Mowing business goes at fast clip

Teachers, bank managers and police officers are giving up their careers to mow lawns.

"They're generally in their 50s, and they've had enough," Paul Macfarlane , who owns the Green Acres master franchise for Canterbury, said.

He and his wife Pip have sold 53 Green Acres franchises in the region in the last eight years.

The 53 franchises combine to tend to the lawns and gardens of more than 4500 customers each week.

A two-week waiting list now exists to get lawns mowed.

Despite the competition, the Macfarlane's say their business continues to grow as the city grows.

"There are 125,000 households in Canterbury. We are really only just scratching the surface," Paul Macfarlane said.

Franchise holders working full time could earn up to $120,000 a year, he said. "We grow as the market demands."

The couple, who also came from corporate backgrounds, started their first Green Arces franchise in 1997 and two years later bought the rights to sell the brand in Canterbury.

They won the 2007 Green Acres master franchisee of the year award, for the third time.

Green Acres is New Zealand's largest franchise, with almost 1000 franchisees doing more than a million services each year for over 70,000 regular customers.