A landscaping store that sells mulch and gelato

Landscape supply stores are usually not somewhere you would like to hang out, Kevin Claerbaut said.

But his store, Holland Landscape Supply, north of Cedar Grove, is exactly that type of place, he said.

“Even if you’re a landscaper and you’re dirty and wet after a long day, you can come and relax and get a pretty smile and a soda,” he said.

Two months ago, he opened a Country and Garden Store on the property to complement his 32 bins of topsoil, mulches, decorative stones, construction stones and boulders, items he calls the “family of landscaping supply.”

He sold those supplies for several years as part of his landscaping company.

“I had to have stuff for ourselves and so I sold it to you,” Claerbaut said. He admitted, however, that he did it “poorly” since he couldn’t guarantee a full stock of products or the availability of delivery trucks.

But now, the operation is dialed in and up-to-date. Unlike most supply stores, he said, he offers what customers want nowadays, such as varied selection and same-day deliveries.

He can offer quick delivery because his trucks are run in-house, he said, which is different from other landscaping suppliers that have to contract with delivery companies.

The new store, where he sells farmhouse décor and decorations along with locally sourced foods like ice cream, gelato and cheese curds, has already become a success, he said.

“People came in May expecting landscaping supplies and were wowed by the store,” Claerbaut said. “Every single day there is new stuff coming.”

He started the store to get his family, including his 16-year-old daughter Brielle and eventually his 12-year-old daughter Abby and 9-year-old son Bryson, involved in the business.

“I wanted something for the family,” Claerbaut said, adding he hopes his two daughters will someday run the store themselves.

Brielle and four of her friends work at the store now, Claerbaut said, offering their unique influence.

“The girls have started doing Tik Toks,” he said. “People come in and say, ‘I saw your store on Tik Tok.’”

Claerbaut said he envisions more than just a landscaping and country store for the property. He plans to host events like a farmers market and farming, gardening and woodworking classes.

“My dream is on Thursday nights to have a speaker come in and talk about why your chicken isn’t laying eggs or how to build cedar furniture,” he said.

Claerbaut will also build a playground and a petting zoo near the store, he said, and he plans to open a southern location.

Part of the reason for starting the supply store, he said, was the shifting landscaping industry that started to squeeze his mid-sized company.

Nowadays, he said, anyone can get a truck wrapped with a company logo and make uniforms for a landscaping company.

Claerbaut said a customer recently told him a one-man landscaping company offered grass and snow services for $26 an hour.

“Our landscape company did a good job of retaining employees. Most of my guys have been here 20 years,” Claerbaut said, which means he pays his top mowing employee $27.50 an hour.

It’s impossible to compete in an industry like that, Claerbaut said, which is why he wants to “feed” instead of “fight” the small landscapers.

Claerbaut wants to not only sell those landscapers supplies but also give them clients.

“If a customer comes into the store asking for mowing services, I can send the customer over to them,” he said.

This focus significantly reduces his involvement in the landscaping business, Claerbaut said.

His company used to have about 20 employees, but now has four mowers and four landscapers, he said.

Claerbaut said he’s been an entrepreneur since he was 14, when he started selling stereo equipment on his father’s farm.

  When his father built a three-car garage, he gave Claerbaut the upstairs room that he turned into a showroom. By the time Claerbaut was 18, he had an employee working there while he was at high school.

Eventually, Claerbaut bought a building in Cedar Grove. He operated out of it for several years until the proliferation of internet sales in the early 2000’s made hardware and stereo equipment stores largely obsolete.

“I never knew where it was going to steer,” he said. “I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life.”

Claerbaut started in landscaping when he was 16 and got involved in the family’s 110-year-old business of selling hay to horse farms, Claerbaut said.

Claerbaut still delivers hay, growing about 450 acres of it on his farm, he said.

“That rolls right into this country and garden store,” Claerbaut said. “I’ve seen a lot of the customers I deliver to when they come in to the store. It’s coming full circle.”

At the store, Claerbaut said, he will sell fruit trees, gardening baskets, arts and crafts, farmhouse décor and decorations.

He also sells electric bikes and golf carts.