ScottsMiracle-Gro is moving all its supply chain planning onto one platform, Kinaxis Maestro. It marks the latest step in a three-year overhaul that has cut the lawn and garden maker's inventory nearly in half.
The deal expands an existing partnership, with no contract value or go-live date disclosed.
The problem: When pandemic demand dried up, Scotts was left holding $1.3 billion in inventory planned using spreadsheets and national averages. President and COO Nate Baxter told Supply Chain Dive that planners would “just build inventory and stuff it into the network. And the problem is if you don’t have a good planning tool, you don’t necessarily know where the demand is.”
The fix: Scotts built a machine learning model using store-level and SKU-level inventory data from retailers to predict where product was actually needed. It then layered in plant automation. The results so far:
Inventory reduced from $1.3 billion to $627 million, with a target below $500M
Distribution centers reduced from 18 to 5
$75 million in cost savings in fiscal 2025, against a $150 million target by fiscal 2027
Automated case packing at its Marysville plant improved packing efficiency 37%, and drones now measure bulk material piles in 30 minutes instead of hours
Where Kinaxis fits: Maestro connects demand, supply and finance planning in one shared model, so every function sees a change at the same time instead of waiting for updates to move through separate teams.
The test comes during the spring rush, when one warm weekend can compress weeks of lawn and garden demand into 48 hours. SVP David Huskisson said the company “needed a supply chain platform that is dynamic, reliable and responsive.”
What's next: GM and Reckitt have also deepened their use of Maestro, but Kinaxis faces pressure from the ERP camp, where Oracle and SAP are bundling planning agents into their suites. Whether Scotts reaches its $150 million savings target will show up in earnings.
