Grigg Brothers Make Sweet hire in Midwest


November 29, 2007. Steve Sweet has joined Grigg Brothers Foliar Fertilizers as a Midwest territory manager serving the golf, turf and sports field markets in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

Sweet’s first day on the job with Grigg Brothers was November 19. He will work from his home office here, just outside Fort Wayne, where can be reached by phone at (260) 450-4772, or via email at steve@griggbros.com.     

Sweet, a former golf course superintendent with 10 years experience working for turf distributorships in Indiana, also brings to his new position an extraordinary amount of familiarity with Grigg Brothers products.

"I've known Gary and Mark Grigg since the very beginning. The distributor I worked for back in 1995, Turf Specialties, was one of the very first to carry Grigg Brothers products," Sweet recalled. "We were on the ground floor with the Griggs, and this new position brings me back to the business I started in, as a golf course superintendent. It's a great opportunity. Jobs like this, associated with products this good, don't come around every day."

In the early 1990s, Sweet served as assistant superintendent, then head golf course superintendent at Deer Track Golf Course in Fort Wayne, Ind., earning his certificate from the University of Massachusetts Winter School for Turf Managers in 1994. His B.A. had been in marketing, however (North Central College, Naperville, Ill.), and later that year he joined Ciba (what would become Syngenta) as a Turf & Ornamental sales representative.

In 1995, he moved to the distributor side of the business, handling territory sales for Indianapolis-based Turf Specialties, Inc., then, beginning in 2003, for Turfgrass, Inc., also based in Indianapolis and still a trusted partner and distributor of Grigg Brothers products.

Sweet joined Grigg Brothers this month from Fort Wayne-based Pro Products, LLC, where he served as National Sales Director for its Irrigation Division.

"We couldn't be happier to have Steve Sweet in place, serving our clients and distributors in the Midwest," said Grigg Brothers President Mark Grigg. "As you can see, he brings to the table all the experience we could ever hope to find, in golf and turf - he understands the industry from the superintendent's, distributor's and sales rep's perspective. So many of the relationships he needs, he already has. We're very pleased to have him on board."

With input and testing from the country's top turfgrass universities and researchers, brothers Gary and Mark Grigg introduced the firm's line of foliar fertilizers in 1995. The major advantage of foliar products is the speed at which turfgrass absorbs the material through its leaves, according to Gary Grigg, vice president at Idaho-based Grigg Brothers.

Gary Grigg is the company's chief agronomist; his 40 years in the turfgrass management profession include a term as president of the Golf Course Superintendents Associations of American (GCSAA). He continues to travel the country speaking to superintendents and turf managers about the art and science of turf care. He will speak on at the Golf Industry Show - alongside Roch Gassoin, PhD, Professor & Extension Turfgrass Specialist at the University of Nebraska's Department of Agronomy and Horticulture - not the subject of "The Science and Philosophy of Foliar Nutrients". That talk is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 30, 8 a.m. to 12 noon.

"Three years of university testing on foliar applications at four separate institutions, conducted on four different turf varieties, has shown that 90 percent of what is going into the plant is delivered there within an hour of application," Grigg explained. "That is considerably faster than a granular, which has to first work its way into the soil, then be absorbed through the roots. Foliars also bypass those soils with problems concerning pH and temperature."

The Griggs recognize the utility and value of granulars, as well, which is why they developed a line of granular, water-soluble fertilizers in 2005. Their granular products are built on the same proprietary protein technology as the foliar line. These high-performance, high-quality granular fertilizers provide the same exceptional nutrient uptake ability and are available in both fairway- and greens-grade granules.

For more information on Grigg Brothers products, foliar and granular, and a listing of distributors in your area, visit www.griggbros.com, or call 888/246-8873.