Greenscapes director Craig Thomas is driven by relationships – both within his own business and with the other businesses and people who make up Canterbury’s landscaping community.
Craig has been cultivating Greenscapes for 24 years – and feeding its success has been the strong support of those who work with and for him.
“I’ve found the key thing about any business is the people in it,” he says. “If you haven’t got a good team, you won’t get anywhere.”
Craig’s always had that philosophy. When he established Greenscapes in January 2001, he knew he wanted to run his business as compassionately as possible.
“Having worked for others previously, the key thing I learned was to treat people how I want to be treated. So, I made sure Greenscapes is quite family focused, which wasn’t a vision shared by too many other businesses when we started.”
Breadth of experience
While Craig learned a few things from working for others, he also learned a lot working for himself. Having established his own garden maintenance and softscaping business at 18, those formative years helped shape his ethos – with the relationships he developed quickly becoming important for him.
“When I started that company, I had no business knowledge. It was a steep learning curve but a very good one. I had to learn quickly and, off the back of it, I got to know a few other landscapers and received some mentoring.
“I did that for six years but got sick of the admin,” he explains. “I became the groundskeeper for a school in Nelson before moving to Christchurch to take up a job managing a specimen tree company. I left for another tree company and was made redundant. Two days later, I started Greenscapes.”
Development of new skills
With Craig’s background in soft landscaping, it’s no surprise that his new business started off doing garden maintenance, planting, lawn work, and timber edging. Over time, Craig knew he had to evolve his business and employed a contracts manager.
“That got us into the hardscaping side and gave us a firm footing in the area.”
Now, Craig says Greenscapes is an all-in-one solution for clients working across soft and hard landscaping.
“We have two siteworks teams, two soft landscaping teams, three construction teams, and our office staff. We do some in-house design work and also use Craig Wilson from FORM Garden Architecture and Luke Robertson from Epic Landscape Design.”
A unique part of Greenscapes’ business is supplying plants to other landscapers, adds Craig.
“We price straight from plans, or consult online, then deliver and place the plants for our customers.”
A career highlight
One job that turned into an eight-month project sticks out in Craig’s mind.
Initially, we were contracted for a six-week project designed by Xteriorscapes. Our team ended up staying for eight months as we constructed a pool and designed and built a large pond with a waterfall. All the work was done within an extensive park-like setting, with large planting and lawn areas.”
“It was very, very cool. There aren’t many people who have old World War II planes displayed on a metal pole in their garden!”
Key relationships help build a business
Of course, cool projects don’t get completed to the client’s satisfaction without good supplier relationships and a supportive team Relationships – and Craig has that covered.
“We’ve worked with Mitre 10 for over 20 years, and I’ve known Roger Morgan at Readylawn and Trevor Bradley at Aquaterra for decades. I don’t shop around as much for prices anymore because I know those suppliers will be quicker to give me a quote and will deliver quicker than anything I could achieve by shopping around.”
Within Greenscapes, Craig has been working with some of his staff as long as he’s been working with his suppliers – such as office manager Kay Emson.
“Kay joined us 20 years ago and is an integral part of what we do. Additionally, between myself, Jeremy Summer, Mike Adams (project managers), and Chris Long (garden consultant) we have more than 90 years of landscaping experience.”
Maintaining positive work relationships helps Craig avoid the trickiest part of doing business – recruiting in a tight labour market!
“We’ve found it pretty easy to retain our staff because of the way we treat them. We try to be as flexible and understanding as possible. We’re also happy to offer apprenticeships and generally have two or three going through at any given time. I think it’s important to train people and encourage new workers into the industry.”
Craig says the Apprenticeship Boost – a scheme that initially provided cash payments of $1,000 a month to employers with first-year apprentices and $500 a month for second-year apprentices – was a big help in its early days but less so since the amount was reduced to $500 a month across the board.
“Fees Free has also been an important scheme to encourage more apprentices into the industry,” he adds.
A long standing RML advocate
Being an active participant in the industry has always been important to Craig. It’s why he joined the Registered Master Landscapers (RML) in 2004 and why he’s maintained his relationship with the organisation for 20 years.
“One of the key reasons I joined was to build a sense of community with other RML members. I enjoy being able to talk freely about industry developments – and building a sense of camaraderie between businesses is important, as I work closely with a few members, and I want to support new emerging landscape business owners. It's all about the relationships!”
The RML’s flagship awards night, Landscapes of Distinction (LOD), is scheduled for July 2025 – and Craig says his team is prepping its entry!
“We intend to enter and I’ll be catching up with the rest of the staff about it soon. Being an LOD winner is great for the company profile and gives your team a real buzz when they see their work being applauded.”
Once again, relationship building is Craig’s north star. Landscaping is all Craig has ever known, and, thanks to his business ethos and the strong bonds he’s forged with the people he relies on the most, that’s the way he likes it.