Idea became Field(turf) of dreams

MONTREAL - John Gilman and John Prevost are a couple of jocks who have turned their love of sports into a fortune. The Super Bowl will be played on FieldTurf, a new, improved artificial grass they invented and manufacture.

In fact, FieldTurf, in just a handful of years, has captured 50% of the world market and is installed on 1,700 sites. These include eight of the NFL’s 32 stadiums, baseball venues at Toronto’s Rogers Centre and in Tokyo plus hundreds more football, baseball, soccer and cricket fields around the world. The artificial grass has also been adapted for use as tennis courts, homeowners’ lawns in desert areas, golf courses and airports.

“AstroTurf was the first artificial product and was a terrible piece of carpet. It was dangerous, abrasive and like concrete. You have a lot of old guys limping around, their lives ruined, through injuries caused by that stuff,’’ said Gilman in a recent interview.

FieldTurf looks like a shag carpet made out of green polyethylene with a coated backing. The shag is in-filled with sand and the “carpet” rests on an inch of sand and rubber pellets. It’s as soft a cushion as real grass and has just been approved by soccer’s FIFA for use in the World Cup and other tournaments.

Their company operates out of a modest factory in an industrial park populated mostly by companies in the shmutta, or fashion, business. John Gilman made and sold leather goods such as handbags, computer cases and briefcases. Prevost ran a store catering to runners.

The story is remarkable. Last year, the two, plus partners, sold 70% of the company to Tarkett AG of France for US$100-million. Tarkett is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and has worldwide sales of US$2-billion selling a variety of flooring products. The combined venture is called FieldTurf Tarkett Inc.

“I’m CEO of Tarkett’s sports division which sold US$250-million last year and grew by 35%,” he said. “This is an unbelievable business.”

Gilman is a former Alouettes quarterback who sold leather goods to big retail clients. Prevost, a runner, owned a jogging store and invented the turf out of a concern about injuries to athletes. He was interested in biomechanics and properly fitted shoes to reduce wear and tear on joggers’ legs.

In 1994, Gilman lost a big client and decided “to roll the dice with this product.”

The two joined forces and fended off a range of challenges from financing a start-up to patent infringements by competitor AstroTurf and Tarkett.

Gilman combined his sports network and marketing expertise in order to land the company’s first installation in Oregon.

Then in 1999, he was able to enlist the support and help of Tom Osborne, storied football coach who led the University of Nebraska to many football crowns.

“They wanted to build a stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, and they had heard about a little company in Canada that had put a field somewhere in Oregon,” said Gilman.

When he heard that Osborne was accompanying the group that was to inspect FieldTurf, he immediately jumped on a plane to meet him personally.

Diane Francis, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, January 21, 2006