The Marysville, Ohio, company said it is planning to acquire at least one regional pest control service company this year and will launch a new line within its lawn care service business.
COLUMBUS, OHIO – Scotts Miracle-Gro, the Marysville, Ohio, maker of lawn- and garden-care products, said yesterday that it is planning to acquire at least one regional pest control service company this year and will launch a new line within its growing lawn care service business, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
“We currently are exploring acquisition opportunities in (the pest-service) space, and I wouldn’t be surprised … if we don’t make our first test acquisition in 2014,” Barry Sanders, Scotts’ president and chief operating officer, told analysts during a conference call reviewing results of the company’s first fiscal quarter yesterday.
“While lawn care remains the overwhelming piece of the business, (Scotts LawnService) continues to expand … into pest service, as well,” Sanders said.
Sanders said his company has a 6 percent market share of the $4 billion lawn care market and a “nonmaterial” share of the pest-control service market. His company plans to acquire a few pest control businesses over the next couple of years “and make sure we get it right before we begin to scale it,” he said.