Since its founding in the 1960s, Target Specialty Products has averaged adding one location per year. Truth be told, however, most of the wholesale distributor’s expansion happened during the past decade — thanks in part to a joint venture, a merger and three acquisitions.
Under the leadership of President David Helt, Target Specialty Products celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019 by branching out from its traditional markets of structural pest control, and turf and ornamental chemicals. The Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-based distributor also acquired Flint, Mich.-based Cygnet Enterprises, a distributor of aquatic management solutions, and launched a vector business for mosquito control.
With Helt at the helm the past three years, Target Specialty Products also has embraced tech-powered training, including technical and business webinars to educate and train its growing customer base.
“We take our tagline, ‘Empowering You to Grow Your Business,’ to heart,” Helt adds. “We are firing on all cylinders — our people, supplier partners, solutions and technology — to drive our customers forward.”
Growth Vehicle
Target Specialty Products Director of Marketing Aris Gharapetian says the company’s mission is to help pest management professionals (PMPs) grow their business: “We view ourselves as a growth vehicle for our customers.
“For instance, our webinar and training initiatives and programs are all about equipping our customers with the knowledge and education they need to continuously grow their businesses and their bottom lines.For many of our webinars, we even provide CEU credits for our customers,” Gharapetian notes, referring to continuing education units.
For a sampling of Target Specialty Products’ recorded Business Growth Webinars, visit Target-Specialty.com/webinars-grid-pest-recorded.
In addition to business and technical webinars, Target Specialty Products offers:
- “Marketing Minute” audio clips with experts’ tips on digital marketing, sales and more.
- Regulatory updates and safety tips.
- “myLearning” modules online.
- On-site training at its headquarters and other locations.
Tech-Fueled Partnerships
Helt says technology fuels growth for Target Specialty Products and its customers.
For instance, earlier this year, the distributor partnered with Holmdel, N.J.-based WorkWave to provide users of its PestPac software online access to exclusive inventory, pricing and incentives.
“WorkWave CEO David Giannetto and I discussed how our joint venture works during a recent ‘Coffee Talk with the Davids’ webinar,” Helt adds. (Editor’s Note: For more in an exclusive interview with Helt, please see PMP’s April 2021 issue.)
Helt reports that Target Specialty Products “is all about providing value to its customers in the broadest sense of the word. As part of that, we are investing in technology, not only with webinars and the WorkWave integration, but also with our new ecommerce site, Shop.Target-Specialty.com, and a new enterprise-wide resource planning system.
“We’re also investing in people,” Helt adds. “We added 80 employees through our Residex acquisition, and with our growth trajectory, we continue to add people in all functions — with particular attention paid to those areas that contribute to customer value creation, such as sales and training.”
Target Specialty Products’ sales capabilities and growth in the vector distribution segment are why manufacturer Leading Edge chose the company to be the exclusive distributor for its pesticide application technology (drones and mapping software) for the pest control, vector control, and turf and ornamental markets.
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