Generations of the Smith family turned what was once a 40-acre produce farm on Bellingham Bay into the 4-million-square-foot greenhouse flower-growing operation it is today.
Smith Gardens now has a new majority owner in private equity firm Hoffmann Family of Companies — though Eric Smith, who will remain at the helm with his brother Mark, stressed that customers and employees won’t see any changes.
“They will get the same driving spirit out of Smith Gardens that they have come to know,” he said in an interview. The brothers will have partial ownership of the company going forward.
The 125-year-old company grows flower plants to be sold primarily at home improvement, grocery and big-box stores including Lowe’s, Walmart and Costco. From there, people can replant them in their yards or window sills at home.
Hoffmann is also acquiring the majority interest in the flower company’s “young plant propagation division,” Pacific Plug & Liner, based in California, according to a news release.
The division cultivates plants from seeds and cuttings that are then sold to other growers and will eventually make their way to retail stores. About 80% of the plants Smith Gardens sells originate from Pacific Plug & Liner, Smith said.
Hoffmann, the equity firm, is family-owned and has “agricultural holdings in California, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, and Mexico,” the release said. With this acquisition, the firm is “among the largest greenhouse producers in the U.S.”
“We’re excited about the opportunities that our partnership with the Hoffmann Family of Companies brings,” Smith said, adding the expertise of the companies combined will allow for growth.
Smith Gardens grows flower plants to be sold primarily at home improvement, grocery and big-box stores including Lowe’s, Walmart and Costco. (Photo courtesy of Hoffmann Family of Companies)
In addition to Smith Gardens’ greenhouses, the company also has 100 acres for production and a merchandising division, the release said. Its 1,200 employees work across six different locations, including two in Bellingham, one in Oregon and the California division.
Smith’s great-grandparents, immigrants from Scotland, were among the family members who started the business at the turn of the 20th century.
On their plot of land on Marine Drive, they grew lettuce, Brussels sprouts and other vegetables for local grocery stores and markets, Smith said. Around the 1950s, the family started growing flowers. People would come out to the farm to buy trays of petunias, marigolds and geraniums.
Later, when grocery stores began opening garden centers in the late ’60s and early ’70s, vegetable growing “went by the wayside” as Smith Gardens began selling flowers to places like Fred Meyer, Smith said.
In the mid-’80s, the business expanded to hardware stores when they opened in town, he said. The business still sells vegetable and herb plants for home gardeners, in addition to flowers.
Smith Gardens’ family legacy continues. “My brother Mark and I are not going anywhere,” Smith said.
Sophia Gates covers rural Whatcom and Skagit counties. She is a Washington State Murrow Fellow whose work is underwritten by taxpayers and available outside CDN’s paywall. Reach her at sophiagates@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 131.
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