GTN Xtra received this announcement on Tuesday 16th July 2014:
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, the world’s leading marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products, today announced that its subsidiary, The Scotts Company (UK) Limited, has reached an agreement to acquire proprietary brands from Solus Garden and Leisure Limited (in Administration).
The acquisition includes, but is not limited to, the Yeoman, Joseph Bentley, ChapelWood, Botanico, Garden Nation and Bermuda brands. Prior to going into administration, Solus was a leading UK supplier of garden and leisure products, offering a diverse mix of quality brands for more than 25 years.
Mark Pearson, previously Chief Executive Officer of Solus, will join Scotts to lead the acquired brands, which will be operated as a “Scotts Solus Brands” internal division within The Scotts Company (UK) Limited.
“The acquired Solus brands are complementary to our existing gardens business in the UK and fill some gaps in our current product offering,” said Martin Breddy, Vice President and General Manager of The Scotts Company (UK) Limited. “We are excited to combine these brands with Scotts’ innovation, advertising and marketing and are confident this will help drive faster growth for the UK gardening market. “We welcome the Solus team into the Scotts family and are working towards a seamless transition,” added Breddy.
Tony Barrell, joint administrator and director of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said: “I am pleased to announce the completion of the sale to Scotts, which secures the future of the Solus brands and business. I would like to thank the employees, key customers and suppliers for all their support over the last eight weeks. We will now be communicating with the suppliers of the third-party branded products, which were not sold as part of the deal.”
Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
Look out for GTN Xtra this weekend with all the industry comment about the purchase of the Solus Brands plus news of third party products previously distributed by Solus. Sign up for your own copy of GTN Xtra here