Nifty Fifty

Gregory Pest Solutions, Greenville, S.C., is celebrating 50 years in business this year. The company has much to celebrate, as the Gregory brand continues to grow and thrive. Since it was founded by Phil and Sara Gregory in 1972, the company has expanded into 12 states across the Southeast.

This summer, Gregory took time out to celebrate with a company barbecue with baseball, food trucks and ice cream trucks. The firm also had a promotion for both residential and commercial customers, who had a chance to receive $50 off their first month of Gregory’s Essential Plus plan.

In addition to this promotion, Gregory has been promoting its 50th anniversary with flashback photos on social media. In one photo, the original Gregory team can be seen standing with the classic “Gregory green” bed bug trucks. Gregory now has the largest fleet of thermal bed bug trucks, the company said.

“I can speak for Phil and Sara Gregory both, and they never would have dreamed that starting out as a two-person company, [it] would grow to over 300 people,” said Gregory President Ben Walker. “It’s great to look back on such a success story … looking at our long-term employees and how they have benefited and helped grow the company.”

Walker said that the company’s signature lime green vehicles have been a claim to fame for the Gregory brand. “In 1976 when we ordered a Chevy Chevette, it was supposed to come in a certain color, but it came in lime green,” he said. “The Gregorys both loved the color, though, and going forward every car they ordered they took to the paint shop.”

Courtesy of Gregory Pest Solutions

It was in 1977 when Phil and Sara Gregory moved into their first one-room office in Greenville, S.C., and since then the company has been fortunate to experience milestone after milestone.

Walker said that aside from the trucks, a major milestone in Gregory’s growth was when it became a Copesan partner in the 1980s. “That really started creating our focus as a commercial company,” Walker said. “All of us were able to learn from other companies, and it certainly helped springboard us.”

Gregory eventually became a Copesan shareholder in the 1990s.

Walker joined the team as accounting manager in 1997, became president in 2006 and then a shareholder in 2010.

Throughout Walker’s time at Gregory, he has witnessed the 10 or so acquisitions the company has made. Expanding into 12 states was “big.” “We brought on several large regional accounts that helped us grow throughout the entire Southeast in the 2000s and 2010s,” Walker said.

According to Walker, the Gregory brand is still going strong 50 years later. “We’ve maintained a great culture among our employees over the years,” he said.

Additionally, even with COVID changing the workplace, Gregory has been successful in retaining most of its employees over the last several years, including all of the company’s service managers and branch managers.

Gregory no longer has its large corporate headquarters building, but according to Walker, it is no longer needed. “With COVID hitting, we no longer needed a large building, so we sold it,” he said. “All of us are working from home.”

Walker said that even after five decades, he would like to see more expansion within the Carolinas, with plans for the Gregory brand continuing to grow through focused marketing programs and possibly acquisitions down the road.

The author is a former intern at PCT.