Lawn and garden care products marketer Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (SMG) announced the appointment of Mike Lukemire, Jim Tates and Phil Jones as leaders of regional operating offices in Florida, Texas and California respectively. The leaders will be responsible for developing and implementing sales and marketing strategies for the southeast, southwest and west coast regions. The offices would house cross-functional teams focused on driving market share by improving local consumer intimacy and thereby enhancing incremental sales over the years.
Mike Lukemire is set to lead the southeast region with its office in West Palm Beach. The 14-year veteran was recently executive vice president of Global Technologies and Operations and previously senior vice president of Supply Chain of the company. He would be responsible for Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
With the company since 2005, Jim Tates, would lead the southwest region. He was most recently vice president of store operations, overseeing the company's in-store field sales force. He would be located at Houston and his region Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.
Phil Jones, who is with the company since 2007, would head the west coast region in the Orange County. His region includes California, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
"We are not simply opening sales offices, but beginning a fundamental shift in how we operate our core consumer business," said Mark Baker, president.
Baker said "From demographics, to product needs to the length of the growing season, our business varies greatly across the United States. As the growth of new retail stores has declined, we must more proactively drive category growth, which requires us to further improve our intimacy with the consumer."
By improving market share in these regions to a level that is consistent with the rest of the country, Scotts Miracle-Gro believes it can drive incremental sales of $300 to $500 million over the next several years.
The staffing for the regional offices is expected to be neutral to the organization as responsibilities are being shifted from Marysville to the field. However, the company will continue to maintain business development offices in the headquarter city of each of its major national retail partners, Scotts Miracle-Gro said.
SMG is currently trading at $40.81 on the NYSE, down $0.32 or 0.78%.
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