Terminix UK LTD

Daniel Ashton is the Commercial Director for Terminix UK Ltd. Daniel has been working with Futura since 2013 (Terminix was Mitie at that time). He spoke about the Terminix client base and eMitter, as well as how the market for digital and non-toxic pest control has developed over the years in the UK and what his predictions are for the future.

At the beginning Daniel talks about the changes the company has gone through since being purchased by Terminix, especially in terms of the client base. Their client base has shifted to mainly national and NHS clients since the company was split (Rentokil bought the local and regional portfolio and Terminix bought the company and the National portfolio).

A big positive aspect is, that this client base has kept Terminix very busy. Even through the corona pandemic, as most of their clients continued either as before or were themselves busier than usual.

Lets talk about eMitter, what are your thoughts on it?

“We were very excited to hear about eMitter, back in 2013/2014. Terminix (then Mitie) sold quite a lot of eMitter to our customers in London, mainly to banking, legal, accountancy and media companies.

Terminix are now looking to introduce this technology to National clients throughout the UK. For example, one of our clients is one of the big food retailers and we are currently having conversations about how emitter can be used to drive improvements with the service we provide. 7 years ago, this type of client wasn’t ready /not convinced of the benefits with this technology. It is pleasing to see however that over the last couple of years things have changed.”

“We are also planning to target the food manufacturing industry and we believe that conversations around remote trapping/eMitter are a good way of getting these types of prospects talking to us as this is a hot topic in the food industry at the moment. In terms cost, a digital trap will of course cost more than a normal brake back trap, or mouse monitor but by understanding how these traps can be used and the benefits that they bring can means that the cost to upgrade to digital trapping doesn’t have to be significant. For example, not all traps/bait boxes need to be replaced, and the focus can be using eMitter in highly important locations, where a faster notification is useful. This is much cheaper than changing every single trap/bait box.

For clients with a large number of sites, a system that does not require controllers and routers would be an easier sale /more scalable, for example a system like eMitter Outdoor Direkt.”

Is there a development in the UK just like in Germany?

Do you recognize that more and more people want to get digital and non-toxic?

“Yes, the market ere has definitely developed in the UK, but that development is not as much as in Germany (probably) as the legislation around trapping mice in Germany is different than in the UK, and I believe that this is an important reason why eMitter is so well received in Germany.

Daniel mentions, that the biggest difference between now and the beginning of the relationship with Futura is, that nowadays people know about smart traps. Customers including the big National customers, know about digital pest monitoring and are very interested.”

what are your plans for the future?

Why do you focus on digital, toxic-free pest control?

“Terminix focuses their business on toxic-free pest control, because although the EU Biocide Directive pushed the whole industry in this direction, we actually and would one day like to see all UK Pest Control companies providing a mainly non-toxic high quality pest control service.

The legislation has helped to convince the customers that this is the type of service they need and many share our passion for trying to reduce the impact we have on the environment. All of our Technicians and Managers want to provide and environmental friendly service and can see how digital pest control can help develop this.”

What can we from Futura do for you?

What are your wishes?

“We are at a point now where there are lots of opportunities to take help our clients move their pest control to digital. We have the opportunity to sell thousands of eMitter traps to big customers and want to get the proposition and price right.”

What are your wishes for the future depending on eMitter?

“Terminix hope that the Futura products, especially eMitter will help us to improve our service for national clients, make their contracts more profitable and to open the door to more non-national clients such a food manufacturers.”