Miracle-Gro CEO: "I Want To Target The Pot Market"
From the WSJ:
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has long sold weed killer. Now, it's hoping to help people grow killer weed.
In an unlikely move for the head of a major company, Scotts Chief Executive Jim Hagedorn said he is exploring targeting medical marijuana as well as other niches to help boost sales at his lawn and garden company.
"I want to target the pot market," Mr. Hagedorn said in an interview. "There's no good reason we haven't."
The medical marijauana market will reach $1.7 billion in sales this year, the story says. Scotts-Miracle Gro's annual sales are $2.9 billion.
So on the face of it, marijuana growers can't add much to the company's revenues. Of course, there's clearly a very large non-medical-marijuana industry in this country that the company could also sell into.
What's more, Hagedorn tells the WSJ that he's looking for growth in smaller and smaller niches.
In the past, Scotts wouldn't have considered pursuing businesses or product lines that generated less than $10 million a year in revenue. But, Mr. Hagedorn said, "We can't operate our business like that anymore."