Content about Scotts Miracle-Gro

Radius Garden has announced it is marketing and selling a line of Miracle-Gro Branded Garden Tools under a licensing agreement with Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro named Larry Hilsheimer executive VP and chief financial officer, effective immediately.

Hilsheimer was executive VP and CFO of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., the Columbus, Ohio-based insurance and financial services company, from 2007 through 2009. He then served as president and chief operating officer of Nationwide Direct & Customer Solutions, and most recently was president and chief operating officer of Nationwide Retirement Plans.

Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro announced that Dave Evans has resigned as chief financial officer and executive VP and has accepted a similar role with Columbus-based Battelle, the world's largest nonprofit research and development organization.

Evans joined Scotts Miracle-Gro as director of finance for operations in 1993 and moved through several roles before being named CFO in 2006.

Scotts Miracle-Gro and the Butts County Development Authority have announced that the Ohio-based company is expanding its operations at its facility in Jackson, Ga.

The expansion will create as many as 10 addition jobs to the existing work force of about 75 associates. The total capital investment to the area by Scotts now totals $6 million.

Scotts Miracle-Gro, the industry’s largest supplier of lawn and garden products, reported sales of $1.06 billion for its third fiscal quarter, showing little change from sales of $1.05 billion in the same quarter of 2011.

Adjusted income from continuing operations was $99.4 million in the third quarter,  a 21.5% drop from adjusted income of $126.7 million for the same period a year ago.

According to an article in the New York Times, Scott the Scot of Scotts Miracle-Gro’s new ad campaign was created to instruct and educate.

The ad campaign comes after the Marysville, Ohio-based lawn care giant expanded its advertising budget to about $135 million, up from about $85 million, according to the article. The character on the commercial, played by a Scottish actor named Phil McKee, provides expert advice in a Scottish accent.

Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro said Wednesday morning that its first quarter will see a bigger-than-expected loss, but it is maintaining its outlook for the full year.

Sales for the first quarter ending Dec. 31 are expected to decline about $30 million from the same quarter a year ago. The adjusted net loss in the quarter is expected to range from $70 million to $75 million, compared with a net loss of $65.6 million in the prior year.

The $1.20-to-$1.25 per share loss is greater than the $1.13 per share loss expected by Wall Street.

Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro will collaborate with Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI) on research and development in natural plant protection products. 

"We are excited about this new partnership with MBI because we believe it will lead to improved products that enable gardeners who choose natural options to get great results," said Bruce Caldwell, Scotts Miracle-Gro's Global R&D Leader. 

Orchard Supply Hardware has gone through a lot of changes in its 80-year history, but the California chain — now numbering 89 units with $660.7 million in annual sales — has weathered them all. Changes in ownership, leadership, store design, color scheme and signage have come and gone. But the stores’ customers — known for their exceptional loyalty — have generally stuck with the chain. 


The challenges from unfriendly weather hit Scotts Miracle-Gro hard in the quarter ended July 2, as sales declined 10% to $1.06 billion.

The decline was driven primarily by poor weather across most of the United States throughout the duration of the lawn and garden season, as well as a more competitive promotional landscape and changes in certain retailer strategies within the mass merchandise channel, the Marysville, Ohio-based company said. 

Scotts Miracle-Gro, its sales hurting from the pullback in big-box expansion, is looking into new sources of revenues for its lawn and garden products. One of them, according to CEO Jim Hagedorn, is medical marijuana. 

“I want to target the pot market,” Hagedorn told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published June 14. “There’s no good reason we haven’t.”

From New York’s Island to the Redwood Forests, the great American hardware store maintains a revered place in the commercial history of these United States. 


On the following pages, Home Channel News editors travel state-by-state to find examples of leading hardware store retailers. To those deserving candidates not on the list — and there are many — we offer this advice as consolation: “Keep up the good work. We’ll get to you eventually.”