Martin Taub
Living in Brookfield Township, one of the givens when the weather starts warming up is the red trucks running through town with the Taub’s Lawn Care logo on their doors.
No more. Martin Taub has closed the business he and his wife of 52 years, Kathryn, started in 2001.
Taub has been inching toward retirement for a couple of years by putting the business up for sale, selling off equipment and reducing his customer base. The shutdown was more abrupt than he anticipated when his final two employees left in September.
“It was a good life,” said 73-year-old Martin Taub, whose home and office are in Brookfield. “I had a good ride. Customers were great.”
Taub had worked for 30 years for others, first at GATX, then driving a truck for Guttman Welding, as a warehouse man for Union Carbide and finally as a salesman and manager for Valley National Gas and Rental, operating stores in Girard, Hermitage, Washington, Pa., and New Castle that sold welding supplies, oxygen and propane.
“In 2001, Valley did away with middle management, and I was out of a job,” he said.
A couple of months after the layoff, Taub’s Lawn Care started operating.
“You don’t gotta be a rocket scientist to cut grass.” said Taub, who had cut grass on the side while he worked for others. “I always enjoyed the outdoors.”
For the first two years, Taub cut by day and he and Kathryn mulched and trimmed by evening. They bought other companies, one a year in 2003, 2004 and 2005, to build their customer base.
He worked his way up to six employees, three trucks and 105 mows a week, plus landscaping. There were leaves to be collected in the autumn and snow to be plowed in the winter.
“When I had full tilt, I probably had $250,000 in just equipment,” Taub said.
He kept a laid-back attitude about the variables in the business.
“I always would tell my guys, ‘I’m the owner of the company, but our boss is Mother Nature,’” he said. “That’s the way it is in the lawn care business.”
Ninety-five percent of his customers were with him for at least 10 years, he said.
“I would like to say, ‘Thanks’ to all my customers we had over the 20 years. It was great to serve you all.”
Taub stopped cutting about 13 years ago, spending his time on bidding, managing and administrative tasks. In 2016, he started selling off some equipment and referring customers to other companies. He was down to 62 cuts this year.
The business had been for sale for a couple of years but “nobody could get the money that I wanted out of it,” he said.
In retirement, Taub plans to relax, help out Santa Claus – a bushy white beard comes in handy for that – and vacation in Myrtle Beach.
“I might take up fishing; I don’t know,” he said.
