Griffin Land & Nurseries holds stockholders meeting

During the annual stockholders meeting in May Griffin Land & Nurseries Inc. (Nasdaq: GRIF) company president and CEO Frederick Danziger reported that Imperial Nurseries Inc., Griffin’s landscape nursery business, continues to rebalance its inventories and increases the percentage of its sales to the garden center segment. Garden centers offer Imperial a higher gross profit on sales than the company’s other customer segments.
Danziger reported that sales to garden center customers are expected to account for about 63% of Imperial’s total plant sales this spring, compared to about 54% of total spring sales 4 years ago.
Imperial is continuing its efforts to broaden its product mix to support its goal of increasing sales to the garden center customer segment. The company produces annuals, perennials and woody ornamentals. The broadening of the product mix is in conjunction with a reduction of Imperial’s production of rhododendron, the largest contributor to Imperial’s sales, which is expected to result in raising the average selling prices of rhododendrons over the long-term.
Imperial expects to reduce the amount of its inventory reserves for the plants lost due to the collapse of hoop houses from snow load this past winter. The actual plant losses, as determined in the second quarter after the covering plastic was removed from the collapsed hoop houses, are expected to be approximately $200,000 to $250,000 less than the $550,000 reserved for at the end of the first quarter. This adjustment to Imperial's inventory reserves will be included in Griffin's second quarter operating results. The company’s board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.10 per share on Griffin's common stock.