Mark Kitchenman’s POTOMAC Experience: A Legacy with Terminix Puerto Rico / Rentokil

In the summer of ’85, I saw my grandmother and she notified me she was terminally ill with cancer. I proceeded to nurse my grandmother for about 14 months and take care of her. Obviously the last 6 months were the hardest, the last 90 days were the toughest, but, I got the moment of holding my grandmother’s hand at her last breath, which was amazing.

After that my dad asked me, what I want to do and I said I’m going to go to Puerto Rico. When I landed and I got off the plane I looked around, I saw the palm trees and the wind, and I looked at my friend I said I feel like I’m at home. I was 23, I had to start immediately working, so I got a job at the pool at the Condado Plaza.

I transitioned from the hospitality business to the pest control business in ’89. So I started as a technician and moved up to like a team leader, then a supervisor, and then eventually the president of the company. That business was bought in 1998 by Ecolab. That was my first acquisition I went through, so it was a good experience.

In 2004 a friend of mine came to me and said would you like to take on a Terminix franchise. I met with him, the first meeting I realized the business was dead. I had to grow myself, and start my family. And thank goodness I have the wife I have — that was the key. She kept me grounded and in pace.

Part of the growing process, I developed a team, and some people. I developed a family business. They stuck with me, I stuck with them, and I got to this point that I was watching Terminix through the years, and when Rentokil bought the business it was a quandary for me. Rentokil had a business here and I had my franchise. Looking back it’s a tough decision because they’re actually operating in my territory or I’m operating in their territory. It was the unknown for me, it was the abyss.

And it’s funny how sometimes people are put in your life for a reason. I met Paul through a friend of mine, so we got together, we had lunch — ceviche, one of their favorite dishes — I said I got the place. And that’s when Paul asked me would I be interested in selling.

I got everything I wanted for the employees. The Rentokil people were great. I think everybody wanted this — it’s hard to find win-win deals, but this was a win-win. Franco was great, amazing. If I didn’t have them, I would have got what I got. They did a great job, they killed it.

My name is Mark Kitchenman and I used to own the Terminix franchise in Carolina.