Stein hands reins of garden centers to new CEO

Mark Birmingham, 39, former chief executive officer at Allen-Edmonds, took over as CEO at Stein Gardens & Gifts, Milwaukee, in November, JSOnline Business reported.

Company patriarch Jack Stein has two children, David Stein, a writer in California, and Lee Stein Attanasio, an attorney who lives in New York. Her husband is the brother of Milwaukee Brewers' owner Mark Attanasio. Neither is interested in running the Wisconsin chain of garden centers.

The family considered selling the business but concluded that it would have been a sale only of the property and other assets.

"I wouldn't get any money for the business," Jack Stein said. His son suggested it would be better to keep the business going, even if that meant hiring an outsider to run it. The family found Birmingham through a personal recommendation from an acquaintance, Stein said.
"I decided 'the hell with a search team,' " Stein said. "He's fine. He's better than fine. I'm very, very fortunate."

Birmingham has taken the helm of the second-largest independently owned garden center business in the country. The largest independent, by sales volume, is Armstrong Garden Centers/Pike Nurseries, an operation with stores in California and Georgia.