« About Us
Testimonials »
History of Florikan
Founded in 1982 by Ed and Betty Rosenthal, Florikan® is a privately-held business headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. Florikan employs more than forty experienced, dedicated individuals, and thanks to the loyalty of our customers, we have enjoyed steady growth over the past twenty years of operation.
The business started through the passion and vision of Ed Rosenthal who set out to help professional nurserymen in Florida find a better way to grow their crops. He pioneered the use of Integrated Pest Management products in the industry, developed unique container options to lower costs and improve retail performance, and introduced Nutricote® controlled release fertilizer technology which quickly became an industry standard for nursery production. Ed started the business literally from the garage of his home and the trunk of his car, building the business one customer at a time with a strong dedication to providing the best customer service in the industry.
Ed believed that Florikan could help growers lower their costs and improve the quality of the plants while reducing the industry’s footprint on the environment. In 1982, he placed the initials E.S.A., Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture, in the company’s charter and set about to only provide products to the industry that met this standard. To this day, Florikan has not sold a conventional chemical pesticide, herbicide, or fungicide. We advocate the use of Sustainable Pest Control (SPC) principles which are based upon a holistic view of crop production and landscape management.
In 1999 and 2003 respectively, Florikan developed and patented fertilizer blending (Staged Nutrient Release™) and coating (Florikote™) technologies which are some of the most efficient fertilization methods in the industry today. Florikan is also the largest distributor of Nutricote™ products in the United States with an exclusive distribution arrangement in the Southeast United States.
For its focus on sustainability and innovation, Florikan has been fortunate to receive several industry and government sponsored awards such as the Gulf Guardian Award (sponsored by the EPA Gulf of Mexico Program Partnership), the State of Florida Governor’s Best New Product Award, and the National Society of Professional Engineers Most Innovative Product Award for the United States (small business category. Please see the awards and recognition page for more information.
