Photos courtesy of Steve Wittig
PORTLAND, Ore. — PestLocal, dba A&A Pest Control, established roots along the West Coast to provide an opportunity for smaller, independent pest control companies to merge their business brands and keep the “personal touch” of running a family business.
Key to this business model is empowering their teams to represent the company’s culture and grow their careers.
Founded by Steve Wittig, chief executive officer, his wife, Tanya Wittig, chief business officer and longtime business partner Wayne Bazzle, chief operating officer, the three started the company in 2022 by acquiring A&A Pest Control, which was launched in 1984, in Portland, Ore.
Since then, five acquisitions have been made in the last two-and-a-half years, but all of the company’s brands fall under A&A, Steve said.
“We want to be good stewards in the industry,” he said. “It’s given our families a lot and we wanted to pay that forward with PestLocal.”
Steve started his pest control career in the couple’s home country of Canada where he attended Sanford Fleming College in Ontario. He learned business fundamentals and soon became fully licensed and trained to perform pest management.
“After a number of years running a route and doing sales, Steritech bought the small company I was working for, and I moved to western Canada and started a branch for that company,” Steve said. “Steritech moved us to the U.S., and I did national sales. It’s been a journey, and we missed the West Coast, so a few years ago we moved back.”
With Steve’s background working for a private equity-backed company, his experience and knowledge gave him the confidence to build his business from the ground up and work with smaller companies on a personalized scale, he said.
“When I meet with other owners who are looking to retire, they see that we’re genuine because it really is our life savings [invested],” he said.
A&A employees are trained to take the extra time to introduce themselves to new customers, explain who they are and share the acquisition story with customers. This approach has led to more customer retention, Steve said.
“There’s always reasons why we lose a customer, but we focus a lot on attrition and coach our team on the ‘why’ and what we can learn from each of them,” he said.
Recently, A&A Pest Control was awarded third place in PCT’s 2025 Best Places to Work in the small employer category. Steve said his goal as he continues to grow the company is to give back to his employees and foster a company culture that focuses on professionalism, high-quality training and career development.
“If we can develop the team and get them empowered to make their own decisions, grow in their careers and show them a lot of appreciation, they feel like they are a part of something special,” he said. “A lot of our growth is because of the culture we have built and the team that’s driving the culture is professional, but also has fun in the process.”
Consistent training protocols have also helped streamline growth and clear communication across the company when a new brand is brought into the mix, Steve said.
“There are many different ways to kill a cockroach, but we all need to agree on the one way we’re going to do it,” he said. “When calls come in and they want to hire our services, we need to make sure what is explained to them is also what we’re delivering out in the field.”
A&A has found success by bringing in vendors for hands-on training and finding fun, engaging ways to keep employees interested in learning.
“We’ve done some fun training, like Jeopardy and trivia games, so it sticks with them more instead of just scrolling through a PowerPoint and it’s being drilled into them,” Steve said.