Have Dutch Bulb Exporters Gained Financial Control of American Horticulture
Many inquiries have been initiated into the reasons why Foster-Gallagher, the largest direct-to-consumer marketer of horticultural products in North America, filed for Bankruptcy on July 2, 2001, after ceasing all normal business operations on June 29, 2001. Somewhere between 3000 and 4000 employees lost their jobs and retirement benefits, stock-owned equity and $100,000,000 in debt liabilities. The network of companies, owned and operating under the umbrella of Foster-Gallagher, were known by active American bulb buyers for many generations. Stark Brother’s Nursery (Stark Bros.) was known and carried the prestige of customer of fruit, nut, berry, plant, grapevine, and other shade tree and vine plants, as the most respected national provider of these products in the United States. National fruit orchard growers were loyal to Stark Brother’s Nursery in buying special fruit trees and vines, to plant and grow with an unshakable confidence that a healthy stream of revenue income would be harvested to support American farm families. Superior agricultural fruit products would be made available at the commercial markets with healthy, brightly colored, aromatic berries, grapes, and fruits. How then, could an American nursery with a flawless reputation for excellent quality, service, and a survival record in an extremely competitive business, become the helpless victim of failure and the unforgettable disgrace of bankruptcy? This question might be expanded to involve other Foster-Gallagher owned bulb and seed companies.
Gurney’s Seed and Nursery, and Henry Field’s Nursery also sold thousands of orders of fruit, nut, and shade trees, etc, like Stark Brother’s Nursery, but they likewise sold to a vast market of vegetable seed buyers a market, that in itself was enormously profitable. If these companies were removed from the American markets “Cui bono?” Who would benefit from this demise, and emerge to replace these giants of mail order success in past history? Would the new mail order replacement companies be owned and controlled by the Dutch office located in the Netherlands?