Broken Trust: LCOs have lost faith in suppliers and customers have lost faith in contractors. Two years later, Imprelis is still wreaking havoc on the lawn care industry

摘要

IN THE WINTER OF 2011, 100 top LCOs and researchers all flew down to the Ritz-Carltonin sunny Sarasota. They were there to learn about a brand-new herbicide that promised to do amazing things for lawn care.It was called Imprelis and it had a super-low use rate, an innovative mode of action and had been shown to control weeds like nothing else could. It was an expensive herbicide - it cost about $700 a gallon — but it was effective. DuPont, the manufacturer, was giving it a full-court press."It received a lot more play than I have seen a product get in a many years. They thought they had a silver bullet," says Bob Andrews, who owns Greenskee-per in Carmel, Ind. He's also the president of the Indiana LawnCare Association and a past president of PLCCA. He's been in business for three decades. "The product worked wonders. It absolutely did everything it was supposed to. I've had customers with wild violet for years and years. Imprelis wiped it out. It didn't knock it down or reduce it," he says. "It wiped it out."