Being Grateful & Giving Back | Andrew Grasby, SuperGardens

Being Grateful & Giving Back

Meet Landscaping Victoria's next President, Andrew Grasby.

From his beginnings with the Victorian Police Force, to running SuperGardens for 31 years, Andrew has turned his attention to a larger focus on community, corporate social justice initiatives and giving back to the “Industry that has been extremely good” to him.

Andrew’s journey with SuperGardens started after he and one of his police partners decided to become full-time gardeners after their side business of mowing residential lawns quickly expanded. They used their Superannuation from the Police force to start their company, “SuperGardens”. The business gradually evolved from residential lawn mowing to commercial through SuperGardens by engaging this support this community with Apprenticeships in landscaping and maintenance. SuperGardens now employ close to 200 full-time people from diverse backgrounds, providing services to Airports, Universities, Private Schools, Hospitals, greenfield estates, Councils and the like.

Community and Charity Work

When you talk to Andrew, the concept of being grateful and being able to ‘give back’ is a key driver. He balances running a successful business with a number of other community, and industry-focused initiatives, not least of which is his work as the new LVML President!

Andrew also sits on the Board of a Foundation named No Roads Expeditions (NREF). The idea for the Foundation originated after likeminded people walked the Kokoda Track. He explains, “It was life-changing. I became so grateful for the world that we live in and the opportunities presented to us”.

Keen to relive and share his previous experience, Andrew returned to Kokoda in 2010 as a Certified Guide with his family. Since then, together with his wife Sue who is a Nurse, they have taken dozens of trips guiding into remote areas in Papua New Guinea. This venture has now expanded to Myanmar.

He states,

In essence, we are a specialist Health Service charity delivering services to remote regions. We've reached out to over 34,000 people and serviced 270 square kilometers of remote jungle, delivering Health Services supporting a number of other Charities.

Andrew is also very proud of his work with the Chin State Burmese community in Victoria. In 2016 Andrew was introduced to a resettled Chin State community leader. They made an instant connection resulting in Andrew wanting to help “these beautiful, honest and hard-working people”.

He saw an opportunity to assist this resettled Burmese refugee community in Victoria by transferring their rural agricultural skills into Horticulture. Adopted as a Mentor for the Community, Andrew championed their business company on a Labour Hire basis. SuperGardens Landscape Construction, and Parks & Gardens. SuperGardens commitment also extended toward translating documents such as inductions, equipment handling procedures and safe work statements into Haka Chin, their native language.

Andrew's recent appointment as President of the Board at LVML comes after his third year as a Board member. He was nominated and accepted the position of Vice President in his second year, with an agreed plan to transition to the Presidency in the following year. Andrew stated that his motivation in joining LVML was “to give something back to the Industry, as it’s been committed volunteers to deliver Health Services can contribute at Board level.”

He has some very clear ideas around facilitating improvements to processes around registration and regulations for landscaping.

He explains: “More people are investing into their structural landscape treatments, however the regulations and registration requirements around this have not kept pace with what's going on in the community. The Victorian Building Authority are under resourced to go out and regulate the registration requirements to the detriment of registered members. It's an unlevel playing field at the moment”.

He observes that “There are not many barriers to entry into the residential Landscaping space, but there are regulations and registration requirements for people who provide that service. These regulations need to be reviewed, improved, and enforced “.

He states that “as an Association we need to set a level playing field for our Members to grow and sustain themselves long term without unfair, unregulated competition in the market. Hopefully, this will be a positive legacy of LVML over the next few years. I think if we get the full support of all our members with a revised and improved vision and strategy, it would be a very good thing".

“Seize the Day” - from COVID comes opportunity.

Andrew recalls what happened when the pandemic first hit: “When the crisis hit, everybody naturally, was in a state of fear, uncertainty and shock. We had never received as many inquiries from people reaching out to LVML for help. When everything is going well, everybody gets on with business. When it's not going so well, you actually need advice and guidance to navigate your way through it. That’s what LVML is for. We also provided guidance for non-members, which has encouraged several businesses to join and be part of the Association for everybody’s benefit. We are planning for a further increase in our membership through 2021.

Andrew concludes:

We are fortunate to have dedicated Directors and a really experienced and professional Executive team.

It is a genuine pleasure to work for LVML because our team is engaged. Our executive team are not only really good people, they are also passionate about what they do. They have come through the crisis with an A+.