Pictures from friends

James (Jim) W. Sweet (his father started the business)

James Sweet built Scotty’s to a chain of more than 100 stores and $500 million in sales during a 40-year career there. Scotty’s employed more than 5,500 people during his tenure. Fifteen-year member of the Florida Council of 100 business development group. Graduate of Winter Haven High.

JAMES SWEET, 91 Sweet's Inc. WINTER HAVEN - Mr. James W. Sweet, age 91, of Winter Haven passed away Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at Winter Haven...

James Sweet Guest Book
"This wonderful man has frequently been in my thoughts. it has been 20 years since I had the pleasure of working for him at Scotty's. Friends & former co-workers still talk about our experiences. Jim..." - Randy Kenny

"I was so sorry to hear of Jim's death. I was a Store Manager for Scotty's the first time I had a chance to have lunch with him. When he came to my store with several others, we walked to the car and..." - Rich Arthur
 

Documents

Wholly Owned Subsidiary of GIB Group

Bankruptcy chapter 7 document

Bankruptcy chapter 7 document

    trademark registered 11/26/1973, expired 11/05/2005

The Scotty's face logo trademark is for sale

James W. Sweet and Harold W. Taylor report to securities analysts and money managers on the performance of Scotty's Inc.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Scotty's, Inc. (NYSE-SHB) today reported that James W. Sweet, chairman and chief executive officer, and Harold W. Taylor, senior vice president and chief financial officer, addressed securities analysts and money managers in Boston and New York on Nov. 13 and 15, respectively.

Commenting on the previously announced seven percent increase in sales and six percent increase in net income for the first fiscal quarter ended Sept. 29, 1984, Mr. Sweet said this performance was achieved in the face of increased competition and high interest rates. He pointed out that competitors have added 1.5 million square feet of store space …

 

Scotty's Chairman Bows Out

A giant Belgian retailing company gained virtual control Friday of Scotty's Inc., the Winter Haven building-supply concern, resulting in a major shake-up in the company's top management.

James W. Sweet, 69, resigned as chairman, and he and his wife sold all of their stock in the publicly traded company for an undisclosed price to The GIB Group, the operating name of GB-Inno-Bm SA of Brussels. At $12.75 a share, the price before the sale was announced, the Sweets would have received $24.2 million for their stock. Because the price per share for the Sweet stock sale is unknown, the actual amount of the transaction could have been considerably more or less.

GIB Group is the largest retailer in Belgium and has annual sales in food and general merchandise of more than $3.7 billion. It has been a major investor in Scotty's since 1979.

Top Executives Leave Scotty's

Published: August 27, 1988

Scotty's Inc., a manufacturer of building materials and retailer of hand tools, said yesterday that its chairman, James W. Sweet, had retired. The company also said its president, Dennis Stults, had resigned to pursue other interests.

A director, P. Scott Linder, will succeed Mr. Sweet. Mr. Linder said that the board was considering several candidates for a new management team and that a new president and executive vice president for merchandise would soon be named. Scotty's is based in Winter Haven, Fla., Scotty's also said that Mr. Sweet and his family had sold about 1.9 million shares of Scotty's common stock to GB-Inno-BM S.A. of Belgium. With those shares, Inno raised its stake in the company to 42.7 of the outstanding shares.

In announcing his retirement, Mr. Sweet, 70 years old, said that he had wanted to retire for some time and that the sale of his family's stock had permitted him to do so.

Belgian Investors Start Revamping at Scotty's

Published: August 29, 1988

Belgian investors have begun a revamping of Scotty's Inc., a diversified building supply company in Winter Park, Fla., after completing an estimated $28 million stock purchase from the company's chairman, James W. Sweet, who has announced his retirement.

GB-Inno-MB S.A., a Brussels retail conglomerate, acquired more than 1.8 million shares from Mr. Sweet after the board of Scotty's voted on Friday to amend its bylaws to allow the sale.

The president of Scotty's, Dennis Stults, who is 45 years old and has been with the company for 28 years, announced his resignation. A Lakeland, Fla., industrialist, P. Scott Linder, 66 and a long-time director, replaced Mr. Sweet, who is 70, as chairman. Mr. Sweet's father founded the company in 1924 and Mr. Sweet joined it in the late 1940's.

Investment sources said Mr. Sweet was paid $15 a share for his stock, making the total price more than $28 million, according to a report published by The Ledger, in Lakeland. Scotty's stock closed on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange at $14.375, up $1.625, with 60,000 shares changing hands.

Turf wars; Scotty's defends its native soil against invading Home Depot.

Published: July 1, 1994

Daryl L. Lansdale, the blunt-spoken chief executive officer of Scotty's, is getting a little tired of the questions about the imminent demise of his retail chain, which naysayers predict will be swallowed up in the tidal wave that is The Home Depot.

In town after town, the version goes, Home Depot enters with its warehouse stores, as quaking competitors throw up their hands in surrender and shutter their own meager locations. For years, Wall Street analysts have followed the Atlanta-based retailer's own March to the Sea.

A decade ago, Scotty's did not know quite what to make of this upstart moving into the state it had owned for decades. At first, James Sweet, the son of Scotty's founder who had been successful growing the chain when there were few national competitors around, stumbled badly. Poorly performing stores remained open, and all stores closed on Sundays - a big shopping day.

GIB Group, a $6.4-billion-in-revenues Belgian retail conglomerate that had had a small stake in Scotty's since 1979, threw Sweet a lifeline in 1988, buying his ownership stake and the rest of the company by 1989. GIB brought in Lansdale, who had run W.R. Grace & Co.'s home center retail operations, gave him the support to change the …
 

CEO Ousted at Scotty's Home Improvement Centers of Florida.

Feb. 21--Scotty's Belgian owners on Tuesday sacked the chief executive officer of the Florida chain of home improvement centers.
Gone is Daryl Lansdale, 56, who has been chief executive officer of the $650 million-a-year builders supply retailer for eight years. In his place as president is Thomas Morris, a longtime Sears, Roebuck and Co. executive who had been second-in-command at Winter Haven-based Scotty's for three years.
"To us Mr. Morris will be the boss; he will be running the company," said Jean Pitz, who oversees U.S. operations for GIB Group, Scotty's Brussels-based parent.
Neither Morris nor Lansdale could be reached for comment Wednesday. But …
 

The sad end of Scotty's, inc. life

Dec. 30-2004-LAKELAND, Fla. -- Scotty's Inc. has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware to allow it to liquidate all its merchandise and go out of business.

The Winter Haven-based chain of hardware and home improvement centers filed for Chapter 11 reorganization Sept. 10, but it was unable to find financing that would allow it to stay in business, according to court documents.

A hearing on the company's request was still going on late Wednesday afternoon at the Delaware court. No information on the judge's decision was available.

Telephone calls Wednesday to Scotty's Winter Haven headquarters were unanswered. …

So Long, Scotty's

By Amy L. Edwards, Sentinel Staff Writer, January 20, 2005
HAINES CITY -- The few remaining Scotty's stores are in the process of closing -- marking the end of a company that at one time was the dominant hardware outlet in Central Florida. Scotty's, known for its large, white, barnlike buildings, once had more than 160 stores in Florida and neighboring states. But in recent years, Scotty's Inc. closed many of its locations and downsized the stores that were spared. Today, there are fewer than 30 left in Florida and Georgia. Those that remain are undergoing liquidation, which is expected to take several months.

Facts

Open in 1924 and incorporated on Monday, May 18, 1925

Changed named to Scotty's in 1968 with 30 stores

WBS - Wholesale Builders Supply - Scotty's stock warehouse (corp)

Corporate Address:
5300 N. Recker Highway
Winter Haven, Florida 33882
U.S.A

Telephone: (941) 299-1111
Fax: (941) 294-6840

Max Employees: 7,000

Sales Peaked at $650 million

Had over 150 stores

It's "contractor school" had 5,000 students

Where are they now?