New Owner Takes Over Nurserymen's Exchange

HALF MOON BAY — Employees of Nurserymen's Exchange met the top brass at their new parent company, Monterey Peninsula Horticulture Inc., on Monday, the first business day under new ownership after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Charles Kosmont, CEO of the Salinas-based company, took the opportunity to announce the creation of a new think tank-like nonprofit called the Institute for Floriculture Innovation. The institute will initially be housed at Nurserymen's Exchange but will feature a rotating group of directors from different worlds, including floriculture, food and fashion, to figure out how to revive the faltering floriculture industry.

"We're mostly interested in attracting the biggest thought leaders in the industry to help us make consumer demand for plants in America equal to that which we see in Europe," Kosmont in an interview Monday afternoon.

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