2006 Agribusiness of the Year

LAKELAND — Patten Seed Company, a well-known company in the sod industry, was named the 2006 Agribusiness of the Year by South Georgia Business magazine. The Valdosta Daily Times nominated this company that represents longevity and success in agribusiness.

In 1893, R.L. Patten and his brother, W.F. Patten, opened a general merchandise store in Lakeland. In 1947, R.L.’s son, Lawson Patten, opened a seed-cleaning business in his father’s cotton warehouse.

That same year, Lawson’s daughter, Nell, married Bill Roquemore, a B-26 pilot in World War II. He helped the company grow into a thriving operation with 350 employees at 25 facilities in four states.

Incorporated in 1954, Patten Seed is now a leader in the turfgrass, sod and seed industry. It handles planting and contract maintenance of golf courses and, at one time, the agricultural firm owned 12 18-hole courses. It boasts more than 15,000 acres of grass seed and sod farm land throughout Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina and also operates a pecan business and raises container-grown nursery trees.

An article in South Georgia Business explained that the company spent more than 50 years researching and perfecting its products and has grown to become one of the oldest and largest growers of warm-season grass seed and sod. As one of its first initiatives, Patten Seed Company pioneered the production, harvesting and processing of Centipede grass seed. Since, it has managed thousands of acres of this grass for seed production.

Patten Seed Company sod can be found at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and at the Atlantis Resort located on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. It can also be found in places like Sparks in Cook County. Its variety of locations shows the company’s versatility and its long-time success proves that providing good products and quality customer service will take you to the top.

“It’s simple,” Ben Copeland Sr., president of Patten Seed, said. “We treat our customers and employees in the same way we like to be treated.”

Copeland has worked with the company for 36 continuous years and before that during summer jobs in high school and college. He has experienced Patten Seed’s success at all levels.

“I think the quality of products and service is always excellent. There are a lot of companies in our business, but we try to do a better job with quality products and service than our competition does,” Copeland explained. “We are a 52-year-old company in our present form, but actually the legacy dates back over a hundred years. This is what all our leaders over all the years have focused on: Giving the customer a good value while treating customers and employees as they would want to be treated.”

This legacy recently caught the eye of another awarding organization. Patten Seed was honored as the Cox Century Award winner at the 2006 Georgia Family Business of the Year Awards ceremony in May. The Cox Century Award honors successful Georgia-based businesses that have been in business for at least 100 years. Patten Seed and other winners were chosen by representatives of the Cox Family Enterprise Center, based at the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University.

“Patten Seed has truly evolved and that is why they chose us for the Cox Century Award,” Nell Roquemore explained in a recent article in The Valdosta Daily Times. “We are just really excited and we feel so honored.”

While operations are important to a company’s success, Patten Seed must also give credit to the area. The sandy-loam soils in Lakeland are beneficial and the company has found that sod grown here will consistently root and thrive when laid on other soil types.