into consideration the fact that people deserve to have a life outside of work.”

The next generation

As part of its strategic planning, McEwen and his brother are focused on assimilating their children into Blue Grass’ operations and preparing a fourth generation for the day when they’ll eventually take leadership roles of their own in the family business.

McEwen’s daughter, Jessica, oversees the potted tree and shrub operation. His son, Wyatt, works in the company’s landscape and snow and ice management division. His brother, Bruce, has two daughters who are also involved in various aspects of the business. “Our long-term plan is to have at least done most of the hard work and give these kids a fantastic opportunity to carry Blue Grass on into the future,” he says.

And while working in a family business — like any business operations, for that matter — comes with its own unique challenges, McEwen says he can’t imagine being in any other environment.

“Are there days you wished you weren’t working with your family? Sure,” he says with a chuckle. “But at least you know that you can trust the people around and that they’ve always got your back.”

Mike Zawacki is a Cleveland-based writer who has written about various aspects of the green industry for nearly two decades.