Rentokil Initial ( ) is a major British-based business services group. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

The Company was founded in 1924 by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, Professor of entomology at Imperial College, London, who had been investigating ways to kill Death watch beetles that had infested Westminster Hall, next door to the Houses of Parliament. Lefroy and his assistant produced an anti-woodworm fluid called Ento-Kill Fluids: ento came from the Latin name for insect. In 1925 he tried to register the name Entokill, but had to choose Rentokil Limited instead. On 14 October 1925, Lefroy was killed in a laboratory when an experiment produced poisonous fumes. His assistant, Elizabeth Eades, took over the running of the company, which was bought in 1957 by British Ratin. British Ratin became Rentokil Group in 1960. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1969.

The company became Rentokil Initial following the hostile takeover of its competitor BET (British Electric Traction) in 1996, but is still referred to as Rentokil.

For many years Rentokil Initial achieved growth of circa 20% each year under the leadership of then CEO, Sir Clive Thompson: during this period Rentokil Initial was voted "Britain's most admired" company. Thompson relinquished the CEO role to James Wilde, with Thompson taking up the Chairman role. Both left the Company in 2004, when the leadership was transferred to Brian McGowan as Chairman (appointed in 2004) and Doug Flynn as CEO (appointed in 2005) who presided over a succession of profit warnings, mainly as a result of the integration of the newly acquired Target Express parcel delivery firm into the existing City Link division.

Rentokil strengthened its foothold in the U.S. residential pest control market in 2006 when it acquired the Reading, Pennsylvania-based J.C. Ehrlich Co, Inc., the fourth largest and the largest privately held pest control company in the US. Today, Rentokil North America consists of several regional pest control companies including J.C. Ehrlich, Presto X, and Watch All which span more than 72 local offices covering 32 U.S. states and Toronto.

On March 02, 2009, the world's largest commercial pest control company, announced that it had awarded its North American advertising and marketing account to the New York advertising agency DeVito/Verdi.

In March 2008 the company came under the leadership of Chairman John McAdam and CEO Alan Brown, who respectively served as CEO and CFO at ICI: the pair are famous for the break up and sale of ICI to Akzo Nobel.

Operations

BET owned a diverse range of service companies, ranging from transport, conference centres, catering, heavy plant hire and the 'Initial' brand of cleaning and washroom services companies. The acquisition brought on board catering (BET Catering), transport (United Transport), electronic security (Shorrock), conferencing (Style) and numerous other service related companies.

Following the takeover, the company's divisions were each renamed under either the Rentokil or Initial brand.

The divisions are in the following areas, each with a number of sub-divisions:

• Rentokil Pest Control
  • JC Ehrlich, Presto-X and Watch All pest control companies in the US
  • Rentokil Products (Consumer, Fire Protection & Environmental Health)
  • Rentokil Property Care
• Ambius (formerly Tropical Plants)
• Initial Textiles & Washrooms
  • Initial Healthcare Services (Healthcare and Washrooms Solutions)
    • including the Envirofresh washrooms business acquired in 2007
  • Initial Textile Services
  • Initial Medical Services
• Initial Facilities Management
  • Initial Catering Services
  • Initial Hospital Services
  • Initial Building Services
  • Protech IT Hygiene
  • Rentokil Initial UK Cleaning
  • Rentokil Specialist Hygiene
• Parcel Delivery
  • City Link
• E-Security
  • Adelssys

References

1. Rentokil Initial: History
2. Sir Clive Thompson

External links

• Official site