Cultivate

Scotts Miracle-Gro is kind of a pot company

Snacks / Thursday, August 01, 2019

Willie Nelson's suddenly an investor... Way back in 1868, Scotts Miracle-Gro was founded in Marysville, Ohio. And its mission was simple: help people grow plants. And sales to gardening homeowners and landscaping legends rose 10% last quarter. But overall sales were charged by the other grass — Cannabis.

Hydroponics = growing things indoors without soil... According to Scotts investor presentation, it helps "specialty crops" grow indoors with lighting, nutrients, and other greenhouse-y things. Sales in that division boomed 49% last quarter, courtesy of cannabis (best grown indoors). It even paid $450M to acquire Sunlight Supply, which produces sun-emulating lamps (sales in hydroponics grew 138% if you include that).

Trends are like onions... Layers. So many layers. Cannabis has booming growth potential as the stigma of marijuana use fades and legalization continues. Companies like Scotts hope for a piece of that growth action by enabling the enablers — aka supplying growers with the stuff they need to cultivate the cannabis.

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