IRVINE, Calif. – Commercial nursery operator Hines Horticulture Inc. announced today, March 6, that it has completed the acquisition of Lovell Farms Inc., the company’s fifth acquisition in the last seven months.
This seven-month period has broadened Hines’ geographical reach and product lines. The period of growth for the company started with the purchase of two bark-based, growing media businesses to complement Hine’s peat-based product lines. These two companies – Strong Lite and Pro Gro – were both acquired in August 1999. Strong Lite, a producer and marketer of professional mixes using composted bark, consists of a location in Arkansas and one in Illinois. The Pro Gro acquisition consists of North Carolina-based Pro Gro Products Inc. and Pro Gro of South Carolina Inc., both major producers of professional growing mixes using composted bark as the primary raw material.
Following those two acquisitions, the company then added three regional nursery operations with leading market positions in the Northeast, Southwest and now the Southeast with the Lovell acquisition. In September 1999, Hines acquired Atlantic Greenhouses Inc., a producer of flowering potted plants and annual bedding plants, with one nursery in Pennsylvania and two in New York. Earlier this year in January, Hines also acquired Willow Creek Greenhouses, an Arizona nursery with bedding and holiday plants.
Claudia Pieropan, chief financial officer of Hines, explained that the recent acquisition trend for the company is consistent with its strategy of growth in locations and product offerings. The company’s strategy includes creating regional hubs for business due to the limited shipping area of most color plants, usually a maximum radius of 200 miles. In addition to the five recent acquisitions, these regional hubs include four nursery locations in California, one in Oregon, one in Texas, an additional nursery location in South Carolina and an additional location in Pennsylvania.
Acquisitions and internal growth are two means of developing this strategy. "Hine’s strategy is to grow not only by acquisitions, but also by developing acreage and increasing the volume at our current locations," Pieropan explained.
Pieropan also mentioned that the recent acquisition trend is expected to continue for the company later in the year. She said that most acquisitions occur in the third and fourth quarters of the year, usually beginning in July, as companies often decide at that time of year that they are willing to sell. In fact, the Lovell acquisition actually started in early December 1999.
"We are uniquely positioned to meet the needs of local customers as well as regional, multi-regional and national customers who are coordinating programs over ever broader geographic areas," said Stephen Thigpen, president and CEO of Hines. "With these five recent acquisitions, we have made substantial progress toward attaining the critical mass to achieve our objective of being the leading nationwide producer and marketer of green goods and growing media."
Hines’ Latest Acquisition
A leading supplier of quality bedding and holiday plants in the southeastern U.S., Miami-based Lovell Farms has annual sales in excess of $50 million. Lovell has produced color bedding and holiday plants for 30 years, selling to independent garden centers, home centers, mass merchandisers, landscapers, golf courses and commercial recreation facilities. Bedding plants represent 90 percent of Lovell’s plant mix, while the remainder consists of holiday items.
"We are delighted to welcome Lovell Farms to the Hines organization. We look forward to utilizing the strengths and talents of the Lovell team to further penetrate Florida and the Southeast and to extend their successful business strategy to other regions of the country," said Thigpen.
Lovell has focused its strategy on home centers and mass merchandisers, in particular Home Depot and Kmart. In fact, Lovell has become Home Depot’s primary color supplier in Florida, according to Hines. The company has achieved compound annual growth in excess of 13 percent over the past several years.
Hines Horticulture is a leading operator of commercial nurseries in North America, producing a broad assortment of container-grown plants. The company sells its nursery products primarily to the retail segment, which includes premium independent garden centers, as well as leading home centers and mass merchandisers, such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target. The company also produces and markets sphagnum peat moss and professional peat and bark-based growing media, which it sells to professional customers, including greenhouse growers, nursery growers and golf course developers.