Big Earth Celebrates 40 Years Serving Tampa Bay

2023 marks 40 years in business for Bradenton based, Big Earth Landscape Supply. In 1983, Allan Rickert partnered with friend Raymond Warner to begin selling landscape materials in Manatee County, Florida. At the time no one was in the landscape supply business, so these two men decided to fill the void by selling mulch out of Raymond’s Ford pickup truck. With only a Ford F-150 truck and tractor, they signed on their first customer and Wholesale Landscape Supply in Bradenton was born. One location soon grew into two and then three, bringing the Palmetto store and Sarasota store into the Wholesale Landscape Supply family.

From the start, Wholesale Landscape Supply was built on a simple principle; provide every customer with the highest level of personal service, paying attention to their unique needs and meeting them. That sometimes meant opening the gates at 2:00am to make sure a shipment of product would be delivered on time. The two men did whatever it took to meet the demands of their customers and in turn, the customers responded.

Once Wholesale Landscape Supply was established in Manatee and Sarasota County, Al and Raymond decided to step back and pass the reins to Adam Rickert, the current CEO. Adam had big plans and propelled Wholesale Landscape Supply to a new level. In the early 2000’s, with the help of his team, Adam introduced new product lines, a new store location and a new name: Big Earth Landscape Supply. Now operating in Bradenton, Palmetto, Sarasota and Tampa, Big Earth was positioned as a leader in outdoor living and improvement.

Within the past 10 years, Big Earth has survived the recession of 2008, inflation in 2020’s and has added a 5th location to its family of stores in Lakewood Ranch. While it has not always been easy, the journey as Wholesale Landscape Supply to Big Earth Landscape Supply has been humbling. The customers and employees of Big Earth have made the past 40 years memorable … and we are looking forward to 40 more.