On 1 September Libya celebrated the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power. Rentokil too has something to celebrate, having won what could well be the largest single pest control contract ever placed.
A team of 32 Rentokil specialists is now working on a three-year government contract valued at £24 million to control chronic rat problems in Tripoli, Benghazi and Misratah. Led by Rentokil general manager, Richard Jones, they face some pretty huge challenges – for example how to keep track of 150,000 rodenticide bait boxes in cities which have neither post codes nor proper street addresses.
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The challenges faced are explored further in an article contained within the latest issue of Pestmagazine. If you have not seen the article, click here to read it in full. The entire issue can be read by clicking here. If you prefer to read a ‘hard printed copy’ and do not regularly receive one click here and sign-up for your free-of-charge copy. This Libyan contract also featured in the Rentokil Initial interim financial results released on 31 July. Rentokil”s shares rose 7% to a 12-month high after the company beat second-quarter profit forecasts and raised its target for cost cutting. Overall there was a 2.2% decline in revenue at constant exchange rates. The objective to reduce costs by £50 million in 2009 has now been increased to £90 million with major opportunities identified to further improve productivity mainly within the pest control and textiles and washrooms operations. Regarding performance in the UK, the report states that pest control suffered a 10.2% decline in revenue in H1, which can be attributed to a 16% decline in job sales and a reduction in retention rate from 78.7% in H1 2008 to 71.8%. This is due in part to difficult economic conditions but also to inadequate focus on customers and on competitor activity over an extended period of time. Implementation of a six-point plan outlined at the Q1 results is now underway with an emphasis on customer service and investment in training and development to improve service, sales and marketing. An annualised £3m to £4m cost saving from the end of 2010 has been identified and will be derived through reductions in business support and management costs and by improved productivity. Andy Ransom, executive director, has been appointed to the role of divisional managing director of pest control & Ambius with effect from 1 October 2009. He takes over the leadership of the pest control division from Andy Hobart who is leaving the company. The full financial results can be viewed by clicking here.
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Locating your bait boxes is a real problem without proper street names and maps!