Alpha Ecological Announces Trio of Acquisitions

VANCOUVER, Wash.  – Alpha Ecological is aggressively expanding as evidenced by its recent acquisitions of Cascade Pest Control of McMinnville, Ore.; Ideal Pest Control of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Bug Busters of Tucson, Ariz.

“We’re actively seeking to acquire; we want to grow nationally, so we’re starting in our existing markets where we’re strongest and expanding from there,” said Scott Sneer, CEO of Alpha Ecological, which has operations in six states (Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Idaho).

The 24-year-old company has grown from a single office in Portland, Ore., to include pest control service areas in more than 500 cities and 26 metro areas across six states including: Seattle, Olympia (Washington), Portland, Salem (Oregon), Boise, Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) Denver (Colorado), Phoenix (Arizona) and Dallas (Texas).
 
A leader in environmentally sensitive pest control, Alpha Ecological focuses on “green” pest control and utilizes its colorful, animated frog “Seymour Green” as its unofficial spokesfrog. The frog (and the accompanying green messaging) is prominent in all of Alpha Ecological’s TV and print advertising.

“We believe Alpha is different from our competition, so we came up with the idea of a frog as a way of helping to educate people about our green approach,” Sneer said.  “The frog in itself is a natural method of pest control, and that’s what we want our brand to be remembered for – moving towards using products and methods of treatment with reduced toxicity, yet equally as effective as conventional methodologies.”

For more than 20 years, Alpha Ecological has promoted responsible pest control by following an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) service model.  “We firmly believe that being transparent about our pest control methods is a win-win proposition for us and our customers,” Sneer said.  “By staying true to our green approach to pest control, we are also staying true to our customers while maintaining our commitment to the environment.”

Alpha Ecological’s primary focus is on residential pest control, but also provides services including commercial pest control, bird exclusion, crawlspace restoration, and air duct cleaning.

Reputation of quality, innovation and the green approach is what drew the owner of Cascade Pest Control, Josh Sanford, to Alpha Ecological as he considered selling his company. “I had several opportunities to sell, but I didn’t feel comfortable putting my customer base in the hands of somebody who wasn’t going to take care of them as well as I had. The nice thing about Alpha Ecological was that I felt putting my customers in their hands was a good idea because of the reputation of quality and their environmentally responsible approach to pest control.”

Alpha Ecological’s acquisition of Cascade Pest Control closed on Feb. 1, 2010. The two Arizona acquisitions were finalized in May and November of 2009.  Sneer said he is proud of the fact that customer retention rates following the acquisitions were greater than 98%.

Darren Lawlor, who sold Ideal Pest Control, said the transition has worked out well for him and his customers. “Scott is a good guy with good intentions and he treats his customers well.”

Sneer said Alpha Ecological’s strategic growth plan has vaulted them into the Top 100 pest control companies in the country.  He describes the state of the industry as “a pretty aggressive market for purchasing.”