Marysville, Ohio-Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. reported net income of $153.3 million ($2.32 per diluted share) on sales of $3.14 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009, compared to the prior year loss of $10.9 million ($.17 per share) and sales of $2.98 billion. “We started the lawn and garden season with momentum and never lost it, allowing us to deliver strong results for fiscal 2009,” said Jim Hagedorn, Scotts chairman and CEO. “We’re obviously pleased with our results, which validate the resilience of the lawn and garden category and the strength of our brands with our consumers and our retail partners. Consumer purchases of our products at our largest U.S. retailers grew 15 percent for the year, with double-digit improvements in 46 states.” Fourth-quarter sales were up 7 percent, to $583.4 million versus the year-ago $544.2 million. Scotts had a fourth-quarter net loss of $14.9 million ($.23 per share) versus the year-ago loss of $34.7 million ($.54 per share). Scotts’ initial guidance for 2010 assumes sales growth of 3-5 percent and net income in a range of $3.00-$3.10 per share. The forecast excludes the impact of product recall and registration issues and includes an expected benefit of $.15 per share due to the elimination of losses from Smith & Hawken, which will be reported as a discontinued operation beginning in the first fiscal quarter.
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