Central Garden and Pet Acquires Hopewell Nursery

By Business Wire|January 3, 2021

Central Garden & Pet, which acquired Bell Nursery in 2008, recently entered into an agreement to acquire Hopewell Nursery, a leading live goods grower serving retail nurseries, landscape contractors, wholesalers, and garden centers across the Northeast. The addition of Hopewell Nursery to the Central portfolio further bolsters its position as a leading live goods provider in the garden segment.

“We are pleased to welcome Hopewell Nursery into the Central Garden & Pet portfolio and further expand our live goods business,” says Tim Cofer, CEO of Central Garden & Pet. “Acquisitions are a key focus of our new Central to Home strategy, and we believe adding Hopewell to our portfolio will help us build scale, enter priority adjacencies, and better serve consumers with more high-quality live goods offerings.”

Hopewell Nursery, based in Bridgeton, NJ, was founded in 1988. Today, the company owns more than 1,800 acres of farmland in New Jersey and Maryland, which include more than 9.5 million square feet of polyhouse production, 100 acres of pot-in-pot production, and offers more than 2,000 different varieties of plants, mostly in the trees and shrubs categories. The company currently employs approximately 500 people.

Hopewell will be a part of the Central Garden segment led by J.D. Walker, President, Garden Consumer Products. Central Garden & Pet’s Brett Guthrie, Chief Operating Officer of Bell Nursery, will oversee the company’s live goods business, and the day-to-day operations will continue to be run by current Hopewell employees.