Anticipating rising demand for pest control services due to growing urbanisation and increasing awareness on health and safety, urban pest management services company Hicare has laid a road map to reach out to untapped segments.“The opportunity is huge. Markets in western and southern parts of India are growing fast followed by northern and eastern parts. We aim to grow our revenue 4-5 fold in five years. We have plans to increase the number of company owned and franchise owned service centres to reach out to our customers,” said company COO Joydeep Sarkar.
Hicare, having 15-20 per cent share in the domestic organised pest control services market, is backed by private equity firm India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA) and A. Mahendran, former Managing Director of Godrej Consumer Products. The company’s institutional customers include the Parliament House, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad airports. Its residential customers are spread across 50 cities.
“We strictly enforce standard guidelines as per government regulations to ensure the highest level of safety. To address the increasing security concern, we have initiated background verification for all its frontline employees. This is why people prefer our services,” Mr. Sarkar said.
Hicare has tied up with e-commerce firm Snapdeal where people can buy its service online.
“Consumers looking out for pest control always face a challenge to find out the right pest management service provider due to accessibility issue. Due to changing lifestyle, consumers look for convenience. They want to complete tasks on the go. With this tie-up, the hassles of finding out the right service provider ends at a click of a button. It’s going to be as easy as buying any other product,” Mr. Sarkar said adding that this would help the company reach out to customers across the country.
The pest management services segment, growing at double digits, is estimated at around Rs.1,500 crore, out of which organised players control about 30 per cent of the market.
