On 1 March 2014, the pest control industry greeted a new company to its ranks with the acquisition of PestForce by Ecocleen Services.
Based in Henley-on-Thames, the privately owned Ecocleen Services business acquired not only the PestForce pest control business, but also the sister businesses of LockForce and also WashForce from Boston-based founder and owner, Paul Wilkinson.
To date, although the Ecocleen website does claim pest control as a service they offer, these tasks were sub-contracted out, so in effect, Ecocleen is new to the pest control business. However, the two companies do share a common business model – both are franchise operations.
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Ecocleen managing director, Sean Taylor explains: “Our main franchise service is Ecocleen Services, a commercial cleaning franchise. This business, and all the acquired brands, will be managed under a banner of ‘ESL Multi Service Group’ but all will maintain their individual identity. Our aim is to deliver a bundled service package to customers as required. |
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“We will provide additional support and management to all brands through our offices in Henley-on-Thames. We see PestForce, and other brands, as a perfect fit for our business. We truly believe in the power of the franchise model and understand that this provides us with a real edge when it comes to service excellence, or Passionate Service Delivery – which is our mantra. All brands share a similar, or complimentary, customer base and this is an area where we see huge opportunity. “The Ecocleen operation is a growing network that covers a large part of the UK. Following the acquisition the business will be servicing in excess of £12m of work across all the brands. We have expertise in marketing, sales, IT, finance and general business management – all franchisees will benefit from this expertise,” concludes Sean. PestForce was founded by Paul Wilkinson 20 years ago, with the franchise operation starting in 2006. It is believed PestForce has in excess of 100 technicians spread over the 80 individual franchise companies and its website claims it has “a pest controller in every town nationwide.” |
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