Vol. X No. 1
January / February 2016
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www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com
Blowing the Competition Away … start up material blower company taps into growing denver landscaping market
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burgening Colorado economy coupled with an extremely tight labor market are critical factors in the rapid growth of a young start-up material spreading business, Bedder Spreaders. Formerly the business development director for a large Denver commercial landscaping company, Nick Holladay is one of the founding principals and the director of business development for the new material blowing company. With a three percent unemployment rate in Colorado, Holladay cites a critical shortage of skilled labor in the Denver market as one of the reasons for his company’s early and rapid growth. “With our two blower trucks and seven employees we can get great production out of small crews. These trucks can take the place of 10 workers. This has been paramount to our fast paced success,” he notes. Hollady says, “The average landscaper can place about one cubic yard of mulch down in one hour. A crew of four people can do about 30 cubic yards a day. Compare this to a blower truck with one person that can put down about 180 to 200 cubic yards of mulch a day.” Hollady notes that his trucks are the Express Blower HD70, a tractor-trailer rig with a capacity of up to 85 cubic yards of material per load, delivered at a rate of up to 80 cubic yards an hour. The other is the Express Blower MD40, a single unit truck having a 55 cubic yard capacity, blowing material up to 70 cubic yards per hour. Holladay explains that his firm is educating the Denver landscaping market to the fact that blower trucks have the ability to move and install materials at incredible volumes, allowing their clients to utilize employees to focus on more monetarily productive projects and leave the installation of mulch, soils and rock to Bedder Spreaders. Due to the increasing number of construction sites in Denver and the growing density of these sites, having one blower truck pull into small areas and deliver the material
By Todd Williams directly to the beds prevents the need for skid steers and wheelbarrows. This technology not only cuts down on labor costs, but also keeps the property cleaner and delivers only what material is needed for the beds; negating the need to remobilize unused materials, Holladay adds. Not content to only sell blower truck services to the Denver commercial and residential landscaping market, Bedder Spreaders is reaching out to tap other lucrative markets state-wide including golf courses, mine reclamation, oil and gas site reclamation, school districts, municipal road contractors, wind farm developers and green roof contractors. According to Holladay, the services offered to this diverse group of clients include blower application of any type of 4-inch minus mulch; from wood to rubber and natural mulch, to all types of dyed mulch. Other materials applied by blower truck include compost and soil, as well as utilizing seed injectors to provide terraseed compost and topsoil blankets.
He adds that the blown seeding material has a typical nine-week germination rate of 98 percent; comparing favorably to hydro-seed applications, which produce a 12-20 percent germination rate. For sand and gravel, his blower trucks can install 15-20 tons of material in one hour with one operator. Rocks up to three quarters of an inch can be spread at rates of 8-12 tons per hour. Increasingly, Denver is seeing an upward trend in the construction of green roofs, and Holladay explains that blower trucks are the only viable option for these installations. “Without using blower trucks, the only way to get the material to the roof is by using lift trucks or cranes with buckets, and the only way to spread it is with a crew using wheelbarrows,” he says. But by using a blower truck, the material can be pushed to the roof through a plastic standpipe rising up to 30 stories and then Continued on page 3