Marysville, Ohio-Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., hit by product registration and recall troubles (GM April 28, p. 13) on several fronts and facing a criminal investigation by two federal agencies, disclosed April 24 that it had dismissed an unnamed employee responsible for “causing invalid product registration forms to be submitted to federal and state regulators.” It was not known if the dismissal was associated with the weed-and-feed product that was found to be improperly registered and is being removed from retailer locations along with notices going out to consumers, or the apparent voluntary recall of two lawn fertilizer products from retail customers and consumers – or both. Nor were there any details regarding what Scotts reported as learning on April 10 that a federal criminal investigation is being carried out and is believed being led by the U.S. Justice Department and EPA. Scotts noted only that the company “has been cooperating with the government since it learned of the investigation and will continue to do so.” And in the midst of it all, Scott’s officials decided that, because of distractions caused by the recall turmoil, the release of second-quarter financial results would be delayed for nearly a week, or until May 5. Chairman and CEO Jim Hagedom personally reported that in addition to terminating the employee for improper conduct, Scotts had hired an independent consulting firm to review its regulatory compliance processes and procedures. “Over the last several days, we learned that one of our former employees deliberately circumvented company policies, caused invalid product registration forms to be submitted to federal and state regulators, and then hid those actions from co-workers and managers,” Hagedom stated. “We sincerely apologize to the EPA, our retail partners, our consumers and our shareholders. As I have stated, compliance with government regulation is not optional, and we are taking aggressive steps to better understand how this action occurred and to seek to avoid any re-occurrences.” He added that Dr. Richard Shank, who joined the company earlier this year as its new chief environmental officer, will assist this effort. Shank is former director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, as well as former director of the Nature Conservancy in Ohio. At the same time, Scotts announced that as part of the “proactive steps aimed at strengthening its product registration practices and procedures with state and federal regulatory agencies actions,” it was working with EPA on a recall of Bonus S Max and Turf Builder Plus 2 Max lawn fertilizer products from retail customers and consumers. The company explained that Bonus S Max was developed for use only on St. Augustine grass grown in the southeastern states, and Turf Builder Plus 2 Max was briefly tested but is no longer produced or distributed and is not related to the popular Turf Builder Plus 2. All recalled products are reported to represent less than one percent of total sales. But Scotts spokesman Jim King was quoted in the press as saying the recalls, which started with Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed With Weed Preventer All Purpose Plant Food with its unregistered herbicide, could cost the company $20 million, not including legal and consultant fees.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain