Lesco Reorganizes

Dick Judy is the new “point man” for the pest control industry at LESCO, a major product supplier based in Rocky River, Ohio. The 20-year industry veteran was named product manager, structural pest control, in March following the departure of Allen Crowder, a well-known figure in the pest control industry.

The appointment of Judy, a former training director at McCloud Services in Chicago, signals a change in the business philosophy of the company. Throughout the 1990s, LESCO’s pest control operations functioned as an autonomous business unit, largely independent of its golf course and turf operations, the company’s core business. As a result, branch managers at the company’s 234 service centers focused most of their energies on the turf market.

“Dick’s job will be to convince store managers to support the pest control business,” said one industry insider familiar with the LESCO operation. “His job will be to promote that business internally and he’s got the personality to do it.”

LESCO plans to grow its presence in the pest control industry by mirroring the highly successful business model developed for its turf markets. “We’re going to set up the pest control business to be run like every other piece of business in the company,” Judy says. “In the turf market, we have more than 100,000 customers nationwide and many of those customers are small operators. In many cases, we’re going to find them simply because of the number of locations we have. It’s pretty hard to be too far away from a LESCO outlet. We think that’s attractive to the small PCO as well.”

The company also plans to beef up its technical support, a longtime weakness at LESCO, and one of the primary reasons Judy was promoted to structural pest control product manager. “We’re going to be emphasizing training and support with our 600+ salespeople in the field,” he says. “That’s where we’re going to be putting our effort.”

If that’s true, it signals a change in the company’s market positioning. Convenience and low prices — not service — is the market niche carved out by LESCO in the pest control industry in recent years.

By opening hundreds of branch locations throughout the United States during the past decade, LESCO has been able to offer PCOs lower inventory costs, competitive prices and convenient, drive-through service. It’s a formula that is particularly attractive to the one- to five-person pest control company, the same target market as United Industries, the St. Louis-based firm that recently partnered with Home Depot to introduce a professional line of pesticides. The SpectracidePro product line is now being offered through more than 400 Home Depot locations, reaching a similar market universe as LESCO.

“LESCO is a place to drop in and buy materials and leave,” says one longtime competitor, “but it didn’t work that well in every part of the country. You can buy all kinds of market with the lowest price, but you eventually lose that market if you don’t offer something else in the way of training or technical support.”

By reemphasizing service and “beefing up” its technical support operations, LESCO hopes to counter United Industries’ market positioning, as well as compete more effectively with other regional and national distributors. “It’s an exciting challenge,” Judy says. “I’m looking forward to it.”