Frank's Nursery & Crafts
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| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Successor | None |
| Founded | 1957 |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Troy, Michigan |
| Products | Shrubbery, trees, plants, lawn furniture, lawn chemicals, accent plants, holiday decorations |
| Parent | General Host Corporation |
Frank's Nursery & Crafts was a United States retailer devoted to the sale of lawn and garden products. It operated a chain of stores, with 170 outlets across 14 states. It specialized in products such as shrubs, trees, accent plants, flowers, and lawn furniture.
History of General Host Corporation
General Host Corporation owns and operates Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc., a chain of specialty retail stores that sell craft and Christmas supplies as well as lawn and garden products. The company that became known as General Host, however, spent its first 50 years managing a group of bakeries. In the late 1960s, the company shifted course dramatically, looking for growth in several fields, but chiefly in food preparation and retailing. By the early 1990s General Host had discarded its earlier businesses and was focusing primarily on Frank's, the largest U.S. retail chain of its kind. Since 1970 General Host has been under the direction of Harris J. Ashton, the company's president, chairperson, and chief executive officer.
The history of General Host may be traced to 1911, when the General Baking Co. was incorporated in New York as an amalgamation of 19 former baking businesses covering many major cities between New Orleans and Boston. By 1930 the company owned 50 plants serving cities in 18 states. The production of bread, sold under the trade name of "Bond Bread," accounted for over 90 percent of its sales and production averaged nearly 1.5 million loaves per day. Cakes and pies were also manufactured under trade names. Net 1930 earnings of $8.1 million fell to $2.8 million in the Depression year of 1933.
Major expansion at General Banking did not take place until 1956, when the company bought a controlling interest in Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakers, Inc. of Los Angeles, thereby stretching its operations to the West Coast. Besides Van de Kamp's bakeries in Los Angeles and Seattle, this company had 240 supermarket service and retail store units, four coffee shops, and a drive-in restaurant in California, in addition to 54 self-service retail stores, four supermarket outlets, and ten bakery shops in Washington. The acquisition added $22 million in annual sales to General Baking's $128 million from 40 bakeries. At the end of 1957 the company expanded its network to the Rocky Mountain states by acquiring Eddy Bakeries, Inc., of Helena, Montana.
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