According to The Wall Street Journal Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO Jim Hagedorn say's, "I want to target the pot market,"
...There's no good reason we haven't." Yup, you know we have hit mainstream when Scotts Miracle-Gro want's in on the market.
Things sure have changed at Scotts. Back in 2006 Scotts ran ad's in many trade magazines titled, "Jim cares about Independents". I never bought into the phony campaign, writing about it back in 2006. Seems I was proven correct all these years later. The Wall street Journal article tells us, "the company is recultivating its ties to independent lawn-and-garden-store owners, including offering them exclusive products. Mr. Hagedorn strained those ties with a 2009 speech in which he criticized the owners for not doing enough to promote Scotts products, prompting many owners to walk out. "'I don't give speeches to independents anymore,'" he said." The article also say's, "Targeting marijuana isn't the only way Mr. Hagedorn is pursuing growth outside the national chains. Scotts is also looking to sell more through grocery stores." Yup, Jim loves independents.
Why does Scotts want to get into the marijuana market? According to Jim, "raids on pot-growing operations have turned up Scotts products. Mr. Hagedorn takes that as a good sign of brand awareness, but he fears that some growers would be reluctant to use a mainstream product." Reluctant? Miracle-gro has a lousy reputation among growers. Likely what Scotts will do is buy out an established brand that has a good reputation.
The article continues, "with consumers still cautious about spending, the retailers aren't building new stores as quickly as they used to, making growth for suppliers like Scotts harder to come by. Against that backdrop, Mr. Hagedorn has pushed his regional sales presidents to look for smaller pockets of growth, such as the marijuana market, that together could produce a noticeable bump in sales."
This is quite interesting. I know of some garden center owners who say they would never carry any products that could be used for marijuana cultivation. Will they drop the Scotts line now? When Scotts starts sniffing around a garden category it's already main stream. Once they break the barrier look to other large entities like box stores to jump in. Yes, very interesting.