Courtesy of Nisus and Noble Pine
ROCKFORD, Tenn. – Nisus Corporation announced today that it has reached an agreement with Noble Pine Products Company to handle the sales, marketing and distribution of Sterifab to the professional pest control market.
Noble Pine will continue manufacturing the product at its plant in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and Nisus will sell, market, distribute, and provide technical support to companies and distributors in the pest control industry.
Sterifab is a disinfectant, insecticide and viricide. Noble Pine says the product is widely recognized as an effective tool for pest management companies for control of bed bugs, mites, fleas, lice, cockroaches, ants, spiders and other pests. Sterifab was registered by EPA in 1967.
Sterifab is labeled for use on human contact surfaces, including mattresses and upholstered furniture, adding to its application flexibility. Noble Pine will continue to exclusively sell to and service distributors in the other industries in which Sterifab is used, such as janitorial, sanitation, bedding and furniture.
Nisus is a widely known manufacturer of sustainable products for the pest control, wood preservation and agricultural micronutrient industries. The company manufactures products at its facility near the Great Smoky Mountains; Nisus will begin stocking and selling Sterifab for the pest control industry on May 1.
Lee Barrett, Nisus president, said he was interested in working with Sterifab and Jordan Brooks, vice president of Noble Pine, before he became president of the company in November 2021. But it wasn’t until December 2022 that the two started discussing the potential opportunity in earnest.
“At the time (before I was president of Nisus), I was not in a position where I could go talk to those guys. … I could only make that suggestion,” Barrett exclusively told PCT. But he asked a mutual colleague to tell Brooks he was “interested” and “was a fan” of the product. “Literally two months ago, we were talking on the phone and here we are,” Barrett said.
Barrett said Nisus plans on marketing Sterifab as a stand-alone product and as part of Nisus’ broad portfolio of products. Nisus has another bed bug product, Fireback, in its portfolio currently. Nisus also has DSV (disinfectant, sanitizer and virucide), a concentrated disinfectant, cleaner, mildewstat, fungicide and sanitizer. The product kills a broad spectrum of viruses, bacteria and fungi on hard surfaces.
Brooks told PCT he spoke with some of the Nisus staff and they’re excited to have a new product in their portfolio. “One of them was really pumped about the way it complements Fireback for bed bug and insects. They’re really pumped about Sterifab being a non-residual going on mattress and killing all levels of bed bugs,” he said. “They’re really excited about how it can work as a one-two punch with Fireback. It gives them another great product among the ones they already have.”
And adding the product to Nisus’ line-up opens new market opportunities for the company, Barrett added. “With Sterifab, we can start talking to customers we’ve never had. We’re going to first put Sterifab on the map nationally and with one (sales team) effort.”
Brooks told PCT that this agreement will give Noble Pine the opportunity to be sold into additional parts of the country, areas they didn’t have easy access to before beginning this “partnership in practice.”
“I came into the business 15 months ago and didn’t really understand until a year ago how reliant this industry is on face-to-face interactions and meetings. I started racking up frequent flier miles (running) around the country marketing it,” he said. “We rely on ads, websites, independent representatives, traveling to every show and visiting pest control operators and pest management professionals at their locations but to no degree that Nisus guys do.”
Brooks said he’s been like “a kid on Christmas morning” since his initial phone call with Barrett.
“It seems like everyone’s friends first and then you worry about your business to an extent,” he told PCT. “I could not believe that this figure in the pest control industry wanted to talk to me about Sterifab.”
Barrett said Nisus doesn’t only “try and work out a deal on paper,” but the sales staff really gets behind the product itself by being knowledgeable about its application and use. Barrett said the newfound relationship with Brooks is like, “adding on a piece of what we want and need in our business to be successful.”
“I’m adding someone that could help and gets a chance to steward it,” he said. “It’s not just on us, (Brooks) definitely wants to steward that product and we love to hear what he has to say.”
FOURTH-GENERATION SUCCESS
Both Nisus and Noble Pine are rooted in family history, making this relationship even more special, Barrett told PCT.
Brooks is relatively new to the pest control industry, only taking the reins as vice president of Noble Pine a little over a year ago when his uncle asked if he would be willing to join the family business.
“My uncle’s grandfather founded the parent manufacturing company, and in 1967, my uncle’s father put to the market Sterifab and it was really created to be put on upholstery furniture and bedding,” Brooks said. In 1992, bed bugs were added to the label, but, it was almost as an afterthought because bed bugs were basically eradicated at that time, Brooks said.
“In the mid-2000s, you had the explosion of bed bugs,” he told PCT. “We’re in New York and all of a sudden the Empire State Building and notable hotels were being infested and the owners of these businesses started speaking to us. Sterifab was one of the very few products at the time with bed bugs on the label.”
Previously, Brooks was a practicing attorney in Westchester County, N.Y., before joining the business. He told PCT “a new challenge at 40 years old sounded fantastic.”
Like many who have joined the pest management industry, Brooks has found PMPs to be very welcoming. “The people that I have met have been remarkable,” he said. “Some people ask me if there’s anything I miss about law, and there’s not a single thing I miss about it. I have yet to come across someone who I don’t like or respect (in this industry). Then I get to meet someone like Lee Barrett!”
Barrett already knows how great the industry is. “I wouldn’t be here if our sales team wasn’t doing what they were doing. This addition to our portfolio will make things even sweeter.”