Industry up 19.2 percent over November 2021, per Blair/PCO M&A Specialists index

The William Blair/PCO M&A Specialists Pest Index is a proprietary index of the monthly sales for 140 different U.S. pest control companies across 30 states. For November 2021, the total U.S. pest index increased 19.2 percent year-over-year.

This marks a clear acceleration from the midteens-type growth observed over the previous three months. On a sequential basis from October 2021 to November 2021, the index decreased 8.4 percent year-over-year, which is a typical result for the month of November.

“The total pest index accelerated materially from the growth observed over the last three months (midteens year-over-year growth in August, September and October),” said William Blair Equity Researcher Tim Mulrooney. The performance in November was driven by an acceleration across all four sub-indices (residential, commercial, termite, and bed bug).

The Residential Pest Index increased 21.3 percent year-over-year and declined 4.1 percent on a sequential basis. The strong growth in November residential pest index may be partly explained by warmer temperatures across much of the northern United States.

“However, with eight months in a row of above-average growth in the residential index, we believe other secular factors may also be at play,” Mulrooney said in the news release, offering increasing market penetration as an example. “The two-year compound annual growth rate for the residential pest index was 15 percent in November, above the long-term historical average trend of 12 percent growth.”

The Commercial Pest Index increased 15.3 percent year-over-year and declined 5.2 percent on a sequential basis. This marks an acceleration from October and September, which was expected given easier comparisons.

“Still, the result in November was surprisingly strong,” Mulrooney said. “The 15 percent increase in November is well above the three-year historical average monthly growth rate of 8 percent.”

The Wood Destroying (Termite) Index increased 15.7 percent year-over-year and declined 3.1 percent on a sequential basis. The Bed Bug Index increased 12.8 percent year-over-year and declined 9 percent on a sequential basis.

View the full November report and the archive of past reports at SellMyPCOBusiness.com, an online resource that is maintained by Pest Management Professional magazine’s financial columnist, Dan Gordon, CPA, and his team.