Is this the end of the road for the Solus Brands?
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Scotts Miracle-Gro looks set to be closing all of the Solus brands, with the exception of Chapelwood, less than a year after buying them.
GTN Xtra understands 60 staff at Droitwich have been informed and that an official announcement is imminent. Chairman and CEO Jim Hagedorn is understood to be in the UK at present having attended the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday.
In July 2014 The Scotts Company (UK) Limited reached an agreement to acquire proprietary brands from Solus Garden and Leisure Limited (in Administration) including Chapelwood, Joseph Bentley, Yeoman, Botanico, Burmuda, Garden Nation, Yeominis and Woodland Wilf. Earlier in the year negotiations between Scotts and Solus ran into stalemate and in May 2014 Solus Garden & Leisure went into administration..
Previous Scotts Miracle-Gro VP and General Manager of the UK and Asia Pacific, Martin Breddy, told an audience at the All-Party Parliamentary Gardening & Horticulture Group at the House of Commons last November that following a10-day sourcing trip to China and Hong Kong it was clear to him there were are great opportunities to innovate the Solus categories populated by price competition and me-too products.
Martin Breddy left the company in January 2015 with the UK operation now headed up by General Manager, Sheila Hill (pictured).
 Sheila has recently carried out a tour of garden centre visits to find out first hand the views of retailers to Scotts and the Scotts Solus Brands.
GTN can only conclude that any damage inflicted on the trading of the Solus Brands when Scotts pulled out of their 3rd party wholesaling arrangement last spring has proved to be too big to be repaired. Numerous garden centres have switched suppliers from many of the Solus brands to other suppliers including Gardman, Smart Garden, Crest and Garland.
Some centres have even commented this year that as a result of the closure of the Solus wholesaling division they have also reduced their stocking of Scotts Miracle-Gro products.
How would the potential closure of the Solus Brands effect your business? Let us know your comments, e-mail trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or use the comments link below.
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