How the Tertill robot helps manage gardens

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi discuss the gardening trend amid COVID-19 with Tertill CEO, Helen Greiner.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: Many have taken more interest in tending to their lawns as a way to cope with stay-at-home orders. By some estimates, the US lawn mowing industry is, in fact, expected to grow 4.4-- to $4.4 billion by 2025. Joining us now to discuss is Tertill CEO, Helen Greiner. She's also the co-founder of iRobot. Uh, Helen, tell us about Tertill, what do you do, and where's this product being sold?

HELEN GREINER: Well, Tertill is a little, um, robot that you're-- uh, a buddy for your garden. It does the weeding for you. So you put it in your garden, and every-- um, instead of having to go out and weed all the time, uh, the robot does the job for you. So a real time-saver. Um, we sell them online, www.tertill.com.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: What about the price tag here. I was looking, uh-- three-- 350 I guess for a-- a basic Tertill model. Why should someone choose that over hiring, you know, a high school kid to go out and mow the lawn.

HELEN GREINER: No, it doesn't do lawn mowing. It really does the weeding in your garden. When you think about it, you get your garden weeded, you know, you only use it for one year for $2 a day. It'll probably last you, uh, quite a few years. So it's going to be, like, you know, less than $1 a day to, uh, to-- to weed your garden.

So it's really actually great value. Just like the Roomba running around your home is a great value. This comes down and does the weeding every day. I use my Roomba in my home. Well, I have three of them, but I use them, like, you know, three times a day. Every time my kid eats, I have a robot go and do the vacuuming.

This thing, it's solar-powered. You don't have to charge it. It just lives in your garden every day, comes out, does the weeding-- a real, real time-saver. Um, so you could go out, and you can cultivate. Um, enjoy your garden rather than having to spend time tediously pulling weeds out.

BRIAN SOZZI: Helen, uh, where is this product made? And I'm wondering if-- if the trade war has impacted your component costs. Have you had to raise prices on this? Is $350 just the starting point for it?

HELEN GREINER: No, we've had it at this place all season. We sold out for the summer, and now we're looking to get an order in for the holiday season. Um, we think it's going to be a great gift, uh, especially, if you have a gardener on your-- on your gift list-- on your gifting list. Um, but a big sale season is always when people are thinking about putting their gardens in in the spring.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Is there any-- I-- I was curious if there's any concern about being able to keep up with demand, and you know, are these indeed-- I didn't catch-- are these indeed coming from China, and are there any issues with supply chain?

HELEN GREINER: Well, we did have a little trouble. The COVID-19 did take down the supply chain before I joined the company at the beginning of the year, but we did get a lot out there. We've got thousands in the field today. Um, get wonderful customer feedback. You know, very, very high-- you know, if you ask our customers the question, would you be really disappointed or disappointed if you take it away? Most of them say, you know, please, please leave my Tertill with me.