Sarasota-Florikan ESA has announced that it will form a strategic joint venture with Sun Gro Horticulture to distribute its controlled release and water soluble fertilizers to the professional horticulture industry in North America. The venture will operate under the name Florikan Specialty Plant Nutrition and will be operated and managed in Sarasota, Fla. Florikan and Sun Gro are combining their sales forces to represent Florikote and Nutricote fertilizers. Florikan will retain its controlled release fertilizer manufacturing and distribution operations independent of Sun Gro. As part of its refocused effort, Florikan will cease carrying plastics products manufactured by ITML, Amerikan, Ginegar, and others. “Florikan has sought to restructure and streamline its product offering since the introduction of its Florikote technology in 2007,” says Ed Rosenthal, who founded Florikan in 1981. Florikan also announced that its fertilizer blends will now be available through the following distributors in the Southeast and FL: Gro-South, Graco, BWI, Growers Service Supply, Cassco, B&T, Atlas Peat, Florida Potting Soils, Regal Chemical, and Wholesale Landscape Supply. In addition, Florikan will now offer TechniGro water soluble fertilizers. It is available with any chelated minor nutrient and can be custom blended with a 20 ton order. Sun Gro, founded in 1929, in Vancouver, B.C., has grown to become North America’s largest producer of sphagnum peat and the largest distributor of peat moss and peat and bark-based growing media to professional plant growers in the U.S. and Canada. Sun Gro sells its professional products primarily to greenhouse, nursery and specialty crop growers, as well as to golf course developers and landscapers. Sun Gro’s current fertilizer product offering includes Multicote®, Nutricote® in the Western United States, Technigro®, and SunTrace®. Sun Gro also sells peat moss and peat-based growing mixes to retail customers.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain