Business which began from Advertiser advert, Town and Country Grounds Limited, moves to new Newark premises

A business which began with one man and a newspaper advert is set to move to a new premises with 14 staff.

Town and Country Grounds Ltd was established in 2005 by Jon Muirhead, when he left his career in sales to pursue outdoor-based work as a gardener.

He submitted line advertisements in the Advertiser notifying people of his services — and his business has grown steadily in the 20 years since and moved to commercial grounds management.

Jon and his team provide tailored grounds maintenance packages to customers including schools, fast food chains, and other businesses.

He said: “20 years ago in May, when we started, we just did people’s gardens around Newark and the villages in the area. We used to place a little line advert every week in the Newark Advertiser.

“I used to work in sales and I got to about 30 and thought ‘this is stressful’, so I thought I like being outside, I’ll do some gardening.

“Now it’s all commercial, so it’s schools, factories, McDonalds, Costa, Greggs, that kind of stuff.”

The company maintain school playing fields and sports pitches, running tracks, drive-thrus, and factory and office grounds.

Now, the operations director is in the process of moving his business from it’s long-time home near Boughton, to a unit on Newark’s Northern Road Mayden business park — which he explained benefits from a more accessible location for his services across the East Midlands.

“Newark’s nice and central, with the A1 nearby,” he added.

“As we grow we’ll be looking to recruit in the Newark area, we have just recently taken on some new staff from the area.”