Floral Plant Growers

Floral Plant Growers produces, markets, and sells specialty floriculture products to lawn and garden centers of mass-merchant retailers. Floral’s main product is bedding plants, small flowers sold in trays for planting in gardens or flower boxes. When Sentinel invested in Floral Plant Growers, this segment of the horticulture business generated $2 billion per year in revenues and had grown 10% annually for the past 10 years. Floral managed more than 70 acres of production capacity in five automated greenhouses from the Midwest to the Atlantic seaboard. Its growth strategy was to consolidate the industry by acquiring smaller companies.

Backed by Sentinel, Floral’s sales and profitability tripled. In 2004, after achieving substantially all of our investment objectives, Sentinel sold Floral to Blue Point Capital Partners.