Encompassing innovation, integrity, and impeccable value, ForeverLawn is redefining excellence in turf
Transforming ordinary spaces into beautiful and functional lawn landscapes, ForeverLawn knows what it takes to define excellence in the turf industry. The company’s founders, brothers Brian and Dale Karmie, first entered the sector in 2002 as dealers for AstroLawn, a subsidiary brand of AstroTurf. When AstroTurf fell into bankruptcy in 2004, Brian and Dale decided to embark on a new journey within the world of turf and ForeverLawn was born.
With just two years’ experience in the turf industry, the brothers’ passion and tenacity led to them establishing a multigenerational company based on the core
principles of integrity, quality, and innovation. In just a few years, ForeverLawn was doing what most people in the turf industry weren’t: solution-based selling, finding people to make the products that customers really wanted. This unique approach resulted in several firsts within the market, including the development of the first turf specifically for dogs – K9Grass – and the first fall-safe playground grass, amongst many more. Following its commitment to innovation and customer centricity, ForeverLawn exploded in popularity and quickly distinguished itself as a true market leader within the turf industry. Today, the company boasts almost 100 dealers across the US and Canada, and its products have been sold across the globe. What initially started as a business selling artificial turf has grown to encompass a robust line of more than 30 products across all five of its vertical markets (LandScapes, K9Grass, Playground Grass, GolfGreens, and SportsGrass), and the company continues to see great growth and success.
Surpassing its 20th anniversary in 2024, Construction Today sits down with Brian and Dale Karmie to learn more about ForeverLawn’s unique dealer model and uncover the secrets behind its success. Dale begins our conversation by elaborating further on ForeverLawn’s dealer network.
“The ForeverLawn dealer model is unique within the industry. ForeverLawn dealers are independent businesses that are licensed to use and represent the ForeverLawn brand in their market territory,” he explains. “ForeverLawn corporate focuses on three things: building quality products, promoting the ForeverLawn brands, and developing happy and successful dealers. Having this type of ownership in a local market while still being connected to a large national brand is a big benefit to the end customer. ForeverLawn dealers are the most highly trained and educated group of people in the turf industry. Their ownership and commitment to quality make ForeverLawn stand apart from all others.
“We have built our business on innovation and have brought many firsts to the industry,” Brian continues. “K9Grass is still the most unique product available and is only available from ForeverLawn with its flow-through backing, unique construction and anti-microbial properties. Mow Lines is a new product that ForeverLawn released this year in combination with Artura (from Shaw). This takes design and realism to a new level in the artificial world with a mow line pattern built into the product. EquineGrass is also a new product designed specifically for equestrian areas to keep facilities cleaner and safer. Fusion is a line developed to address areas where reflective light off windows can cause hyper heating and damage to heat susceptible products (such as plastic). There are a few more big breakthroughs that we’re excited to be releasing in the very near future.”
Proactive problem solving
When it comes to product innovation and development, ForeverLawn’s approach is driven by curiosity and continuous improvement, pushing the boundaries of possibility to provide the very best solutions for its customers.
“We are always listening to the market and identifying what challenges people are trying to solve. The problems and challenges aren’t always loud and screaming at you. Sometimes you have to listen intently to hear what is really there. Then, ForeverLawn chooses a partner to work with to chase and develop a solution to that problem. This can happen as quickly as within one year but sometimes takes a few years; we currently have a product idea we have been working on for over 15 years but believe we are close to bringing this to market,” Dale explains.
“The world has changed so much in the past decade. Today, online is the most common form of promotion, however, industry trade shows are still one of the best ways to get customers to see and experience the products,” Brian adds. “It isn’t just about presenting the solutions and products, but about educating customers on how certain products are built for certain applications, what they can expect over the life of the product, and the long term value of using a high-performance product with the best installation possible.”
Transactional to transformational
Equally as fundamental to the company as quality and innovation is its commitment to integrity. This value shines throughout ForeverLawn’s positive, high-performance culture and influences all its core principles and processes.
“Culture is king at ForeverLawn. From the beginning, we wanted ForeverLawn to be a reflection of us and our values. We want to be transparent, authentic; we want to be who we say we are,” Dale says. “What we came up with wasn’t a mission statement, it was three words: Integrity, Quality, Innovation.
“Aside from those, we have the ‘ForeverLawn Fs’. The first is ‘Faith’. Brian and I are Christian men, and our faith is the number one factor in defining how we operate at ForeverLawn. Team members and dealers don’t have to share that faith, but they need to know that that is what drives us, our decisions and our culture. That is the backbone of who we are. Secondly, ‘Family’ is of the utmost importance, and we don’t want to lose sight of that while chasing business.
“Next is ‘Friends’ – we want to view everyone we work with as friends. If you view someone as a friend, you will treat them differently than if they are just a person. It moves us from transactional to transformational. The fourth ‘F’ – ‘Freedom’ – values the freedom that has been provided for us in the US and has enabled us to do what we do. We love our country; it represents the entrepreneurial spirit that led us to start ForeverLawn. Then we have ‘Fun’ – we spend too much time working not to enjoy it. Finally, there’s ‘Grit’ – we know that doesn’t begin with an ‘F’, but it’s that unmistakable quality where you sometimes have to grind your way through. It’s the thing that drives you when others would give up.”
Keeping these qualities close to its heart, it’s clear that ForeverLawn is well-equipped for a future filled with further innovation and success. Through its unique dealer model, the company will continue to champion its entrepreneurial spirit throughout every facet of its network, extending both functionality and aestheticism to lawns across the world.
“We want to continue to grow but grow in the right way. We never want to deviate from who we are. Chasing growth can sometimes move you from that path. Having said that, we do want to win and be the best version of ourselves we can be. We want to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with, so we have a duty and obligation to continue to move forward,” Brian affirms, optimistic for the years ahead.
“Over the next five years, we want to develop more of an international presence and grow our dealer network by 50 percent. We want to double our volume to further cement our position as the leader in industry for offering high-performance synthetic grass,” he says, concluding our conversation. “To us, it is simple. It is called ‘grass without limits’. We say that we want to be people of impact, and create people of impact. We do that through our business, but now we look to use other platforms God has given us.”