Now that gardening cataloger Jackson & Perkins is owned by a company specializing in horticulture, it may be in a better position for growth. On April 10, Medford, OR-based Harry & David Holdings sold most of the assets of the $73.8 million Jackson & Perkins, including the catalogs, the Website, the customer lists, and the inventory, for roughly $21 million to an investment group headed by Donald and Glenda Hachenberger. A second investment group has agreed to buy about 3,200 acres of Jackson & Perkins’ growing fields in Wasco, CA, the so-called Rose Capital of the Nation, along with certain buildings and equipment.
At press time, Charles “Chas” Fox was expected to take over as president of Jackson & Perkins. He is president of two other gardening catalogs, Park Seed Co. and Wayside Gardens, and of Southern Sun BioSystems, which licenses technology, materials, and equipment for plant propagation. Fox founded Hodges, SC-based Southern Sun in 1997, then sold it to the Hachenbergers. The Hachenbergers also own a stake in Park Seed and Wayside Gardens.
Jackson & Perkins fits in with the audiences of both Park Seed/Wayside and Southern Sun, as it sells to consumers as well as to gardening centers. Fox told the Ashland (OR) Daily Tidings that the purchase was an “ideal opportunity” for the Hachenbergers’ investment group.
“For us, Jackson & Perkins is a one-of-a-kind brand,” Fox said. “There’s not another like it out there. It was an opportunity that probably wouldn’t come down the pike again. Since November, we’ve gone through a tremendous amount of due diligence and data to see the value of the company and its potential. It’s the most recognizable brand in the horticulture industry.”
The bloom off the rose?
Jackson & Perkins is indeed a renowned and respected brand. But for the former parent company, it seemed the bloom was off the rose. For the fiscal year ended June 24, 2006, sales at Jackson & Perkins were down 2% from the previous year. The company blamed the decline primarily on weaker demand for roses among the merchant’s reseller customers and on a shift in its direct marketing strategy that included lower circulation of catalogs with higher page counts, which resulted in higher average order sizes but lower overall sales.
In comparison, annual sales for Harry & David Holdings increased nearly 6% last year, to $598.2 million. Direct sales for the Harry & David food gifts brand rose nearly 6%, while Harry & David store sales grew more than 13%.
“The decision to divest Jackson & Perkins was made only after careful consideration of its strategic fit with our core gift and gourmet food businesses,” Harry & David CEO Bill Williams said in a statement. To the Daily Tidings, Williams said, “If you look at this company as an outsider, I would say it clarifies our strategic focus on gifts and foods without a gardening substrategy.”
Williams said that some Jackson & Perkins employees would move on with the new ownership, while others will take Harry & David positions, and some will leave the company. Harry & David will provide wholesale operational services for Jackson & Perkins through 2007 and direct marketing operational work and other services through June 2008.