Market Place

By: Michael Chase, Corporate Counsel

By: George Midlik, Midwest Regional Sales Manager

Recently, at a Mulch and Soil Council (MSC) Meeting I attended, there were some interesting topics that could affect your mulch business and the industry as a whole. It seems we have the attention of a few government agencies, both at the state and federal levels.

By: Scott Thompson, Vice President Sales&Marketing

By: Michael Chase, Corporate Counsel, ChromaScape Inc.

By: Steve Grudzinski, Senior Vice President Finance and Administration

The mulch season is upon us and we want to remind everyone about our consumer website, colorenrichedmulch.com. This site is designed to answer all the questions a retail customer might have about colored mulch. It provides safety information on toxicity testing and heavy metals. It offers consumers advice on preparing their beds, choosing a color and finding locations that sell Heartland Enriched colored mulch. Our “Where to Buy” page is the most visited page on the website (59% of all visitors view this page) with as many as 126 hits per day during peak season.

By: Scott Thompson, Vice President Sales&Marketing

It is difficult to pick up a trade journal these days and not read more than one article competing for one of our industry’s most valuable resources, wood fiber. From new pellet fuel plants to lumber mills shutting down to land clearing coming to a hault, all the news is not good. It makes you wonder what our industry will look like ten years from today.

Almost two years after the fact, more than 22 states around the US have declared a “drought”, and a total of 36 anticipate severe water shortages by 2013*. Whenever drought conditions surface, the combination of environmental effect, coupled with a lack of awareness and inaction by public regulators, almost always converge to fail the consumer. In this industry “consumers” are large commercial and private property owners and they are always the last ones to be notified they can’t flush, shower or water their lawns.