You kill 10 rats, but there are still two or three more. It's like playing chess: when you make a move, they move.
There are no salespeople in Thomas Fernandez's organisational chart. Not that he regards them as pests, but the managing director of PestBusters, a Singapore pest-control company, sees little need for sales talk to convince his clients to use his services. Word of mouth will do.
"The only salespeople we have are the hotels themselves," Fernandez says. "Because we are able to manage the problem of pests in hotels where others have failed - and every hotel faces this problem - they come to me."
And this poses a problem for PestBusters, which counts many hotels, service apartments, hospitals and condominiums in Singapore among its clientele. It does not have enough trained technicians to take on new jobs. "Here they are giving me a contract and I have to say no. I'd rather say no than to stretch my men and then give bad service," Fernandez says. "So I tell them I will do it, but we need to have more trained people to look into their problem. Some of the hotels have to wait six months."
PestBusters, which Fernandez started in 1991, has grown to become a leading pest-control company in Singapore with regional ambitions. He has a team of 70 technicians and US-trained managers and a fleet of more than 20 vehicles including Volkswagen Beetles painted in the company's corporate colours. "This is good for marketing," he says.
Fernandez' aim is for the company to set the industry standard, which means, among other things, applying new technology and the latest pest-management methods - like making better mousetraps and mosquito traps.
It was the poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote the inspired lines: "If a man makes a better mousetrap... the world will make a beaten path to his door." PestBusters has recently rolled out what it believes is a better mosquito trap that has lured thousands of the pesky bloodsuckers to their doom.
The Mega-Catch, as the trap is called, was developed over two years of rigorous field tests in a tropical environment in partnership with EnviroSafe Technologies, a New Zealand company.
To make it work, PestBusters studied its deadly quarry, responsible for the many dengue cases in Singapore and around the region. It is known that female mosquitoes, which require a blood meal before they can produce eggs, are attracted to carbon dioxide exhaled by humans. The mosquitoes detect their prey as a heat source within three metres. Light also attracts them.
These observations are taken into account in the Mega-Catch, a 50cm x 30cm polypropylene contraption that emits carbon dioxide at controlled intervals, light at a certain frequency and body-temperature heat. Mosquitoes that zero in on the trap, thinking it is a human, are sucked in by a fan (the suction, flow and speed has to be just right) and end up in the bag.
While the Mega-Catch targets all mosquitoes including the Aedes, which spreads dengue, and the nocturnal, malaria-causing Anopheles, it does not attract benign insects such as butterflies, dragonflies and beetles. It is a non-chemical alternative to spraying, which spreads insecticide and harms other insects besides mosquitoes. This is a great satisfaction to Fernandez, who is always mindful of being a "guardian of the environment".
"The launch of the Mega-Catch opens a new market for PestBusters as it does not use harmful chemicals and insecticides, which makes it a viable option for hospitals and child-care centres," says Thomas Goh, senior analyst at Strategic Intelligence, a Singapore research and business information firm.
"In addition, renting out the units for S$180 (US$99) per month provides a steady stream of financial revenue for PestBusters," Goh says.
Professor Yap Han Heng of the Vector Control Research Unit in the Universiti Sains Malaysia says the Mega-Catch "is effective in attracting a large number of predominant mosquito species inclusive of all the major vectors and nuisance mosquitoes".
He had tested the trap during the day for the Aedes species and at night for the Anopheles and Culex species.
It was "by accident" that Fernandez, 46, got a job in a pest-control company after completing his national service stint in 1976. Pest extermination was just another job in those days: chemicals were mixed and sprayed all over. But the pest-control bug got to him. "You get one rat, but find that another has outsmarted you. You kill 10 rats, but there are still two or three more. It's like playing chess: when you make a move, they move," he says, showing the enthusiasm of a man consumed with staying on top of the game. "You use all kinds of chemicals because you have no knowledge, but the cocktail cannot kill them all. You use more chemicals, but you hurt yourself and the environment."
Coming to a realisation that this was no way to get rid of pests, he set himself a challenge: to change the way pest control has been done so that people will pay him for it. In 1983, he went to the United States for a pest-control convention and for training under the wings of Ken Doty, a pest-control expert in Denver, Colorado. "He saw my enthusiasm and was so pleased with me, he wanted to sponsor me for a green card. He was my mentor and through him I met many other experts and consultants," says Fernandez.
Two years later, he got his break when a hotel handed him a contract after an international pest-control company failed to rid it of rats and cockroaches. "I was determined and managed to get rid of the pests," Fernandez says. "Today that hotel (Mandarin Singapore) is so faithful, you can try knocking on their doors, they won't take a chance with you. Because of that success, we now take care of more than 30 hotels."
Jessie Koh, assistant executive housekeeper at Mandarin Singapore, says that the hotel is satisfied with PestBusters as the company has a dedicated team that make daily checks of the hotel.
Over at Westin Plaza, another of PestBuster's clients, however, the pest management contract is "open to tender every two years," says housekeeping manager Ken Wee.
The secret to PestBusters' success is to ensure that the client, from the top management down to the lowest rungs, gives the company their total support. "I have hotels telling me, 'Thomas, no way can we get rid of this problem'. I say to them, 'I can guarantee you that if you guarantee me your support, that your goal is to make sure there are no more cockroaches, we are able to work hand in hand. If you are going to just pay me and not give me your support, then I am unable to deliver.' It takes two," says the soft-spoken Fernandez.
Research plays a vital role in PestBusters' success. In its early years servicing hotels and hospitals in the early 1990s, it faced a major challenge from the German cockroach. The company's study into the problem found that the cockroach was 2,000 times more resistant to chemicals than other bugs. "You spray it, it is dying, but after a while it gets up and walks," Fernandez says. "So I said we can't just rely on chemicals. We put money into research and came up with a baiting system and that solved the cockroach problem."
With an annual turnover of about S$3 million, the company has little profit to show, he says. "If I want good money, I cut R&D and straightaway you see a big profit."
PestBusters has now gone regional, although it "got burned" in its initial partnership forays into Malaysia and Indonesia. "We gave them know-how, but the moment they felt that they didn't need us anymore, they left."
Fernandez took the advice of the Trade Development Board, which suggested that he franchised his business as it was basically transfer of know-how. With franchisees in Cambodia and Vietnam now, PestBusters is hoping to expand to Malaysia and Indonesia.
Consultant Albert Kong of Franchise Development Services, says a franchise such as PestBusters' can thrive overseas provided it is "properly managed, with the right resources in place, especially in terms of the management team providing the support to properly selected franchisees, plus the serious commitment from both sides".
Research analyst Goh sees value in branding and marketing in franchising as PestBusters can "build a coherent brand, and leverage its goodwill with its customers across different countries".
What PestBusters is looking for in franchisees are hands-on owner-operators who will stay on in the business, not owners who employ managers who might then quit.
After more than 20 years in business, Fernandez made the honour roll as one of the 10 finalists in the Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2001 organised by Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in Singapore in August.
Asked if he is an entomologist, Fernandez says: "I am not an entomologist, but I employ one. He is more important than me to make sure my clients stay with me." But not the pests. And it remains to be seen whether customers will start beating a path to PestBusters' doors. Who you gonna call?
PestBusters
140 Paya Lebar Road
#08-08 A-Z Building
Singapore 409015
Tel: (65) 288-2828
Fax: (65) 748-7388