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General Hydroponics announces sale to Hawthorne Group / Scotts Fertilizer

Granger2

Active member
Veteran
Burnt Rope,
You're right that Scott's and Monsanto are not married. They're just living together. -granger

Excerpts from:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/content/scotts-1-company
"1998 also saw Scotts branch out into GM technology, through the acquisition of 80% of Sanford Scientific Inc, “allowing researchers to create desirable varieties of plants with value-added traits far beyond the capabilities of conventional plant breeding techniques”.[7] Scotts also entered into a collaboration with the Monsanto company to “bring the benefits of biotechnology to the multi-billion dollar turfgrass and ornamental plants business.[8] Under the agreement, Scotts and Monsanto agreed to share technologies, including Monsanto's extensive genetic library of plant traits and Scotts' proprietary gene gun technology to produce 'improved' transgenic turfgrass and ornamental plants. Other acquisitions in 1998 included the US company EarthGro Inc. and the continental lawn and garden products company ASEF.

Scotts relationship with Monsanto became even cosier in 1999, when Scotts completed agreements with the company for exclusive US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Austria agency and marketing rights to its consumer Roundup herbicide products. Scotts also purchased the remainder of Monsanto's lawn and garden business, which included the pesticide brand Ortho.

2000 and beyond To pay homage to its guru (who retired from the company in 1997), in 2000 Scotts renamed its North American headquarters the Horace Hagedorn building. In the new millennium the Hagedorn family have continued to increase their firm grip over the company with Horace's son James being appointed CEO of the company in 2001 and chairman of the board in 2003.[9]

The turn of the century also saw the company continue its expansion into Europe through the acquisition of Substral, the leading consumer fertiliser brand in many European countries, including Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and Scandinavia. In 2000 Scotts also divested its North American Professional Turf business to The Andersons, Inc. and Nu-Gro Corporation, in order to focus its resources on more profitable markets.[10]

In 2002, the company increased its investment in GM technology, by signing a research and commercialisation agreement with New Zealand's Crop & Food Research that could lay the groundwork for the production of flowering ornamental plants 'enhanced' by biotechnology. The company announced that the research will initially focus on 'improved' geraniums, although these are unlikely to be available commercially for several years.[11]"
 
Sale price was around $130 Million... I expected more. MMMM bet those lawyers had some nice pay days haha!

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus...-scotts-hydroponics-deal-was-its-biggest.html

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. spent about $130 million to buy California’s General Hydroponics Inc., Columbus Business First has confirmed, marking the company’s biggest acquisition since a European expansion push in the 1990s.

Marysville-based Scotts, through its new subsidiary Hawthorne Gardening Co., announced the acquisition of General Hydroponics last week but did not disclose the purchase price.

Executives said during a recent meeting with analysts, however, that they were close to a $130 million deal in the hydroponics industry. A Scotts spokesman confirmed to me the final purchase price is around that figure.

Scotts hasn’t spent this much money on an acquisition since October 1998, when the lawn-and-garden giant purchased Rhone-Poulenc Jardin, the biggest garden company in Europe, for $147.5 million. That purchase significantly boosted Scotts’ (NYSE:SMG) foothold in Europe, especially in France, Germany and Austria, while it was making a big push into overseas markets.

Scotts lately is working on a strategy to acquire companies in niche markets. It spent $60 million in 2013 for pest control company Tomcat, and has spent less on other niche companies, including in the indoor and urban gardening sector that Hawthorne targets.

The General Hydroponics acquisition is noteworthy for the company’s prevalence among indoor marijuana growers, although officials from both companies downplay the ties and note that the products are mostly used for other plants. The company brings $40 million in annual sales to Scotts, which had revenue topping $2.8 billion last year.

The company is growing faster than the standard lawn-and-garden segment and is not a “fixer-upper” like many of Scotts’ acquisitions, equity analyst Jim Barrett said in a note. Barrett covers Scotts Miracle-Gro for C.L. King & Associates.

“So while we think Scotts is paying a full price for the company, it should be a company well-positioned for growth with below-average risk, especially if marijuana continues to be legalized in more states,” Barrett said.

Scotts spokesman Jim King said the company is not trying to reinvent General Hydroponics: “It’s about going in there and helping them operate efficiently as we can.”
 

DrFever

Active member
Veteran
Be honest, would you as a 'serious' company admit that you're business depends on potheads, organised crime, and other illegal and dubious doings?

How about this although Everyone tends to slam Monsato how many of them actually shop at Walmart ??? lol like the pot calling the kettle black but then again where would 99 percent of americans shop


Child slave labor is a real problem in our world today. Corporations are using children for cheap labor so the top CEOs of the company can get even richer. Wal-Mart is one of today's biggest corporations, with more than 500 stores located just throughout the United States. Wal-Mart is not just growing rapidly in the United States. In other countries such as China and Bangladesh, Wal-Mart has been making factories at a constant pace in these two countries.

In Bangladesh women and children are forced to work about 14 hours a day, often seven days a week for wages as low as around 13 cents an hour. These extremely low wages just keep the women and children right on the poverty line, and leave them no way to get above it. The workers are paid just 10 cents for every Wal-Mart shirt that they sew. Garment factories, where Wal-Mart clothes are manufactured, just around 90 percent of around 3,780 export garment factories do not follow women's legal right to three months maternity leave with full pay.

One Wal-Mart contractor called Beximco was caught by the National Labor Committee, paying teenage seamstresses an hourly rate of 12p and their helpers 5p. This also made them work for 80 hours a week. These wages are just about half of Bangladesh's minimum wage. The 80 hour work week also goes higher than what is allowed by law. Bangladesh's work week is a maximum of 60 hours.
 

HiFiGanja

Member
LOL Big Mike all butt hurt about Larrys new plane and that he had to fly coach.

[youtubeif]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzbGb9S4M8w[/youtubeif]
 

catalyte

Active member
Veteran
^F*ck Larry and his private jet. Big Mike comes out on top in this situation, not that AN is the holy grail or anything but, AN's products will undoubtedly hold more value (even if they are over priced). Why will any hydro store carry GH if its going to be on all the Big Box store shelves for half the price (im predicting)???
 

HiFiGanja

Member
^F*ck Larry and his private jet. Big Mike comes out on top in this situation, not that AN is the holy grail or anything but, AN's products will undoubtedly hold more value (even if they are over priced). Why will any hydro store carry GH if its going to be on all the Big Box store shelves for half the price (im predicting)???

I got $7-10K of AN 4L and 10L sizes collecting dust on my shelves and no one cares about it. GH I sell 48 mixed bottles of 24L G/B/M GH every 4 weeks not including the 30-40K of the 4,10 and 1L of GH that I sell every month.

Here's Big Mike whaaaaaaaa Larry Waaaaaaaa plane waaaaaa oh how I wish I was Larry with $300Million +

Every Home Depot and Rona carries GH here and they can't match the prices of hydro stores. 100% totally different markets and those stores wont sell GH for 20-30% over cost like I do all day long.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.
 
Last edited:

gh0st9

Active member
Veteran
I much prefer the term "transgenic" or "gene tech" when referring to 'gmo', much more accurate imo. As you all seen earlier regarding the point Dr. Fever was making (conventional breeding and 'gmo' not mutually exclusive-which I agree with), it can be confusing and misleading....
 
Big Mike comes out on top in this situation, not that AN is the holy grail or anything but, AN's products will undoubtedly hold more value (even if they are over priced).

AN is a fucking joke and so is Big Mike. They were damn near insolvent prior to a cash infusion last year.

Cutting Edge is the company I believe that will benefit most from the fallout from 'selling out.'

The real question is how long will it take the dust to settle and for market shares to stabilize.
 

Kygiacomo!!!

AppAlachiAn OutLaW
^F*ck Larry and his private jet. Big Mike comes out on top in this situation, not that AN is the holy grail or anything but, AN's products will undoubtedly hold more value (even if they are over priced). Why will any hydro store carry GH if its going to be on all the Big Box store shelves for half the price (im predicting)???

u think the GH will be at walmart and lowes now? for ppl like me that would be good bc i live in the sticks and there isnt a hydro store within 2hrs of me. i had to order all my shit online this year that i wanted to use and it cost a shitload.
 

catalyte

Active member
Veteran
mark my words. GH will be at Big Box stores for half the price by 2016. Scotts distribution wants to capitalize on this acquisition trust me, other wise they wouldn't have bought them!
 

HiFiGanja

Member
mark my words. GH will be at Big Box stores for half the price by 2016. Scotts distribution wants to capitalize on this acquisition trust me, other wise they wouldn't have bought them!

But whats wrong with that? That's a win for all consumers.
 

RoostaPhish

Well-known member
Veteran
Shit, Fox Farm has been sold at the ACE/True value hardware stores around here as long as I can remember.
 

panick503

Member
Man that big Mike guy comes off as a complete douche bag... Actually I think he's a pretty good personification of AN products...
 

HiFiGanja

Member
Man that big Mike guy comes off as a complete douche bag... Actually I think he's a pretty good personification of AN products...

Unfortunately for me I have enough people asking me for it at my shop that I have to keep it in stock. If there weren't two other hydro stores with in 5 km of me I'd would have dumped AN long time ago and could have carried two other lines of food for the cost of AN.
 

HiFiGanja

Member
Shit, Fox Farm has been sold at the ACE/True value hardware stores around here as long as I can remember.

When Fox Farm was in Canada before they forgot about their roots I saw it in some hardware stores. GH has been in Home Depot here for at least 10 years.
 

Kygiacomo!!!

AppAlachiAn OutLaW
mark my words. GH will be at Big Box stores for half the price by 2016. Scotts distribution wants to capitalize on this acquisition trust me, other wise they wouldn't have bought them!

i hope ur right bro it would be a big help to me. 2hrs 1 way to a hydro store isnt possible evertime i need something lol but the local walmart and lowes is. :woohoo:
 

dirtlvr37

New member
Not only did Scotts buy General Hydro, they also purchased Vermicrop Organics. Pretty sad to see these guys selling their souls to the devil.
 

HiFiGanja

Member
Not only did Scotts buy General Hydro, they also purchased Vermicrop Organics. Pretty sad to see these guys selling their souls to the devil.

Well it was onwed by Larry's son in law. Besides its a business and if someone offered me some nice chunk for my shop I'd sell it too then use that money to open up another business.
 
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