Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has been given the go-ahead from federal officials to relabel several products it had voluntarily recalled this summer and move them back into stores, another step in an ongoing process to stay in step with compliance standards after recall troubles began earlier this year.
The Marysville-based lawn and garden company in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week told investors that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had issued so-called stop sale, use or removal orders for several products. Those include some Smith & Hawken citronella oils, Scotts’ Season Long Max Weed and Grass Killer Plus Preventer, Weed B Gon Lawn Weed Killer, Weed B Gon Max Plus Crabgrass Control Singles, Winterizer with Plus 2 Weed Control and Ortho Roach Ant and Spider Killer.
The products accounted for less than 1 percent of the company’s sales.
Spokeswoman Keri Butler said Scotts had voluntarily pulled the products from stores in June, the same month the EPA issued a similar order for another pesticide over labeling problems. That move followed a recall Scotts launched in April, after the EPA found some company pesticides weren’t officially or correctly registered. The recall and registration troubles have cost one employee’s job and sparked an audit of all products the company has on the market.
Scotts in the filing said it was encouraged that the most recent EPA order allows the company to correct basic label problems – ranging from font issues to incomplete information – and move them back into stores once they’re relabeled, but it expects additional compliance issues will crop up as government officials continue their investigation.
Butler said the company plans to ship products still relevant for the season as soon as they're relabeled.
The company in the filing also updated cost expectations for the recall and registration problems, estimating costs for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 will range between $50 million and $55 million, while costs in the next fiscal year should total about $10 million. Scotts through the third quarter of this fiscal year had spent about $30 million related to the recall.
The totals through the next fiscal year don’t include fines or penalties handed down, which could “be material and have an adverse effect on the company’s financial condition and results of operations,” Scotts said.
The company ended its fiscal 2007 with a $113.4 million profit on $2.87 billion in revenue.