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Some landscaping crews are starting to use battery-powered tools. California-based Everthrive Landscape is one company that has turned to the equipment.
Courtesy of Everthrive View
The automotive industry is not the only one that runs on electricity.
in Home Depot And Louie, one of the busiest trails featuring battery operated leaf blowers, mowers, string trimmers and more. These outdoor electric powered tools are starting to pop up in neighborhoods and on golf courses across the country.
The transition away from gas power could come at an opportune time for both Home improvement retailers. Both have looked for a jolt as they see weakness in store traffic and prepare for lower sales in the coming year. Home Depot posted its worst revenue loss in 20 years for the fiscal first quarter and cut its full-year forecast, saying it expects sales to fall between 2% and 5% this fiscal year. Lowe’s also lowered its forecast, forecasting a decline in sales for the full year.
Outdoor power equipment drives only a small portion of retailers’ sales, said Zach Fadem, an analyst at Wells Fargo. But, he added, developments in battery-powered tools have prompted an upgrade cycle and given do-it-yourself customers and home professionals a reason to come to stores to make larger purchases.
And he said, “When you ask ‘what pays the ticket?'” “Aside from inflation and similar increases in product costs, the biggest driver is innovation.” “This is the right place for these new products.”
He said investors will be watching whether battery-powered gadgets and other new cross-store products such as high-quality paint, flooring and appliances, can truly be a “needle drive.”
With the easy gains in sales from the Covid pandemic fading, both Home Depot and Lowe’s have pointed to cordless, battery-powered tools as an opportunity. Home Depot promoted the products at an Investor Day in New York City earlier this month, and it recently set a goal to have more than 85% of its sales in the US and Canada of outdoor power equipment run on rechargeable batteries instead of gas by late January 2029. It declined to say where the sales share is today.
Home Depot estimates that the market for power tools and related battery sales is $32 billion and counting.
Industry-wide, cordless, battery-powered units accounted for approximately 66% of sales in the outdoor power tools market as of the end of 2022, according to an economic forecast report from the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute.
Lowe’s said that battery-powered tools and outdoor equipment are among its fastest growing categories. Lowe’s sales of cordless power tools and outdoor power equipment have more than doubled in the past five years — a rapid clip that the company expects to continue in the next five years, said Bill Boltz, the company’s executive vice president of marketing.
There are still hurdles to adoption. Battery-powered blowers and mowers can be similar in price to their gas competitors. But when you add batteries and chargers, the initial charge can be higher.
One of the busiest aisles at Home Depot are those with battery-powered outdoor equipment like mowers and leaf blowers. Lowe’s also saw sales grow in this category.
Melissa Rybko | CNBC
shake in interest
For more than two decades, manufacturers have offered battery-powered tools. The first outdoor electrical equipment hit Home Depot and Lowe’s shelves in the mid-2000s.
However, several recent factors have led to an increased interest in electric power for landscaping. Technology has improved, bringing longer-lasting batteries and more power, without the mess or expense of gas. Some states and cities have proposed or bypassed restrictions on gas-powered equipment or offered tax credits and rebates for battery-powered tools.
Gadgets, while much smaller than a car, can contribute to a lot of smog emissions. Running a commercial lawn mower for one hour emits as much pollution as driving a new light-duty passenger car on the more than four-hour trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, according to the California Air Resources Board, a state government agency.
Plus, the sudden rise in working from home means more Americans have noticed the irritating roar of gas-powered leaf blowers outside their window, prompting some to buy quieter, battery-powered tools for their own yards or lobby the homeowner’s association to enforce a ban.
And California, the most populous state in the country, is also making the change. He. She passed a law prohibiting Sale of low-emissions off-road small engines such as those found in mowers and blowers beginning in 2024.
With or without policy changes, do-it-yourself customers have been quick to adopt battery power, said Billy Bastek, Home Depot’s executive vice president of marketing.
Now, he said, the company wants to win over professionals, who tend to place larger orders and replace equipment more frequently. Home Depot offers personalized support, special pricing on bulk orders, and rewards through its professional loyalty program.
About half of Home Depot’s total sales come from home professionals, but power tool revenue is skewed toward DIY buyers. The company declined to share a more specific breakdown of the battery-powered category.
As the upgrade cycle continues at Home Depot and Lowe’s, equipment makers themselves will benefit. These include a variety of companies that have expanded the range of batteries and hybrids, such as John DeereAnd a tripAnd Stanley Black & DeckerOwned by Dewalt, Ryobi, and others.
Some of them have exclusive deals with home improvement retailers. For example, Home Depot is the only retailer that sells Milwaukee and Ryobi.
Not all retailers see gadgets as an important sales motivator.
Tractor supply, a home improvement player who tends to be in rural areas, has been slower to add battery-powered outdoor equipment. Company spokeswoman Mary Wayne Pilkington said it introduced the goods to stores and online early last year, after waiting to see the pickup in both customer interest and battery power.
It was just a modest growth category for the retailer, she said, which often caters to ranchers, farmers or homeowners with larger properties.
Some notable golf courses have begun testing and using electrically powered landscaping equipment. At TPC Sawgrass in Florida, the landscaping crew experimented with a battery-powered, self-powered mower that used some electric leaf blowers.
Jeff Plotts
From golf courses to suburban neighborhoods
On the expansive TPC Sawgrass Golf Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, the landscaping crew tested a new helper: a stand-alone electric mower.
The course is home to The Players Championship, one of the premier annual golf tournaments on the PGA Tour. It relies on approximately 105 employees to maintain 450 total acres, of which 240 acres are maintained lawn.
Agronomy Course Director Jeff Plotts started trialing a Husqvarna lawnmower on about an acre of lawn in January.
So far, Blots said he’s impressed with her performance. It was a quieter way to keep up with the lawn, an aid to the course’s competition in a tight job market—and an occasional source of attraction for golfers.
“He’s so quiet. You could stand right next to him and you couldn’t tell, other than seeing him move, he’s chopping,” he said. “It’s a great little unit.”
He said the course plans to buy 15 more mowers in 2024.
The landscaping crew at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge of Orlando — host of the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational — uses a few electric blowers, about 150 miles southwest, said Chris Flynn, the lands manager. It also has an electric weed eater, hedge trimmer, and a couple push mower.
Both Plotts and Flynn say it would be difficult, if not impossible, to make a complete switch away from gas-powered equipment—at least with the technology available now. Some days it’s still faster to use gas-powered tools. Sometimes the specialized products needed to maintain courses don’t come with electric models.
Upfront costs can also be a deterrent. In a recent estimate, an electric riding mower for a golf course would have cost $94,000, Flynn said, compared to a gas-powered mower for $43,000.
“Just like the auto market, obviously all equipment manufacturers are spending a lot of research and development (R&D) on electric and hybrid options,” Flynn said. “Over time, there’s going to be a lot more choice. And like anything, you hope the longer you go, the lower the costs.”
In suburban neighborhoods far from the silence of Florida’s professional golf tournaments, homeowners and property managers also exist. Embrace a quieter way of maintaining their yard.
Southern California-based Everthrive Landscape began searching for electrical equipment in late 2021, shortly after California passed a law aimed at ending the use of gas equipment.
It began transitioning to electric power in February, and recently placed a large order with Milwaukee that will bring its fleet up to about 80% electric in the coming months.
A commercial landscaping company specializes in maintaining homeowner association properties, such as landscaping around parks, swimming pools, or clubhouses.
The company’s CEO, Jonathan Caceres, said the tools were popular with customers and employees. Staff do not have to worry about harmful fumes and loud noises. And they don’t get the same complaints from homeowners or apartment dwellers who fall asleep or are in the middle of a Zoom call.
But Cáceres said he had to convince his staff to buy. Some were disappointed by the battery equipment they tested years ago, which was cumbersome and didn’t do the job.
He said power tools are the right choice not only for the environment, but also for the bottom line. No more gas runs taking crews away from jobs. Warranties on equipment also last longer.
He said other companies are likely to be persuaded to do so as well.
“It all comes down to money,” he said. “If they saw ‘Oh, wow, this will save me money,’ that would be a big driver.” “
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