Scotts Miracle-Gro

SUM 2014 - Supply Chain Management

This Case study is based on the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, which is currently located in Temecula, California. The founder Orlando McLean created the Scotts Company in 1868. He started with distribution of horse-drawn farm equipment and mail order seed distribution. The company started offering seeds for lawn in 1907, distributing through retail in 1924, introduced the first drop spreaders in 1930, and in 1983, came out with the broadcast spreaders. In 1992 the Scotts Company acquired Republic Tool and Manufacturing Company. This made Scotts the largest American Lawn and Garden Company. There were several changes of the ownership of the firm from 1971. Then in 1986 a leverage buy-out made the company a private company once again. The company went public in 1992; it’s stock started trading on the NASDAQ. In 1995 Scotts merged with Miracle-Gro, which was founded in 1951 by Horace Hagden. By early 2000, the merger made Scotts Miracle-Gro the number one company in every market that they competed.
Even though the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is ranked number one in every market, the competition to stay in the US is getting harder because of global competition. The two key issues for Scotts is to either stay in the United States or to go overseas to either outsource or offshore its operations. The key issues are the cost associated with producing their products in the United States compared to their competitors who outsource to other countries where things might be cheaper. Keeping the operations in the United States will mean no jobs will be lost, no loss of control over the company’s production, and less stock needed, since the company can rely on a lean manufacturing process. This is feasible but operations cost have to be cut to make a steady profit and keep the growth needed for the company and its shareholders. The other choice for the company is to outsource or offshore it’s operations to another countries. This will help to...