Industry up 17 percent in January, per Blair/PCO M&A Specialists index

The William Blair/PCO M&A Specialists Pest Index is a proprietary compilation of the monthly sales for 158 different U.S. pest control companies across 36 states. For January, the total U.S. pest index increased 17 percent year-over-year in January, up from 13 percent growth in December and November. The index remains above the long-term average of 12 percent.

“In 2022, the total pest index increased 15 percent year-over-year,” William Blair Equity Researcher Tim Mulrooney said in the news release. “This was slightly above the result observed in 2021 (14 percent); however, we estimate pricing represented approximately two-thirds of the growth in 2022, versus approximately one-third of the growth in 2021.”

Dan Gordon, CPA, who is Pest Management Professional’s  financial columnist as well as a partner in PCO Bookkeepers & M&A Specialists added, “The economy is navigating several economic crosswinds that make predicting the future tricky, but the Pest Index has held up extremely well in terms of its ability to predict growth since its inception. We feel that it will continue to be a powerful tool to people in the pest control industry.”

The January result was primarily due to an acceleration in the residential pest and commercial pest indices:

• The Residential Pest Index increased 21 percent year-over-year.
• The Commercial Pest Index increased 18 percent year-over-year.
• The Termite Index increased 2 percent year-over-year.
• The Bed Bug Index decreased 11 percent year-over-year.

View the full report and the archive of past reports at SellMyPCOBusiness.com.

About the William Blair/PCO M&A Specialists Pest Index

The William Blair/PCO M&A Specialists Pest Index tracks the monthly performance of 158 privately held pest control companies across 36 states with combined annual 2022 revenue of $538 million. The purpose of the report is to track the monthly performance of several different U.S. pest markets, including residential, commercial and termite.