Robert's Rants
Robert's Rants
A personal blog on the Canadian pesticide industry and other pet peeves and interests

Big Company Eats Small Company. Output turns to (fill in the blank)

It’s the bane of the Industry, at least in pest management, when some big company decides to buy out a well oiled, profitable little company and then manages to loose all customer focus and sales in about 2 years time.

Suppliers, PCO’s alike.

Suppliers are the best,  prime example is BASF destroying the Whitmire legacy in just 2 years time.  They couldn’t understand the value of the technology.

Happens with PCO’s all the time.  An acquisition here or merger there is just eliminating a competitor, we all know that. But cut off the head of a snake and 3 grow back.  I’ve seen it.

Better yet is this mess around another large merger/buyout that just happened, or more of a dragging it out kinda situation, with a major equipment company.  They’ve managed to combine several well known and very efficient companies into one of the best examples of how not to do it.  Programs, pricing (3 increases in 6 months) and stocking is a disaster, supply is unreliable.  Service and customer care?   Ha.

And the synergies they thought they would see?  They don’t even talk to each other, similar to many couples after 8 weeks of Covid.

So what’s the best marketing strategy when things are falling apart?

Jack the effing price!

Maybe it was the smart thing to do though.  They have a good fogger, and with the immediate need to disinfect the demand went through the roof.

Slap a $50 surcharge on each product and make some hay.

Probably a good idea, because it will only go south from here.  Give a person a reason to switch, basically piss ’em off, then wait for the chips to fall.

Or droplets, whichever.