New Owner Says Most Gardener’s Supply Stores Will Remain Open

The Indiana-based brand that purchased Gardener’s Supply has pledged to keep most of the company’s retail stores open even as it closes other operations.

That’s the first substantial update from Gardens Alive! since it acquired the iconic Vermont company through bankruptcy proceedings last week. The $9 million sale closed on August 8.

In a press release, Gardens Alive! officials said only the seasonal garden center in Shelburne would close as part of the deal. Five other stores — in Williston, Burlington’s Intervale, New Hampshire and Massachusetts — will remain open, and all workers will keep their jobs, the release says.

Forty or so customer service and warehouse employees in Burlington and Milton were laid off earlier this month ahead of the sale. None of the those workers — some of whom had worked at Gardener’s for decades — received any severance pay.

“We know the circumstances for this transition are challenging, and we are stepping in with purpose,” Gardens Alive! CEO Felix Cooper said in the press release. “We see the stewardship of this institution as an honor and a responsibility.”

Founded in 1983, Gardener’s Supply was one of the state’s first employee-owned companies and became a go-to spot for plants, seeds and tools. At one time, the company had 126 full-time workers and close to 300 part-timers. But after a pandemic boom, business tanked, prompting the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June. In court filings, the company indicated it wished to sell to Gardens Alive!, a competitor that has acquired at least nine other gardening businesses since its 1984 founding.

Gardens Alive! will now ship goods from a distribution center in Fairfield, Ohio, a move the company says “will allow for more scalable logistics and faster shipping for customers.” Some products will continue to be made at a Georgia, Vt.-based manufacturing facility, the company said.

Gardens Alive! will look to hire in other, unspecified areas, the press release said, and has already started conversations with long-term vendors.

“We continue to dig in to fully understand how best to stabilize the business,” Cooper said. “We see a lot of opportunity for positive momentum.”