Jim McHale Jr.

© JP McHale Pest Management

“Dad immigrated from Ireland, and he secured a job at Sing Sing Correctional Facility on the Hudson River in Ossining, New York,” said Jim McHale Jr., president of JP McHale Pest Management, an Anticimex company. “He worked the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. He and a lot of the guards had side hustles going.”

Some of the correctional officers picked up pool maintenance, others cleaned and restored rugs. McHale’s dad, James P. McHale Sr., decided to start a part-time beer tap cleaning business.

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

As the elder McHale built up his route, he often crossed paths with another guard, Patrick McCauley, who had an exterminating company. Jim recalled, “He said to my Dad, ‘Hey, JP, we keep bumping into each other. You’re doing the cleaning, I’m doing the pest control. Why don’t you help with the pest control and I’ll pay you?’”

So McHale’s dad added pest control to his repertoire of services. In 1971, he took over McCauley’s pest control company, incorporating it as JP McHale Exterminating Service. He also decided to sell off his beer tap cleaning business.

“I used to ride with him on Saturday mornings when I was home from school,” said McHale. “I learned very quickly this was a people business — this was a relationship business.”

In fact, McHale described his dad as a horrible pest control technician. “There were plenty of pests that he missed, but he was great with the people. They loved him.”

As pest control professionals know, helping maintain the integrity of someone’s home or business is an emotional job. “You’re dealing with someone who’s seen something that’s made them emotional,” McHale said. “Empathy is huge.”

The key differentiator wasn’t killing bugs better than the other guy, it was all about the client experience. And a unique skill that correction officers have? De-escalating a difficult situation. McHale watched his dad do it time and time again whenever he was on the job. That notorious Irish gift of gab was an added bonus, he said.

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

McHale helped his dad with a route through high school. Then, he set off for SUNY Morrisville, then to Cornell University, to earn a degree in entomology.

While he was pursuing a career in pest management, most of his classmates had their sights set on agriculture, fighting mosquito-borne illnesses or even becoming college professors themselves. McHale’s unique aspirations of urban pest management made him a favorite in his classes. “They took a special interest in me,” he said.

He also happened to have impeccable timing. While McHale attended school, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was being formed with Cornell’s input. “I happened to be at the right place at the right time,” McHale said.

He graduated in 1988 with a foundation of scientific expertise — and a finger on the pulse of the pest control community.

From there, he began working for his dad full-time. The company was doing less than $1 million in sales with one full-time technician and a couple of part-time correctional officers.

As he immersed himself in the business, McHale built upon the relationships his dad had cultivated with his customers.

“Jim McHale Sr. was an incredible man. Energetic, lively and spirited. He was a no-nonsense leader when it came to running his family business. He would also give you the shirt off his back if you needed it,” said Glenn Shaw, IT manager at JP McHale Pest Management. “Jim runs the company in the same way.”

A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

“We took an environmentally sustainable position,” he said. “We were a very innovative company for the industry, and we had a lot of momentum.”

Between their stellar customer service, this new technology and training, and consistently quick response times, they grew the business brick by brick.

Things were running smoothly, but McHale was still desperate for more industry knowledge, so, he began attending National Pest Management Association (NPMA) meetings. He found that his fellow pest control professionals were remarkably open and willing to share information.

“I ended up connecting with Western Pest Services in New Jersey,” said McHale. “I owe those folks a debt of gratitude for everything they taught me.”

He credits a conversation at a New York State Pest Management Association (NYSPMA) meeting as a turning point in his career. When the DEC and the regulatory community began restricting many of the most commonly used pesticides at the time, legendary pest control industry consultant Dr. Austin Frishman pulled him aside. He told McHale not to panic, that there was an upside to eliminating such insecticides. Newer, innovative products also meant a move from one-time stops to recurring services.

With new insights about how contracts and service frequencies were shaping his peers’ businesses, McHale adopted a new approach: He settled on scheduling his technicians to visit customers three times a year instead of monthly. The tri-annual approach proved to be most effective when it came to route density and technician utilization.

TRANSITION PERIOD

One of McHale’s brothers joined the business that same year, and another joined in 1994. “When they joined, we created a line of business for each of them,” McHale said. The first was lawn fertilization and plant healthcare, and the other was crawlspace encapsulation, including new insulation, liners and sump pump installation.

The services were ancillary — they supported pest control, but didn’t stray too far from the company’s core competency.

“We were on our way,” said McHale. “Then, it was all about marketing.”

Everyone had access to the same insecticides, so what was the company’s value proposition? How could they distinguish themselves from all of the others?

“Jim’s leadership style is interesting. He is very smart, competitive and highly motivated,” said Mike Rottler, chairman at Rottler Pest Solutions. “He understands his customers and how and where his brand fits into the market.”

In this case, he decided to build his brand around innovation. McHale enlisted a public relations firm to get the word out about the company. The PR firm got him quoted in The New York Times in an article about the newly introduced Sentricon System. The termite bait was a paradigm shift for the industry’s termite control offerings and the story discussed how McHale and his team were using this technology in the New York City market.

“I’ll never forget, it came out on a Sunday, and Monday, our phones blew up,” McHale said. “We were off to the races. It was a good turning point in our trajectory.”

In the early 2000s, he enjoyed another big media hit. This time, he was featured on Good Morning America, where he shared his tips to have a bug-free Memorial Day weekend BBQ.

But his A-list appearances on national channels weren’t McHale’s only means of public relations. Pest management peers vouch for his daily networking skills as well. “Because of the kind of person Jim is, many of his business relationships become personal ones,” said Michael Weisburger, manager at Weissy Properties LLC, who at the time worked closely with the McHales on their insurance policies. “With that gift of being able to bridge those relationships, Jim has created a self-perpetuating source of new business through referrals. He is his company’s own best marketing tool.”

With the brand in place, and McHale’s magnetic personality behind it, growth continued. Heavy hitters in the pest control industry took notice. In 2018, interest rates had dropped and the mergers and acquisitions market was hot. Around that time, McHale also started thinking about the company’s future. He felt it wasn’t fair to toss the grandkids into business together and began considering other solutions.

McHale previously entertained an offer for the business that gave him an idea of valuation, though it ultimately wasn’t quite enough to convince him to sell. With strong revenue and high EBITDA, he was confident in the company’s worth. Large buyers, including Sweden-based Anticimex, took notice too. After some due diligence, McHale started to think Anticimex was the best of both worlds: they were already operating in the pest control space, had a deep knowledge of the business and were private equity owned. Their model was decentralized, with decisions being made close to the customer. They also offered the potential to bring other companies under the JP McHale umbrella, all while leveraging Anticimex’s technology, namely its SMART Digital Rodent Control System.

“You’re always looking for that edge,” said McHale. “You’re looking for something that’s going to differentiate you from everyone else.”

And McHale knew this data-driven service could be his company’s next key differentiator. He said he felt the technology was the perfect complement to his existing exclusionary work. The SMART System continuously monitors the coverage area remotely, transmitting data to a local office. If rodent activity is detected, the exact date and time is recorded.

James P. McHale Sr., founder of JP McHale, at a St. Patrick’s Day parade.

“We used to have to wait for a customer to see the rodent and call us. Now, we can call the customer,” said McHale. “Our guys are no longer trap checkers, they’re able to focus on avenues of entry.”

While McHale’s brothers retired when the deal closed, he felt compelled to stay on board, ready to undertake a new challenge. It was time to rebuild his leadership team, and his first instinct was to look internally. “All my key people are still with me, and doing incredibly well,” he said. “They’ve been promoted and have international opportunities.

“I stayed because I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t a spoiled entrepreneur that couldn’t work for anyone,” he continued. “In 35 years, I never had a boss.”

He had decades of experience when it came to building a business, but McHale was ready to learn more about acquisitions and how to integrate a new company’s culture, customers, billing and service schedules — and he’s done just that. Since McHale joined the Anticimex team, he’s worked on 10 to 12 acquisitions. The work has also brought new opportunities for travel, including trips to the Anti-cimex Innovation Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Through Jim’s lifelong experience in the pest control industry and the vast network he has developed among industry peers and partners, he is very well-equipped to thrive in an organization like Anticimex,” said Steve Good, president of Good Strategies LLC. “Anticimex is an innovative and progressive organization. Jim is an innovative and progressive leader. The combination of the two creates a dynamic and formidable force.”

JP McHale Pest Management now boasts seven branches. McHale anticipates it will only continue to grow, mentioning he’s always on the lookout for high-quality acquisition targets.

He’s also giving back to those industry organizations that helped him gain his footing at the beginning of his career, as well as his community as a whole.

From growing up in his family business to infusing it with a focus on entomology and science-driven innovation, McHale has transformed JP McHale Pest Management, all while serving as a sounding board to industry colleagues. As a bridge between the legacy of a family-owned business and the global innovation of Anticimex, McHale’s focus remains on ensuring that the company’s next chapter is forward-thinking while also staying true to its founding principles.