| Organization: Large family-owned and operated nursery in the northeastern U.S. | Need: Explore current operations to find potential opportunities for financial benefits. | Outcome: Tax credits monetized and funds put back into the business. |
Understanding the situation
Prides Corner Farms is a leading wholesaler of thousands of diverse high-quality plants. From humble beginnings 45 years ago, they’ve grown to more than 700 employees and developed a large customer base of independent nurseries, landscapers, and garden centers throughout the Northeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic.
Prides Corner had always been interested in being a greener company, and they’ve invested heavily in solar installations, representing about 30% – 40% of the energy they produce. Being hyper-focused on this sustainability journey — along with innovating plant genetics, strengthening e-commerce, and running a massive logistics operation — they were unaware of the opportunity to explore potentially valuable tax credits.
Discover which processes may qualify for valuable tax credits.
Exploring the challenge
The CLA team had worked with Prides Corner Farms on tax planning, sales tax challenges when expanding to other states, audit completion, and benefit plan advisory. Through a collaborative conversation, CLA learned of their priorities to help support the environment and make green energy investments.
After taking the time to really get to know the growers and scientists at Prides Corner, CLA professionals could better quantify and document the efforts to improve their growing processes. Though Prides Corner didn’t think of themselves as a research and development organization, they quickly learned anything they were doing to effectuate a new or improved product or process could yield real dollar-for-dollar offsets of tax liability.
CLA then helped Prides Corner explore potential financial benefits available to organizations making solar and geothermal investments, and suggested ways they could take advantage of investment tax credits, energy tax credits, and R&D tax credits.
"What CLA helped us realize is that everything we do, whether it’s figuring out which growth regulators to work or which fertilizer to use, is a function of R&D and could qualify for R&D tax credits."— Lisa Sellew, Vice President, Prides Corner Farms
Achieving results
CLA’s tax credits and incentives team helped Prides Corner benefit from things they were already doing. Prides Corner was eligible for a number of beneficial tax credits, especially in the solar space, and then monetized those credits so they could use the funds for further operations and investments.
The Prides Corner family is looking forward to handing down a sustainable business through many generations to come. They’re leaning on CLA to be a crucial advisor as they grow, helping them find ways to add value to the business and bring in the next generation with a smooth succession planning process.
Contact Us
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