Smithereen, in its 118th. year of service is more progressive and dynamic than ever before. Corporate management has initiated many aggressive directives in 2006 committing itself to growth and success. Serving in my third year as Vice-President I am extremely excited to share these goals and achievements with our customers and employees who make it all possible.

Smithereen’s differentiation from other pest control firms starts at its basic business structure. We are a privately held corporation but more importantly we are entirely self-financed. Smithereen is beholding to no bank or lending institution. Through a long history of success and wise investment, today’s Smithereen has the ability to self finance capital improvements, business purchases and training initiatives. This allows the upper management team to focus on our customers and our employees. This further enables Smithereen to take full advantage of growth opportunities.

Continuing to examine the design of our firm, the lack of bureaucracy sets Smithereen apart from our competitors. Our front line managers are only one management level away from our Vice Presidents. In fact our Vice Presidents stay active in building customer relations and leading the services we provide. This affords Smithereen the unique ability to respond to customer needs faster than our competition. Most importantly, these factors contribute to Smithereen's ability to adjust and adapt to changes in the pest control industry quickly.

In the first quarter 2006 Smithereen was able to quickly and smoothly transition its corporate headquarters and northern Chicago service operation to a new headquarters in Niles. This was orchestrated over one weekend and speaks volumes towards the organization, planning, leadership and dedication of Smithereens staff.

Smithereen is preparing itself for success in specific markets. New employess, Jesse Greene and Andy Novinger have both been brought onboard to help achieve growth and solve the most challenging pest problems. Andy Novinger, Smithereen’s Technical Director, holds a Masters of Biology from Loyola University Chicago specializing in Entomology. He also has a strong teaching background serving as a teaching assistant at Loyola University, teaching Entomology and environmental biology. His position allows him to utilize all aspects of his training and education to the benefit of our employees and customers. He has developed a challenging and aggressive training program. His problem solving skills are utilized to solve many difficult pest problems our competitors may not be able to address. Jesse Green comes to Smithereen with a history of success in the challenging food service pest control market.  Throughout his career Jesse has been instrumental in solving difficult pest problems for some of Chicago’s most sensitive restaurants and food service locations. He will be bringing his expertise and leadership to Smithereens downtown office serving as Operations Manager.     

In 2006 Smithereen has initiated a specialized sales training curriculum in partnership with Excite Facilitation and Coaching. Steve Seifert, from Excite has designed a holistic aggressive program not just focused at the sales team but our management staff as well. Selling our service requires the commitment of the entire staff not just one sales person. We have dedicated Smithereen to proper account planning. This Proactive sales approach leads to the successful transition of large accounts by identifying their business needs, then directing our efforts towards specific solutions.

2006 will also mark the launch of a exciting new website for Smithereen. Smithereen.com will serve as a point of contact for current customers and as a relationship building tool for perspective clients to learn about our company and our services. In conjunction with this July launch, Smithereen will be sponsoring the yacht, Pied Piper in many sailing and promotional events around the Chicago waterfront to peak interest and generate visits to the new website. For the past 20 years Pied Piper has been the premier racing sail boat in Chicago. With an impressive race history on the Great Lakes including 7 first to finish runs in the prestigious Chicago to Mackinac Island Race, Smithereen is extremely excited about this unique promotion.

Smithereen is uniquely positioned in the pest control industry. We have the most talented staff and the most effective business structure to deliver success. I am looking forward to the future at Smithereen and building upon this organizations tradition of excellence.

Sincerely,
Jack Jennings
Vice President, Smithereen Pest Management