HITTLE LANDSCAPING FOCUSES
ON CUSTOMER CARE & COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photography Provided
Nearly five decades ago, Westfield fire chief Ron Hittle started cutting grass and doing landscaping as a side gig. Much like healthy grass, his business grew and grew. Now Hittle Landscaping, a second-generation, family-owned company, is serving both residential and commercial customers while staying true to its core values of honesty, innovation, thankfulness, teamwork, leadership and excellence - all of which make up the HITTLE company acronym. “We try to instill those values, and translate those values into behaviors for our employees in the company,” says Scott DeNardin, company president.
Under the leadership of Ron’s son Jeremy, who serves as owner and CEO, Hittle Landscaping runs six separate divisions - production homes, commercial construction, outdoor living, traditional ground maintenance, irrigation, and in the winter, snow and ice. Production home projects involve design and installs for new home construction. Regarding commercial construction, the company has worked on a local hospital as well as the IKEA store in Fishers. The staff handles designs for outdoor living installs for high-end custom homes. Traditional ground maintenance for commercial properties includes many homeowners associations throughout the northside of Indianapolis. WestfieldMag.com / JUNE 2020 / WESTFIELD MAGAZINE / 5
The Hittle Landscaping leadership focuses not on the leader, but rather on employees. “I tell my employees that I work for them - they don’t work for me,” DeNardin says. “My role is to serve them, and help them build their careers and their skills to serve our clients.” The faith-based company also cares for employees by looking after them spiritually. For instance, once per week, a corporate chaplain drops by to chat with the staff. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a believer or a non-believer,” DeNardin says. “Our chaplain is simply a resource to them and is there to love on them if they need it.”
