Gridiron Puts Down Roots in Lawn Care

Gridiron Capital has acquired Weed Man, a family-owned franchisor of residential lawn fertilization and weed control programs with about 1,000 territories across the US and Canada.

The deal marks Gridiron’s entry into lawn care and extends a residential services portfolio that includes home improvement business Leaf Home. Weed Man’s existing management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Lemcke, will continue to run the company.

Weed Man sells season-long lawn care programs to homeowners. Technicians visit a property several times a year to apply a slow-release granular fertilizer, which feeds grass gradually rather than all at once, and to treat crabgrass, dandelions and other weeds. The company serves more than 800,000 households in 39 US states and 10 Canadian provinces.



Homeowners can add services to the core program. Core aeration pulls small plugs of soil from the lawn so water and nutrients reach the roots, and overseeding spreads grass seed over thin or bare patches. Weed Man also treats lawns for grubs, the beetle larvae that eat grass roots, and offers perimeter pest control and topdressing with a topsoil and compost mix.

Since 2020 the company has sold residential mosquito control under a separate brand, Mosquito Hero, which more than 100 Weed Man franchisees were offering by early 2021.

Weed Man operates through a hybrid network that pairs corporate-owned branches with locally owned franchise locations, each assigned an exclusive territory. The franchisor supplies centralized training, marketing, group purchasing and proprietary operating software, and new customers can get a price quote online that is generated from satellite imagery of their lawn, without a site visit.

Weed Man was founded by Desmond “Des” Rice and Brenda Rice in 1970. In the mid-1990s, franchisee Roger Mongeon, through Turf Holdings, acquired the US franchise rights. In November 2018, his group purchased the Canadian business and brand assets through TH Canada. In January 2025, Turf Holdings merged with several US regional subfranchisors, giving those organizations minority ownership in the company.

Today, Weed Man is led by CEO Jennifer Lemcke and is headquartered in Orono, Ontario, east of Toronto. Ms. Lemcke has worked at Weed Man for more than three decades and became CEO in March 2020, succeeding her father, Mr. Mongeon. As chief operating officer of Weed Man USA, she helped grow the US franchise system to more than $100 million in annual sales. In 2018, the National Association of Landscape Professionals named her its Woman Entrepreneur of the Year.

According to Weed Man, total sales across its franchise system are more than $400 million and its annual customer retention rate is from 75% to 80%. The company has set a goal of growing into a $1 billion business.

“Weed Man has spent more than five decades building a trusted national brand rooted in local ownership,” said Tom Burger, a co-founder and managing partner of Gridiron. “Jen and her team have earned the trust of franchise owners and hundreds of thousands of homeowners, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the Gridiron family. As former entrepreneurs and business operators, we understand the importance of preserving the culture, values, and local relationships that distinguish a business like Weed Man. We look forward to partnering with Jen and the team on the strong foundation they have built.”

The network has since grown to about 1,000 territories, in part through consolidation among franchise owners. In 2026 two of the system’s larger franchise groups, Epic3 and LND, merged to combine 32 territories, and the ACE and Winchester groups formed the 11-territory ACEWIN Group.

“This partnership represents the next chapter of a strategy we have been executing for years and is a testament to the work of our team and our franchise owners,” said Ms. Lemcke. “We chose to partner with Gridiron because they understood our model and our people from day one, and because they share our commitment to supporting the long-term success of every franchisee in the system.”

US lawn care is a large and fragmented business. Mordor Intelligence sizes the US market, residential and commercial combined, at about $60 billion in 2025 and expects it to reach $79.7 billion by 2031, an annual growth rate of about 4.9%. Commercial and industrial properties account for roughly 54% of revenue.



The research firm points to population migration into Sun Belt states and to homeowners hiring professionals rather than treating lawns themselves as key drivers of demand. It also finds that the five biggest companies in the market together hold a relatively small share of it.

Weed Man’s competitors in residential lawn treatment include TruGreen, which was founded in 1973 and serves more than 2.3 million residential and commercial customers from 270 branches in the US and Canada. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has owned TruGreen since 2016.

Another franchisor, New Jersey-based and privately held Lawn Doctor, was founded in the 1960s and sold its first franchise in 1967. The company is led by President and CEO Scott Frith and has more than 600 locations across more than 40 states.

For Gridiron, Weed Man brings recurring revenue from homeowners who sign up for a full season of treatments and a franchise network with room to expand into new territories. The firm plans to draw on its Centers of Excellence and operating resources to help Weed Man win and keep customers, grow geographically and keep investing in its franchise network.

[caption id="attachment_241665" align="alignright" width="120"] Chris King[/caption]

“From our first conversations with Jen and the Weed Man team, it was clear that the company has built a differentiated business around a genuine commitment to supporting its franchisees and the homeowners they serve,” said Chris King, a managing director at Gridiron. “With its respected brand, strong franchise network, and compelling operating model, Weed Man is well-positioned to build on its momentum in the large and growing residential lawn care market. We are honored to partner with the team in its next chapter of growth.”

Gridiron Capital invests in North American companies with enterprise values from $150 million to more than $750 million and EBITDA from $15 million to more than $75 million, primarily taking control positions. Sectors of interest include business services, consumer products and services, and industrial growth.

Weed Man joins a Gridiron residential portfolio that includes Erie Home, Legacy Service Partners, Greenix and GarageCo. Gridiron acquired gutter guard maker Leaf Filter, now Leaf Home, in 2016 and Erie Home in 2021, and combined the two businesses in September 2025. Weed Man follows Gridiron’s July 2026 investment in Centroid, which moves companies’ systems onto Oracle’s cloud and runs them, and its August 2026 acquisition of van den Boom & Associates, an outsourced finance and accounting provider to life sciences companies. Gridiron’s fifth fund closed above target in October 2023 with $2.1 billion.

Gridiron was co-founded in 2005 by Mr. Burger and Kevin Jackson, both managing partners, and is headquartered in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Harris Williams was the financial advisor to Gridiron. KPMG Corporate Finance was the financial advisor to Weed Man.