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The Steritech Group, Inc. was founded in 1986 as a commercial pest elimination company. The name Steritech comes from the words “sterilization technology,” reflecting our positioning as a public health and safety services provider.
In December 1985, John Whitley, having served as president of a major pest control company for 18 years, saw an opportunity to offer a premium service using advanced techniques and highly trained service specialists. “We felt that we wanted to start a company where the focus was on people,” John says. “People deliver the service and are what makes an organization great.”
Steritech’s operations began in June 1986 when the company opened its first office in Charlotte, N.C. Charlotte was chosen because of its central location in the Southeast, its vibrant economy and because there was little competition for the type of quality service we wanted to provide.
The highly regulated hospitality, health care, food processing and supermarket industries were selected as primary markets and Steritech quickly earned a reputation for providing a quality service. Recognized as pioneers in the pest management industry, Steritech developed our proprietary EcoSensitive® Pest Prevention System as an environmentally responsible form of pest management. In 1999, Steritech was the first structural pest management company to be recognized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program for excellence in reducing the risks associated with pesticide use, and was again named a “Champion” in 2005.
In 1994, two major developments in Steritech’s history got underway. The first was the conception and design of the Corporate Office campus in Charlotte. Ground was broken at 7600 Little Avenue in 1994, and in February 1995, Corporate Office staff took up residence in the building where they remain today. To accommodate growth, the building was expanded in 2002 and now houses 40 Corporate Office employees. The expansion also houses The Steritech Institute®, the home of Steritech’s training center, learning classroom, and research and development facilities.
The second was the inception of Steritech’s food safety business. At the request of a client, Steritech began to perform sanitation audits as an augmentation of our services. Under the direction of a small but capable staff, these “sanitation audits” grew and evolved into the earliest versions of today’s food safety audit.
To accommodate this change in services, Steritech’s tag line soon changed from “Environmental Services” to “Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene.” During the next five years, operations in both pest prevention and food safety continued to expand at phenomenal rates as demand for our company’s unique combination of services grew. The result was a penetration into new geographical markets; by the close of 1999, Steritech was servicing the needs of key customers in 18 western states, including Hawaii. In November of that same year, Steritech acquired Professional Pest Management Consultants, a pest management company in Canada whose mission was allied closely with Steritech’s, moving the company into the international pest management arena.
The late ‘90s saw increased consumer and media attention on public health issues, resulting in a zero tolerance approach being adopted by many health departments across the nation and an additional incentive for large companies to turn to Steritech for assistance in the area of food safety. Responding to that growing need for help, Steritech developed a HACCP-based food safety management system for retail operations, a concept that has since evolved into PracticeFoodSafety.com, a web portal to help those operations manage food safety systems and employee training.
Continued growth and the desire to elevate the customer experience led to the decision in mid-2001 to form what are now Steritech’s two divisional operations – Pest Prevention and Food Safety. Eric Eicher was appointed as the President & Chief Operating Officer of the Pest Prevention Division, while Mark Jarvis took over in the same role in the Food Safety Division. John Whitley then became CEO, overseeing both Divisions.
In April of 2005, John announced that he would step down as CEO of the company and into the newly created role of Executive Chairman. He appointed Mark Jarvis as his successor beginning in July of 2005, citing Mark’s impressive track records in both the Pest Prevention and Food Safety Divisions as one of many reasons for his appointment. To fill the vacancy left by Mark’s promotion, Rich Ennis, then the VP of Operations for the Food Safety Division, was appointed as the President & Chief Operating Officer of that Division.
In one of his first actions as CEO, Mark formed Steritech’s Leadership Team, a group comprised of several Steritech senior officers and department heads, to work in conjunction with Steritech’s Board of Directors to guide Steritech’s business, vision and goals. Shortly thereafter in January of 2006, in order to more fully encompass the range of Steritech’s services, the Leadership Team and Board of Directors changed Steritech’s tag line to Brand Protection Services.
The summer of 2006 brought about another exciting chapter in Steritech’s history, as Rich Ennis was appointed to the President & COO position for both divisions. Rich has earned a reputation for identifying best practices, rewarding employees for top performance, and maximizing operational efficiency. In his tenure as Vice-President of Operations and President & COO of the Food Safety Division, he has instituted initiatives such as route management systems and key upgrades to the food safety handhelds. Rich will bring those same successes to the Pest Prevention Division.
Lorri MacHarg, who has been an excellent performer in the Food Safety Division, most recently working as Director of Account Management, will assume the new role of Vice-President of Operations for the Food Safety Division. Lorri’s experience in working with and managing operations, as well as her work with important client accounts, made her the perfect candidate to step in and help continue Rich’s tradition of optimizing operational organization and efficiency.
As these changes took effect, we simultaneously formed Steritech’s Alternative Growth Strategies Group, another step in our company’s growth initiative. Lead by Eric Eicher, a founding employee of Steritech and one of the pest management industry’s most well-known and respected members, the group will research ways to maximize the company’s market share through non-traditional growth methods.
Steritech’s history is being written every day by our employees – because at Steritech, our people are our most important asset, providing important services to our 20,000 clients in 24 countries. We are committed to long-term partnerships and understand that our clients’ success is our success. There is no substitute for genuine care and concern for our clients well being. We truly believe putting that philosophy into action every day will continue to differentiate Steritech as we move into our third decade in business.
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