Ground Control Ltd

Ground Control Ltdis a privately owned external services company in the United Kingdom.

Its headquarters are in Billericay, Essex. The company was established by Steve Harrod in 1973 as a commercial landscaping company. Ground Control's first commercial contract was to provide grounds maintenance to three Tesco stores, and won its first national contract with 1,600 Royal Mail sites in 2003.

Through a management buy-in, buy-out, the company was purchased from its founder in 2004. A year later it acquired Scotland-based company Moray Landscapes. In 2010, Ground Control acquired Vale Contract Services, as a way to broaden business opportunity in the Public Sector. In 2017, acquisition of Newcastle-based Litterboss made it the largest specialist provider in the UK winter maintenance industry. The company currently has national contracts with, among others, Tesco, Network Rail

Ground Control is now a multi-service business, offering grounds maintenance, vegetation management, arboricultural services, winter maintenance, landscape construction, landscape design, ecology and biodiversity, invasive weeds management, pest control, fencing, roofing, pothole repairs and electric vehicle charging installations.

The company has won a number of awards in its 44-year history including the Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation, 27 BALI National Landscape Awards, health and safety related RoSPA Gold Award for eight years running, Essex Business of the Year in 2016, and is one of London Stock Exchanges '1000 Companies to Inspire Britain'. Ground Control more recently secured a place in the 'Top 1000 Companies to Inspire Europe' 2017.

It has supported a number of charities in past including The Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and Great Ormond Street Children's Charity. The company supported BBC's DIY SOS: Big Build Veteran’s Special last year, supplying labour to the project.

In January 2020 Ground Control acquired fellow family business JW Crowther and son in Leeds also incorporating The Gritting Company, expanding Ground Control's existing Private Winter services division across the UK and included a new regional depot in Leeds.