Freeman Spogli has agreed to sell Green Garden Products to publicly traded Central Garden & Pet for $532 million. Freeman Spogli acquired Green Garden (then Plantation Products) in January 2015 from RFE Investment Partners.
Green Garden is a seller of vegetable, herb and flower seed packets, seed starters, and plant nutrient products through over 70,000 retail locations across the home center, mass merchant, farm and independent, dollar store, and distributor/co-op channels.
Green Garden has more than 3,500 SKUs – including seeds for perennials, medicinal herbs, tomatoes, ornamental grasses, and wildflowers – and sells over 250 million seed packets each year. Company-owned and licensed brand names – several of them were founded in the mid-1800’s – include Ferry-Morse, American Seed, Livingston Seed, McKenzie, NK Lawn & Garden, Jiffy, SUPERthrive, and Dyna-Gro and Seeds of Change.
During Freeman Spogli’s ownership term, Green Garden closed three add-on acquisitions including SUPERthrive, a California-based provider of vitamins and hormones used to stimulate plant growth (July 2017); Sustainable Agrico, a California-based provider of organic gardening seeds sold under the Seeds of Change brand (June 2020); and Dyna-Gro, a California-based producer of liquid plant nutrient products.
Green Garden, led by CEO Michael Pietrasiewicz, was founded in 1980 and has approximately 180 full-time employees. The company is headquartered 30 miles southwest of Boston in Norton, Massachusetts and has production and distribution facilities in Ohio, California and Manitoba.
Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ: CENT) is a supplier of live plants, grass seed, fertilizer, garden décor, and weed/pest control products; and pet products including edible bones, non-edible chews, pet carriers, grooming supplies, food, cages, and toys. The company has more than 65 brands including Pennington, Nylabone, Kaytee, Amdro and Aqueon. Central, with annual sales of more than $2.7 billion, has over 6,300 employees and is headquartered near San Francisco in Walnut Creek, California.
“Our company’s new “Central to home” strategy is focused on building further scale in our two operating segments and meeting consumer and customer needs. Adding Green Garden’s well-known and trusted seed and seed starting brands for vegetables, herbs and flower gardens will expand our portfolio into an attractive adjacent garden category and will strengthen our footprint with key retail customers,” said Tim Cofer, CEO of Central. “Moreover, we will leverage our strong merchandising, brand building and digital capabilities to grow sales for both Central and our retail partners.”
Freeman Spogli, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, invests from $75 million to $300 million of capital per investment in North American-based middle-market consumer and distribution companies that are valued from $100 million to $750 million. Typical target companies will have EBITDA from $10 million to $75 million. In September 2019, Freeman Spogli closed its latest fund, FS Equity Partners VIII LP, at its hard cap of $1.85 billion.
William Blair was the financial advisor to Green Garden and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius provided legal services.
The sale of Green Garden is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | January 5, 2021
H.I.G. Capital has acquired Crothall Laundry Services from publicly traded Compass Group, a UK-based contract foodservice company.
“Crothall is the clear leader in the laundry and linen management sector, serving healthcare institutions through the combination of best-in-class operations, scalable data-driven processes and a stringent focus on quality,” said Richard Stokes, a managing director at H.I.G. “These solutions have increasingly positioned Crothall as a critical partner to healthcare providers as they seek to improve the patient experience.”
Monomoy Capital Partners has acquired family-owned Astro Shapes, a maker of aluminum extrusion products, from National Material LP.
“We congratulate Paul and his team for building a premier, market-leading business in aluminum extrusion,” said Jaime Forsyth, a managing director at Monomoy. “Astro Shapes is a proven, highly-regarded supplier to a diverse customer base, a true partner with its suppliers and well-positioned for continued success in the future. Monomoy is excited to work with the Astro Shapes management team and to collaborate with the company to drive long-term value for its customers, suppliers and employees.”
New York City-based 
New York City-based Castle Harlan has named a new managing director with the promotion of Vice President Patrick Zyla.
Mr. Zyla is active at Castle Harlan sourcing new investment opportunities and is currently a board member of Sunless, an Ohio-based maker of spray tanning equipment, that was acquired in August 2019; and Titan Production Equipment, a Texas-based fabricator of oil and gas production equipment, that was acquired in April 2018. Earlier, he was on the board of Colyar Technology, an Arizona-based provider of child nutrition, food distribution, and compliance management software, that was sold to EMS LINQ, a portfolio company of Banneker Partners, in October 2020.
