Ball Horticultural Company

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 78 (2007) by A. Woodward

Ball Horticultural Company

622 Town Road West Chicago, Illinois 60185 U.S.A. Telephone: (630) 231-3600 Fax: (630) 231-1383 Web site: http://www.ballhort.com

Private Company Incorporated: 1905 as George J. Ball Inc. Employees: 3,000 Sales: $90 million (2004 est.) NAIC: 111422 Floriculture Production

Ball Horticultural Company is the leading North American producer and distributor of ornamental plants and their seeds. The company operates through an array of subsidiaries throughout the world, breeding and producing most of the plants sold through nurseries and garden centers in the United States. Its two main U.S. subsidiaries are Ball FloraPlant and PanAmerican Seed Company. Ball produces seeds and seedlings for worldwide distribution at huge plantations in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Chile. It also produces ornamental plants at facilities in California for the North American market, supplies the Japanese market through several plant farms in that country, and serves the European market from a growing facility in Portugal. Ball also operates plant and seed distribution companies. Ball Seed, Ball Superior, and ColorLink serve the North American market. Ball products reach some 8,000 U.S. wholesale greenhouse growers every year, and are then sold to approximately 17,000 garden centers, from small family-owned operations to big chain stores such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Ball operates several distribution companies in the United Kingdom and others in France, Germany, Holland, Italy, and in South Africa. Ball also operates six distribution subsidiaries in South America. Other subsidiaries serve the Asian market, with Ball outposts in Japan, Korea and China. Overall, the company has huge worldwide reach. Ball also operates a demonstration garden, several horticultural research firms, and a publishing arm, which produces several magazines for gardening hobbyists. The company has been in the Ball family since its inception in 1905, and is now headed by the founder's granddaughter, Anna Caroline Ball.

EARLY YEARS

Ball became financially viable as a seed-producer in 1915 with a lucky crop of so-called "Orange King" calendulas. He sent the "Orange King" seeds to a California grower, where they did very well. By 1918, George J. Ball Inc. was selling mail-order seeds to customers around the country. The company did well through the 1920s, a time of buouyant growth in many American industries, and by 1927, the company had outgrown its Glen Ellyn location. That year, the company moved to a 50-acre plot in another Chicago suburb, West Chicago, where the company headquarters are still located. The company opened a trial garden in West Chicago in 1933. Despite the horrendous economic conditions that gripped most industries during the years of the Great Depression, George J. Ball Inc. apparently continued to do well. Its staple product was still cut flowers, which were in constant demand for occasions like weddings and funerals. Because flowers were tied to social rituals that continued in good times or bad, Ball's industry was relatively recession-proof. So Ball continued to introduce new products in the 1930s. In 1937, the company launched an influential horticulture magazine, Grower Talks . George Ball became president of the Society of American Florists in 1938. Ball died in 1949, while travelling to Japan. After his death, his four sons each took a turn running the company.

DIVERSIFICATION AFTER WORLD WAR II

After World War II, many American gardeners became increasingly interested in growing their own vegetables, and Ball branched out into supplying vegetable seeds. Ball bought one wholesale vegetable seed firm in the 1960s, and the company also became increasingly entwined with another American seed producer, W. Atlee Burpee & Co. Burpee was a storied company that had been selling mail-order seeds since the 1880s. Whereas many seeds used by American growers had been imported from Europe, early on, Burpee began hybridizing garden plants that were adapted to North American growing conditions. The company originated many well-known flower and vegetable varieties, and its catalogs were such a staple of American life that farm children often used them to learn to read. Burpee and Ball did not formally merge until 1991, and then they separated again in the mid-1990s. However, the two companies had close ties from the 1960s onward. Ball was the less visible company, supplying seed and new hybrids, while Burpee was a prominent brand name in American gardening.

Ball also began supplying plants and seeds for the food processing industry after World War II. The company developed types of tomatoes that were ideally suited for making into tomato paste and tomato catsup. The three elder Ball sons, George K., Victor, and Robert, each took an approximately ten-year stint running the company from 1949 until 1970. That year the presidency passed to the youngest of the Ball brothers, G. Carl Ball. While his three brothers had passed the baton among them relatively quickly, G. Carl Ball stayed at the head of Ball Inc. until 1995, when his daughter Anna Caroline Ball took over.