By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Photo/ Melanie Petrucci
West Boylston – For 25 years McCarthy’s Landscaping and Irrigation, Inc. has been serving the region’s landscaping and irrigation needs. The business is owned by husband and wife team Roger and Sue McCarthy – Sue manages the day to day office operations and Roger oversees the rest of the business.
“If someone asked me when I started out where I would see myself in 25 years I would never have imagined myself building the business to where we are with 24 employees on staff and a sales team, I never would have envisioned that,” Roger said.
“This is a big year for us. We have weathered the economic downturn in 2008 and we were able to withstand and stay in business and keep employees working through a tough time when a lot of other landscape companies went out of business,” he added. .
For owners Roger and Sue, it has always been about family, especially now.
Family is what matters most. While the world seems to have come to a halt by the recent coronavirus pandemic, Roger said that he is heartened by seeing families spending time together, getting fresh air and walking their dogs.
Additionally, while other companies have curtailed activities or have shut down, McCarthy’s Landscaping and Irrigation has remained operational.
“We are practicing good hygiene and keeping social distancing and we are using best practices and adhering to recommendations from the CDC,” Roger remarked. “We aren’t entering homes and we are outside so as long as we can maintain safe social distancing and using hand sanitizer and keeping equipment clean we should be okay.”
“We are not scheduling our irrigation start-ups yet because we need to go into people’s homes so we are putting that on hold right now,” added Sue.
Roger is proud to report that the business continues to thrive and that they recently hired an additional full-time sales representative, Ryan O’Connor, to better serve their clients’ needs. He comes with over 10 years of landscaping sales experience.
“He will be a great asset to our team,” Roger noted. “Our team includes employees that we have had for as long as 13 years….We offer our employees tremendous benefits including health and dental insurance and a 401-K with a company match which is not common in our industry.”
When asked what his clients want right now, Roger replied that he knows they want to increase the function of their yards by making outdoor living areas.
“We are doing outdoor kitchens with pizza ovens – all of these things that weren’t in play 25 years ago,” he added.
“Our main concern right now is to help our clients who may be cancelling vacations and are remaining closer to home to make their homes places that they can relax and put down their devices,” he said. “Families are spending time together, having meals together and we want to play a part in that.”
“Something as simple as a fire pit to toast marshmallows and make s’mores with the kids,” Sue said. “Something that simple to get you out of the house, enjoy your families while putting down the devices.”
Roger and Sue are sensitive to the economic conditions of the time. As such, they can work within many budgets. They’ve weathered many economic storms and they are certain that this will be no different.
For more information, visit http://mccarthyslandscaping.com or phone: 508-842-7110. McCarthy’s Landscaping & Irrigation, Inc. is located at 133 Hartwell Street in West Boylston.
