Bugs in house: Rentokil PCI helping people make their home pest-proof

Over the years Rentokil PCI has been the forerunner in delivering best-in-class pest control services across the length and breadth of India. David Lewis, Managing Director, Rentokil PCI in an exclusive interview with Bizz Buzz explains how the company focuses on developing industry-leading service operations through the sharing of best practices, leading-edge innovations, and avant-garde digital technologies

How has Rentokil PCI pest control service grown over the years?

Over the years Rentokil PCI has been the forerunner in delivering best-in-class pest control services across the length and breadth of India. We are strongly placed as the market leader in nearly all of the pest categories across our residential and commercial businesses. With renewed focus on hygiene and wellbeing, the pest control industry in India has been growing very strongly, and we have been well positioned to take advantage of the industry growth.

How do you see the business unfolding with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions?

The Covid-19 crisis had necessitated an extraordinary approach to safeguarding individual health and ensuring a protective work environment. As a business, Rentokil PCI had not been immune to the economic and business impact of Covid-19. Despite experiencing unprecedented challenges during the last couple of years, as an essential service provider, we continued our hard work and served the nation during these difficult times.

As a result of the hard work put in by the team at Rentokil PCI, we have been able to offset most of the impact by developing disinfection services and making available disinfectant products to cater to the need of the hour. We also launched a level-2 emergency disinfection service in Covid-19 positive areas. With the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, our business is witnessing a strong comeback and poised to strongly beat even the pre-Covid-19 levels very soon. With the commercial sector opening and offices coming into hybrid models of operation, we hope to continue to provide our customers the same exemplary levels of service.

How has Rentokil PCI been supporting its employees and their families during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic? What major initiatives have been undertaken in this regard?

At Rentokil PCI, the Health and Safety of the employees and those in our care is the top priority. Our stated global employee agenda is that of 'Everyone goes home safe'. We have conducted safety programs for all employees to better equip them to safeguard themselves and those under their watch. All of our employees have been provided with essential PPE equipment like face covers, sanitisers, temperature scanning equipment etc. We conducted daily health checks at all our branches to provide employees with an environment where they can perform their best.

We took an abundance of caution and constantly monitored all information sources including WHO alerts, complying with all government advisories globally, and instituted a series of actions to help our employees take better care of themselves and their families and help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

As a reflection of our strong commitment towards employee health and wellbeing, with the help of the RI Cares fund, Rentokil PCI has ensured the 100 per cent vaccination of all our eligible employees. The families of those of our colleagues who unfortunately succumbed to the virus were extended financial aid. We also have collated and shared lists of hospitals where employees could go to in case, they suspect the symptoms of Coronavirus.

We have also been deeply committed to support the society where we live and work through our continued CSR initiatives. Last year through the RI Cares fund, PPE kits worth Rs 25 Crores which included coveralls, face masks, gloves, hand soap and sanitizer dispensers were sent to more than 500 hospitals and frontline workers across the country. We also conducted disinfection services across police stations across the country.

What is the major USP of the company? What cutting edge services does the company offer its customers?

Rentokil is a global market leader in pest control technology. Rentokil's international expertise and Rentokil PCI's countrywide operational capability, ensures that we provide an expert solution for all sorts of pest management needs of our customers. Research and development is an intrinsic part of the DNA of our business. Our global technical centre, based in Horsham, England, allows us to continually create new and more effective products in our fight against pests. Our specialist R&D staff collaborates with service technicians, quality assurance manager, customer care manager and many of our customers to come up with smart new ways to exclude, control and eradicate pests that may be causing problems.

We continue to drive our innovations in pest control technology as well. With the roll out of PDAs (personal digital assistants) to our service colleagues, Rentokil PCI has improved their service delivery, effectiveness and customer service tremendously. Our online reporting and documentation system, myRentokilPCI, helps commercial customers to generate system based pest control related reports at the click of a button. This and other such innovative pest control tools that we offer help in effective control and elimination of pest issues.

How does Rentokil PCI focus on developing industry-leading service operations through the sharing of best practices, new innovations and the use of digital technologies?

Rentokil PCI aims to set new standards for customer service, having operations across 300 locations in India. These services are provided by Rentokil professionals who are better trained than the conventional cleaning personnel and have years of experience working in situations with strict hygiene requirements. There is a continuous and rigorous training and development process that our technicians have to undergo before they are sent out to customer premises to render services. Through our ongoing internal mechanism of team connects and webinars, the best practices in one part of the country have been shared across to other parts even during remote working periods. Residential and commercial customers across India can expect 100 per cent safe, trusted, and effective service from Rentokil PCI.

What new solutions does the company offer to keep the place and surroundings pest free?

Rentokil PCI recently launched "mosquito control innovation". An innovative, service based solution which is aimed at dealing with the threat of mosquito-borne diseases which are very common in India. Traditional thermal fogging uses diesel as a carrier and is a smoky treatment and leaves pollutants into the air. The innovation, known as 'cold fogging', uses a mixture of approved insecticide and water as a carrier (instead of polluting diesel), into very fine micron-sized droplets through the fogging/ULV machine. The cold fog is created via water mixture droplets which makes it environment friendly. Much quieter than traditional thermal fogging, it leaves a long-lasting residual effect as the fog particles remain active for up to a week, enabling more contact time with adult mosquitoes.

The product-based innovation 'Mosclean IG1' is an eco-friendly mosquito trap that attracts mosquitoes using UV light of specific length. The trap is scientifically proven to catch and kill mosquitoes, including those transmitting the Zika virus. This solution offers coverage up to one acre, which is water resistant and used outdoors. Designed to be eco-friendly without using any mercury lamps or chemical substances, the product guarantees suitable safety for infants, pregnant women and the elderly. It has a longer lifespan and reduced maintenance costs as compared to its peers. Our new air purifying innovation 'Viruskiller' uses a series of filters and patented UV reactor chambers to kill 99.9999 per cent of viruses with a single air pass, including Coronavirus. This improves the air quality and makes spaces safe for our customers and their families. More recently, we have also introduced a new innovation around our signature cockroach service 'Goldseal' which is now powered by the promise of 'Roachkill' ensuring speedy dual action that exterminates even the most hard-to-kill cockroaches.

Please tell us about the new cockroach innovation and any of the recent campaigns done by Rentokil PCI?

The new cockroach control innovation is focused on our flagship Goldseal Service (GSS). For the first time in India, Rentokil PCI has come up with a new technological innovation that promises an 'instant' killing action for even the most hard-to-kill cockroaches. The dual action benefit of the service ensures that cockroaches die, both upon contact and ingestion. We have launched this service for our residential customers. To promote this service, our campaign focuses on the brand new marketing proposition of 'Roachkill' which exemplifies the benefits of the service. The campaign is being promoted across the spectrum of our website and digital mediums and is receiving a good response.

Does the company have any export strategy?

Through the course of the pandemic, India has emerged as a key player in the exports to our neighbouring countries. Specifically, we have capitalised on the export opportunities in agriculture product categories - pesticide, non-pesticide and organic products. Our overall exports business has actually grown during the pandemic period - not only have we provided integrated solutions, but our satisfied customers have also helped us expand our business through a positive word of mouth.

How has the company fared in 2021-2022? What are the projections for the next three years?

The company has grown ahead of expectations in 2021-2022. The theme for this year is revival and recovery and we are confident that we will be able to perform exceptionally, this year as well. For the next three years, we have ambitious plans to grow at strong double digit levels through organic growth and acquisitions.

What is the R&D strategy in staying one jump ahead of highly evolving pests, especially in the urban areas?

The R&D strategy for highly evolving urban pests is to ensure a continuous pipeline of thoroughly tested and proven global innovations springing from cutting edge international trends of technology. On similar lines, we have introduced an all new and improved Goldseal service for the leading urban pest – cockroaches, which have been introduced by Rentokil PCI for the first time in India.

This approach of applying our global expertise to come up with solutions that are tried and tested for the local market, we believe, is our strategic R&D edge to stay one jump ahead of the various pest categories.