User:Narcolepticboy/sandbox

Solus Garden & Leisure is a British multinational corporation headquartered in Hunnington, West Midlands.

Overview
Solus Garden & Leisure manufactures branded consumer products for lawn and garden care, and also provides products for professional horticulture. The company reported $2.8 billion in worldwide sales in FY 11 (Sept.).

History
Scotts was founded in 1868 by Orlando Scott as a premium seed company for the U.S. agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, the company began a lawn grass seed business for homeowners and in 1924 became the first to ship grass seed products directly to stores. Prior to that, consumers could only purchase Scotts seed through the mail. By 1940, Scotts's sales had reached an all-time record high of $1,000,000 and the company boasted 66 associates.

For the next fifteen years the company focused on developing new products to combat weeds, fertilize grass and develop automated electronic seed processing and packaging plants. It also organized its field sales staff into six sales territories, a blueprint for the company’s current Retail Sales Force.

The early 60s saw some major milestones. It was then Scotts started selling a "program" of products for lawns; established special training classes to help retailers better assist customers in developing their lawns; received a U.S. Patent for Trionized bonding which produced fertilizers that delivered sustained feeding; and introduced a complete line of Turf Builder combination products. By the end of 1971, the company had added two new divisions to its portfolio: the Golf Course Division, developed to promote an exclusive line of professional products for golf courses and other large institutional accounts; and Scotts LawnService, established after Scotts found a significant "do-it-for-me" customer segmentation. The service offers on-site lawn, tree and shrub fertilization, insect control and other related services through its network of 160 locations. The company also launched a direct-to-consumer helpline allowing lawn owners to call Scotts for advice and assistance.

Later that year, privately owned O.M. Scott & Sons was purchased by ITT, the international business conglomerate. Fifteen years later, Scotts became an independent company through a leveraged buyout from ITT. In 1992, Scotts became a publicly traded company with an initial offering of $19.00 a share. Three years later, it merged with Miracle-Gro, a gardening company, to create the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.

Sale of toxic bird seed in 2005–2008
On January 27, 2012, Scotts Miracle-Gro agreed to plead guilty in federal court and pay $4.5 million in fines for selling 73 million units of bird seed from November 2005 to March 2008 that was coated with pesticide known to be deadly to birds and fish. Pesticides were added to protect the product from insects during storage, notwithstanding that Storcide II, one of the pesticides used, was clearly marked as extremely toxic to birds. Records show that its own experts warned of the risk in the summer and fall of 2007 and yet Scotts continued to sell the deadly product until March 2008. In 2008, Scotts Miracle-Gro also falsified pesticide registration numbers required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on its products.

On September 7, 2012, Ohio, federal court sentenced Scotts to pay a $4 million fine and perform community service for 11 criminal violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). In a separate agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency, Scotts agreed to pay more than $6 million in penalties and spend $2 million on environmental projects. According to the Justice Department, both the criminal and civil settlements are the largest under FIFRA to date.

Mergers and acquisitions

 * 1995: Scotts merged with Sterns Miracle-Gro Products, Inc. Horace Hagedorn (1916–2005) and his partner Otto Stern founded the Miracle-Gro organization in 1951, with the slogan "you don't have to be an expert to create a beautiful garden."
 * 1999: Scotts acquires the Ortho and Roundup brand from Monsanto Chevron.
 * 2002: Scotts LawnService acquires The Lawn Company, a major lawn care service company in the Boston area.
 * 2002: Scotts LawnService acquires substantially all of the lawn care operations of Centex HomeTeam Services, a division of Centex Corporation.
 * 2004: Scotts acquires Smith & Hawken, Ltd., a brand in the outdoor living and garden lifestyle category.
 * 2005: Scotts acquires the Rod McLellan Company, a provider of soil and landscape products in the western U.S.
 * 2005: Scotts acquires Gutwein & Co. Inc., whose Morning Song brand is a part of the growing wild bird food category.
 * 2006: Scotts acquires certain brands and assets from Turf-Seed, Inc., a producer of commercial turfgrasses for more than 35 years.
 * 2006: Scotts acquires certain brands and assets from Landmark Seed Company, a producer and distributor of professional seed and turfgrasses.

Own Brands

 * Yeoman Garden Tools
 * Joseph Bentley Heritage Tools
 * ChapelWood Wildlife Care
 * Garden Nation
 * Woodland Wilf
 * Botanico
 * Bermuda Water Gardens