AstroTurf changes with the times

Raleigh firm predicts a 25 percent rise in sales this year despite recession

By David Ranii - Staff Writer

Not even the eruption of a public relations nightmare last year could derail the sales growth of GeneralSports Venue, the Raleigh company behind AstroTurf synthetic grass.

So it's no wonder that, despite the recession, CEO Jon Pritchett projects sales will rise 25 percent to $50 million this year.

It helps that GSV is in an industry that enjoyed 20 percent sales growth last year. That's due in part to improvements in the quality of artificial turf and prices that make it feasible for public schools and municipal parks to convert from natural to artificial grass. And many of the fields GSV is installing today were funded before the recession grabbed the economy by the throat.

In addition, the new federal stimulus package could help schools continue to invest in synthetic fields this year.

"I think the industry thinks this will be a difficult year, but it will still be a strong growth year," said Rick Doyle, president of the Synthetic Turf Council, an industry trade group.

Pritchett, meanwhile, expects GSV to continue to outpace the industry through innovation and the introduction of new products – plus the company's anything-but-secret weapon.

"The AstroTurf brand gets us into a lot of doors," he said. "It gets people's attention."

The company also sells other products, such as antimicrobial coating for facilities such as locker rooms, and offers site preparation and construction management services for stadiums and other support venues.

GSV acquired the exclusive North American rights to the AstroTurf brand in 2006. Last fall, the company found itself on the defensive when New Jersey health officials announced the discovery of unsafe lead levels in three old AstroTurf fields. It triggered a media firestorm.

Those fields were installed before GSV licensed the brand, but so what?

"We weren't liable, but the brand was being attacked," Pritchett said.

So the company, which believed the products were safe but lacked the data to prove it, counter-attacked by hiring a team of scientists to study the issue. The results were released at a press conference in New York: The scientists concluded a child would have to eat 23 pounds of AstroTurf to be at risk.

That helped defuse the issue, which fizzled more in July when the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that it had concluded that synthetic fields were safe for young children.

"It was quite a PR nightmare for 60 to 90 days," Pritchett said. "Our salespeople had to be educated on how to answer the issue. In every meeting, it was a topic."

But the strategy worked.

"We don't know of any projects that were canceled because of it," Pritchett said."

Last year, GSV's sales hit $40 million, more than one-third better than in 2007. Today the company has 43 employees, including 19 at its headquarters off of Capital Boulevard in North Raleigh.

AstroTurf is manufactured for GSV by Textile Management Associates. The Georgia company acquired the product when the previous owner, Southwest Recreational Industries of Texas, went bankrupt in 2004.

The typical cost of an AstroTurf field is about $325,000 to buy and install, plus $325,000 for engineering, which GeneralSports also offers. That's much more upfront than an all-natural field, but it makes maintenance easier and cheaper. Another synthetic advantage: Teams can practice daily without ruining the surface.

Universities that have purchased AstroTurf in the last year or so include Penn State, Cornell, Dartmouth, James Madison and Michigan State. Local customers include UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke, which installed field hockey surfaces, and Campbell University's football stadium.

GSV was formed in 2003 when a group of investors purchased a small turf installation business in Michigan. That group subsequently convinced Textile Management that it had the sales expertise to resuscitate the brand.

It then "re-launched" AstroTurf in 2006 with retired NFL quarterback Archie Manning -- the father of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning -- acting as its celebrity spokesman.

Since then, Pritchett said, the privately held company has separated itself from the pack to become the clear No. 2 in the industry behind the much larger FieldTurf.

"GSV has been a leader in the industry," Doyle said. "They have been an important innovator."

Among GSV's recent accomplishments:

A Michigan State University study presented at a conference last summer concluded that one variety of AstroTurf, GameDay Grass 3D, came closest to natural grass by one key safety measure. "It looks like [natural grass], it feels like it, it plays like it," said Pritchett.

Last May, a nonprofit that helps more than 30,000 government agencies, school districts and others pool their purchasing power named GSV its exclusive provider for artificial turf and other athletic surfaces. Pritchett estimated the contract accounted for 15 percent of AstroTurf sales last year and projects it will account for 20 percent or more this year.

GSV and athletic shoe maker Reebok announced in December a joint research and development project studying how footwear interacts with artificial turf. "It's basically to improve performance and safety," Pritchett said.

Last year the company cut a deal with a corporate partner that enabled it to sell its own brand of synthetic track surfaces, Xplode. It also became exclusive U.S. distributor for a maker of synthetic tennis and volleyball courts, and this year it will begin selling an automated tarp cover for natural grass fields.

Those deals are part of a diversification strategy that is anchored in the AstroTurf brand and the relationships GSV has forged with its customers.

"We want to be the one offering the newest, the best, the latest technology," Pritchett said.

GENERALSPORTS VENUE

HEADQUARTERS: Raleigh

CEO: Jon Pritchett

2008 REVENUE: $40 million

EMPLOYEES: 43, including 19 in Raleigh

YEAR FOUNDED: 2003

BUSINESS: Sells and installs AstroTurf brand artificial turf. Sells synthetic track and tennis court surfaces and antimicrobial coating for facilities such as locker rooms. Offers site preparation and construction management services for stadiums and other support venues.

Link to News & Observer

GSV Project in Lawrence "getting in shape"

The Free State High School Firebird is in place on the school’s newly turfed football field, and work on other athletic venues continues to progress in the Lawrence school district.

“It’s been an extremely aggressive schedule,” said Tom Bracciano, the division director of operations and facility planning for the district.

Free State and Lawrence high schools are both getting artificial turf soccer, football, softball and baseball fields. Lawrence High School will also get more parking and new tennis courts. If everything — including lights, bleachers and the parking — is done by the Aug. 15 deadline, the project will have been done in less than a year.

At Free State, existing fields are being renovated with the new turf, while much of the work at LHS involves building new facilities. Free State’s soccer team can use the school’s football field until its own pitch is completed.

“I think we’re in excellent shape,” said Bracciano. “It’s going to be a real tough push to get the baseball field here at Free State done by March 1. Football fields at both schools are right on target and soccer, the tennis courts, everything else is pretty well on track.”

The potential budget cuts from the state do not affect the capital outlay fund, which is paying for the new athletic fields.

“It’s also hard to explain to people that you could have capital projects going on ... in the case now, where we’re putting turf on some fields, that they are unaffected by these cuts because it’s two pools of money,” said Superintendent Randy Weseman. “There are actually two kinds of money in our business — the capital money and the general fund money.”

Bracciano says the project is fiscally responsible because ultimately the fields will save general fund money that would normally go to maintenance and utilities that were spent on grass fields.

“We’re hoping to relieve the pressure on the general fund, so really, for us, it works out real well to have these projects come along at this time,” he said. “These are being paid for with capital outlay dollars, which we can’t use for salaries or operational costs.”

Bracciano also notes the environmentally friendly aspect of going to turf.

“It’s (the turf) got the soy-based backing on it,” he said. “The biggest thing in my mind, too, is no pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer.”

A package for lights should be presented to the board at its next meeting, Feb. 23. Bracciano says the district is also bidding out the bleachers for the fields.

At Free State, work is being done on leveling the baseball field and putting drainage in the soccer field. The softball field will not be touched until the season in over in May.

Lawrence High is getting ready to get turf on its football field and to relevel the softball field. Most of the underground retention for stormwater drainage is in place under the tennis courts at the Lawrence Virtual School site.

“We’ve had some excellent people to work with and it’s just come out beautiful,” said Bracciano.

Video