Scotts LawnService, a business unit of the Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., agreed to acquire Action Pest Control, a residential pest control company based in Louisville, Ky., with operations in Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois. Terms were not disclosed.
The transaction, which is expected to close by January, marks the company’s first acquisition of a residential pest control business. Scotts LawnService, with anticipated sales of approximately $260 million in fiscal 2014, is currently the No. 2 player in the lawn care category behind TruGreen. Scotts LawnService expects the Action Pest business to do $15 million in sales in 2015.
For more than a year, Scotts LawnService has been operating a pest business in Florida using the company’s Ortho brand. The company has used that operation as a proving ground for a business model offering consumers both lawn and pest services from the same provider.
Former Scotts LawnService President Brian Kura hinted at this move when he told LM last September, “A next step for growth—and it may be the biggest—is ‘crossing the threshold’ and selling Ortho in homes.”
The company said in a release it believes pest control services will bolster organic growth on the lawn side, given the fragmented nature of the $7 billion home pest control category.
