A.M. Leonard Revenue and Competitors

In 1885, Ashbel Merrel Leonard started a nursery as a hobby in his backyard in Piqua, Ohio. By 1912 he and his sons Parker and Stanley established A.M. Leonard & Sons as a nursery/landscaping service. The business was further developed in 1928 when A. M. and his youngest son John started a wholesale horticultural tool and supply company serving nursery and landscape customers. In 1941, following the death of A. M. Leonard, John became the President of the company. John’s forte was customer service. He mailed out 7,500 pocket-sized catalogs per year and monitored the purchases of each customer. John kept impeccable notes. When an order was not received from a customer within a year, John would contact the customer personally to ask how his organization might be of better service. The call usually resulted in a sale. Since only the finest quality tools were offered, customers always knew that when they bought something from the Piqua based company, they would receive the highest quality