Pest Control M&A Commentary — Today I am writing this Commentary on the plane from Stockholm, Sweden to Geneva, Switzerland. As it was a very busy week last week, this week’s Commentary will once again be a short one… but an important one.

Pest Control M&A Commentary — If I owned a pest control company and was thinking about selling it, I don’t think that I would be worried about a “glut of sellers.” 

Pest Control M&A Commentary – It’s been a busy start to 2019. Multiples peaked in late 2018 and have remained relatively constant, drawing a continuous supply of sellers to the bargaining table.

Pest Control M&A Commentary — While I was back in the US in December, I had a dinner meeting with a client who said, “I would like to open this meeting with some criticism. I never miss an issue of your Weekly Commentary, but recently you’ve gone off the rails with your economic analysis.

Pest Control M&A Commentary — In November, I “officially” called the top for the pest control M&A market for this cycle and in July I said that you would see over a half billion dollars of pest control transactions close by the end of the year.

Pest Control M&A Commentary – This week’s Commentary is going to be very short. I am back in the US and this is the busiest Q4 on record in the industry, so I don’t have much time to write.

Pest Control M&A Commentary — I intended to write a short post-Pestworld piece, but I just had so much great material from Pestworld and the subsequent two weeks of meetings that this post has really taken on a life of its own.

Pest Control M&A Commentary — Consultants and business advisors love to use witless cliches and platitudes. Not only that, when they utter this crapola, they say it as if it’s deep insight or profound, original thought.

Pest Control M&A Commentary — In my last Weekly Commentary I said that I would be trying hard to write on a weekly basis…and then I disappeared for five weeks (my lame excuses to follow). 

Pest Control M&A Commentary — Two of the most powerful levers you have to drive profitability in your business, and therefore value, is pricing and route density. We’ll save pricing for another day.