PestCo, a portfolio company of Thompson Street Capital Partners (TSCP), has acquired Bel-O Pest, a pest management company.
Bel-O Pest provides pest control services to communities in Western Illinois and Eastern Missouri for termites, rodents, mosquitos, bed bugs, and other pests. Bel-O, led by founder Ron Hodgkins, was founded in 2006 and is headquartered near St. Louis in Swansea, Illinois.
TSCP formed PestCo in November 2021 in partnership with pest control industry executive Jay Keating as a first step to consolidate the fragmented pest control sector.
Mr. Keating has been active in the pest control sector for more than 25 years beginning as a service technician and rising to become the vice president of operations and chief operating officer at Sears Pest Control in 1998. From 2001 to 2014, Mr. Keating was active in operations and sales for Orkin Pest Control. In 2015, he became the president and chief operating officer of Spraggins, a Florida-based distributor and installer of residential flooring, cabinets, and countertops.
“Bel-O is an established, quality-focused company and we believe a solid way for us to enter the St. Louis market,” said Mr. Keating. “We’re excited about this opportunity. Ron has built a solid team and we look forward to working with them in our mission to earn loyalty and create opportunities for both our employees and customers in greater St. Louis.”
The acquisition of Bel-O is the fourth add-on completed by PestCo and follows the buys of Pointe Pest Control, an Illinois-headquartered provider of residential pest control services in both Illinois and Virginia (February 2022); Ecoteam, a Houston-based provider of commercial pest control services with a focus on multi-family communities (November 2021); and Presto Pest Control, a Pennsylvania-based provider of commercial pest control services to the Mid-Atlantic region with a focus on the restaurant sector (November 2021).
PestCo’s targets include residential and commercial pest control companies that exterminate mosquitoes, rodents, termites, and other insects. According to TSCP, pest control is a non-discretionary service for homeowners like plumbing and HVAC, but also a health and safety-driven concern for commercial applications such as hotels, restaurants, and other facilities. It is a recession-resistant service with a revenue model that is driven by recurring subscription revenue, with regular treatments and inspections necessary for ongoing pest protection.
“Being based in St. Louis, the TSCP team is excited for PestCo to enter the growing St. Louis pest control services market,” said Jeff Aiello, a managing director at TSCP. “Bel-O represents a beachhead for PestCo to aggressively grow its presence in the Missouri/Illinois bi-state region organically and via add-on acquisitions.”
St. Louis-based TSCP invests in companies with EBITDA between $5 million and $25 million. Sectors of interest include healthcare and life science services, software and technology services, and business services and engineered products. In July 2018, the firm held a final closing of its fifth fund, Thompson Street Capital Partners V LP, at its hard cap of $1.15 billion.
Paul Giannamore and Franco Villanueva-Meyer of The Potomac Company were the financial advisors to Bel-O on this transaction.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | June 3, 2022
