For the past several decades, the names Johnson Pest Control and Russell’s Pest Control have been synonymous with pest management in Eastern Tennessee.

Johnson Pest Control was founded by Ray and Tammy Johnson in 1984. Ray is a pest president of the National Pest Management Association.

Russell’s Pest Control was founded in 1971. Owners Mark and Vickie Nadolski took ownership in 2011 from Vickie’s parents.

Customers of these two companies have come to expect quality service from their well-trained and knowledgeable staffs, who are both Quality Pro designated and highly customer focused.

The decision to sell

In two separate, confidential conversations with their mutual accountant, Dan Gordon, Ray and Mark expressed that they were thinking about retirement, and if they could get the right price, they would likely exit. Gordon is managing partner of of PCO Bookkeepers and PCO M&A Specialists.

Both men knew that selling their businesses was going to be the biggest decision of their careers, and they only had one shot at getting it right. Knowing the PCO Bookkeepers team, it was an easy decision to use its M&A division, PCO M&A Specialists, to help with the selling process.

The sale

Dan and his team assembled all the information and moving parts to find a transaction that would yield maximum value for this one-two punch of market leaders.

The PCO M&A Specialists’ creativity and expertise paid off. The team created a competitive bidding situation that resulted in prices at the high end of valuations in a hot M&A market and a buyer, Rentokil Steritech, that both sellers were pleased with.

The experience

“Selling a business is no easy task,” Ray says. “There is a ton of information that buyers need to have to value your business. The PCO team knows all of the industry routing software as well as QuickBooks inside and out, which allows them to pull information directly from our systems. They know what they are looking at and how to use it to put us in the best light.”

Mark adds, “The due diligence process is grueling, and the PCO M&A Specialists team put the data room together with precision, making the onsite work go very smooth.”

Both men agreed, though, it’s all about the after-tax proceeds, and both used PCO M&A Specialists to help structure the transaction in an extremely tax-efficient manner. Ray also appreciated that he could get brokerage, tax and legal advice all from the same firm.