Business profile: GT Landscapes
GT Landscapes may be a small team, but they pack a big punch when it comes to getting the job done on time and always on budget
Greig Morgan’s started by completing his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker before transitioning into building. By the time 1993 rolled around, Greig had gotten into landscaping, as he says it was a lot more creative and rewarding.
Starting GT Landscapes in 1997, Greig’s philosophy was simple: treat people how you want to be treated and with the same quality and pride in your work that you would do to your own place.
Since then, the business hasn’t looked back, and with long-time employee Sid Tukia, their landscaping craftsmanship is well-known around the Auckland region and, in my opinion, a cut above many others in the industry.
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Greig Morgan and Sid Tukia
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Greig says the beauty of having a small team is they do everything themselves; they don’t have to rely on other people, which keeps the cost of pricing low, as they have no large staff overheads. Going along with that there are no grey areas of understanding where one trade starts and another one finishes.
A client is dealing with two top tradesmen that do all aspects of landscaping—all building work such as constructing decks, pergolas, paving, crazy paving, pool coping, pool fencing, artificial lawns, water features—the list goes on.
Greig says they do a lot of outdoor kitchen areas, with built-in sinks, pizza ovens, fireplaces, and smokers; all of which have seen an increase in popularity in the last few years. The philosophy of treating each new job as if it’s his own place has held the company in good stead over the past 30 odd years.
While there have been plenty of opportunities to expand his workforce and take on multiple landscaping jobs all at once, Greig says he’s resisted the temptation to do that and has found that it’s best to keep it simple by doing one project at a time.
Greig says a major factor in the ongoing success of his business is due to his long-time friend and workmate Sid, who has worked alongside him since 1998 and clearly enjoys being Greig’s right-hand man.
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Transforming an Auckland client’s sloping backyard into a two-tiered courtyard
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Sid says that there was a third team member, a guy called Dave, however, due to family commitments he had to resign from the firm, leaving the boys with one man short for a while.
Greig and Sid had a ‘round table’ meeting soon after Dave left to see if they could come up with a suitable way to find a replacement staff member, but somehow or another, they just couldn’t find a person who was willing to work as hard as Dave did.
They’d almost given up any hope of ever finding someone who’d fit in as a third person when the owner of the 1.7-tonne Takeuchi excavator they’d been hiring over the years phoned to say he was selling it and asked if they’d be interested in putting in an offer for the machine. A price was agreed upon and pretty soon the digger became a part of the GT Landscapes inventory.
Armed with a good sense of humour, along with the combined creativity you need when you’re in the landscaping game, the boys decided to call the digger ‘Dave’, thus returning the staffing level to three once again.
On the job
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Greig, Sid, and ‘Dave’ the digger on a residential job in Auckland
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Deals on Wheels recently caught up with Greig, Sid, and ‘Dave’ the digger on a residential job in Meadowbank, Auckland where they were in the early stages of transforming a customer’s sloping backyard into a two-tiered courtyard.
Even though the weather was dodgy, the boys were working away and engaging in a bit of friendly banter, obviously enjoying what they were doing.
Sid was effortlessly shovelling builders mix into a concrete mixer while answering countless inane questions being thrown at him by the visiting magazine contributor, while boss-man Greig was taking measurements of a narrow entranceway to see if it was wide enough to get a small-tracked machine through the gateway.
Unfortunately, the gap was a mere 50mm narrower than the smallest self-propelled barrow available, meaning that the boys were resigning themselves to the fact that many wheelbarrow trips from the front of the property to the back of it were about to ensue.
Undeterred by the prospect of all the heavy barrowing that was to follow, Greig said that it was all part of the territory and reckoned that all the effort involved saves spending money at the gym.
Greig says that he really does have the "dream job" where he can exercise his left-brain right-brain functions by coming up with a concept that will suit the customer’s needs and then getting down to the business of putting it all together.
With a combined experience of 50 years in the landscaping business, GT Landscapes has the capacity to take on larger commercial jobs, although, Greig says he actually prefers to stick with residential work.
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Making beautiful outdoor spaces
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He says that he gets a lot of pleasure from seeing the smiles on people’s faces when the work is completed, which he reckons isn’t simply because of his team’s workmanship but because they’ve also had a hand in bringing their project to fruition.
The GT Landscapes maxim ‘We’ll help you save on design’ is a pretty good incentive to give them a call too, as Greig is always at the ready to draw up a sketch of the project.
This service is entirely free of charge, saving the client money, which can then be spent on the project.
To ensure their projects are of the highest quality, GT Landscapes has an impressive list of partner companies, such as Slatecrete Paving and Masonry, The Landscape Yard, Stone and Water World, Placemakers, Leisure Pools Warehouse Building Supplies, Central Landscapes, MK Pools, and Roger Hunter’s Garden Centre.
For more information, contact Greig Morgan 0800 GTLAND (0800 485 263) or 027 2456999, or e-mail gtlandscapes1997@gmail.com.
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