{"id":7689,"date":"2017-09-01T01:06:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T01:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2772656&amp;preview_id=2772656"},"modified":"2017-09-01T01:06:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T01:06:19","slug":"scotts-miracle-gro-sells-off-international-operations-to-focus-on-core-business-and-hydroponics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/scotts-miracle-gro-sells-off-international-operations-to-focus-on-core-business-and-hydroponics\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotts Miracle-Gro sells off international operations to focus on core business and hydroponics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/scotts-miracle-gro-sells-off-international-operations-to-focus-on-core-business-and-hydroponics\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Aug 31, 2017, 4:24 pm \u2022 Updated: Aug 31, 2017, 5:10 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"author\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/awallace\/\" rel=\"author\">Alicia Wallace<\/a><\/span><em>, The Cannabist Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Scotts Miracle-Gro has shed its Australia and European businesses in a deal that frees up the company to direct its attention on lawn-and-garden products and an ambition to become \u201cthe world\u2019s most successful hydroponic gardening business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. on Thursday completed the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/05\/02\/scotts-miracle-gro-hawthorne-cannabis-hydroponics-earnings-call\/78747\/\">previously announced<\/a> sale of its overseas operations to Exponent Private Equity LLP. The $250 million deal includes operations in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom, leaving Scotts in a position where close to 100 percent of its sales and profits would come from North America, officials have said.<\/p>\n<p>The sale to Exponent and a previous divestiture of Scotts LawnService allows Scotts to dedicate its money and attention to its long-established core business and its high-flying venture into hydroponics. Scotts has spent hundreds of millions of dollars plucking up sector leaders and folding them into subsidiary Hawthorne Gardening Co. in a move to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/09\/22\/scotts-miracle-gro-cannabis-hawthorne-gardening-co-hydroponics\/61763\/\">capitalize on the ancillary wings of the fledgling U.S. marijuana industry<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe integration of acquisitions under the Hawthorne umbrella is proceeding as planned, and we are in the closing stages of completing the acquisition of a marquee brand in another category of hydroponics,\u201d Jim Hagedorn, Scotts chief executive officer, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal remains the same: to create the world\u2019s most successful hydroponic gardening business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scotts\u2019 jaunt into hydroponics started in Boulder, Colo., where it invested in AeroGrow International, a maker of indoor garden systems. Scotts now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/12\/02\/scotts-miracle-gro-aerogrow-hydroponics-cannabis-boulder\/68678\/\">owns a majority stake<\/a> of AeroGrow.<\/p>\n<p>The international deal comes a year after Scotts shuttled its LawnService business into a joint venture with TruGreen. Scotts took a 30 percent stake in that venture and has received $290 million in cash as a result \u2014 including an $87 million dividend announced Thursday.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-meta-author\">\n<div class=\"authorimage\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/awallace\/\" rel=\"author\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/scotts-miracle-gro-sells-off-international-operations-to-focus-on-core-business-and-hydroponics.jpg\" class=\"authormug\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"author-desc\">Alicia Wallace joined The Cannabist in July 2016, covering national marijuana policy and business. In her 14 years as a business news reporter, her coverage has spanned topics such as the economy, natural foods, airlines, biotech, retail,&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The lawn-and-garden giant&#8217;s sale of international operations allows the firm to focus on ambitions in hydroponics, an ancillary sector of the cannabis industry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,6114,6813,77,5577,5667,9,6833,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[5063,6124,6818,2655,5580,5673,6835,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}