Problems solved with STV - GTN interviews Edwin Allingham

P ro b l em s o lv e d

Each year STV helps millions of people become masters of controlling pests in their homes. Managing Director Edwin Allingham explains how the company has grown since selling its first mouse trap 30 years ago and why he has chosen to freeze prices until February 2023.

During the 1990s, two rooms of Edwin Allingham’s flat in London’s Bethnal Green were filled with mouse traps. An odd choice perhaps in the flat of a journalist but it marked the start of a successful career change resulting in the creation of STV International, one of the country’s leading suppliers in its category. Edwin explains the mouse traps came from an American company from which he bought products that didn’t quite work in the US market. “I filled the bedrooms up with mousetraps, trading them out to hardware stores in and around London. And in the first year, about 30 years ago, business was £76,000. This encouraged me to carry on so I parted with journalism.”

At the time, the UK was experiencing interesting but often difficult times. “We were recovering from the 14 and a half percent interest rates and some really, really difficult times for people. A lot of people were disaffected by the Thatcher years…. there really wasn’t much to lose.”

Skip forward a few years and Edwin had taken on his first employee and moved the business to office space in Highbury. By the early 2000’s STV had moved to a portacabin and former grain store in Norfolk where it remains today. “The site has gradually grown organically and we have another site in nearby Brandon. It really was very humble beginnings, taking years to get to the point where we could employ people, cover the overheads and build distribution. I think most of our customers have spent more years saying ‘no’ to us than ‘yes’, but that’s life, isn’t it?” he says.

As a start-up company, STV benefitted from the period of growth enjoyed within the UK when it came out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. This coincided with the technical revolution and the mass introduction of home computers and use of the web when, says Edwin, “the world became a much smaller place.” This enabled Edwin to communicate and then travel to China where he cultivated some valuable business relationships. “We still trade together today, and they’re important. We also set up an office in the Far East where we have a small team.”

Today the company’s portfolio extends to 275 SKU’s to control rodents and insects with roughly a 60:40 sales split and generating an average of £100,000 per SKU . Based just outside Thetford, its 40,000sqft warehouse and manufacturing facility houses 100 staff across two shifts from 6am-10pm. Plus there is a 60,000sqft showroom in Brandon and space will shortly increase by a further 38,000sqft due to successful planning permission for a new warehouse. This accommodates the more than eight milllion unit sales handled by the company every year.

Edwin believes there are several reasons for the company’s success. “Our business

The production line in full flow.

Alice Consta antin, Production Line Leader ensures a smooth packing line for Ultra Power Fly & Wasp Killer. is customer led,” he says, “and although there is not much that we do in terms of competitive response, we keep a weather eye on what’s going on with other suppliers.” STV’s best product developments are home grown, an example being Ultra Power Fly & Wasp killer in large 600ml cans. “We had the concept, tooled it and originated it. We are having problems keeping up with demand as there is no one else making this in such large cans.” STV’s Ultra Power range also appeals to customers who want something more akin to that used by professionals. “When you want to lock and load and get the job sorted, this is the type of product you need. Our Ultra Power fly trap for example, can hold up to 20,000 flies when its full,” says Edwin.

The brand is now also trusted. “We solve more than 10 million pest control problems every year in UK households, and that’s where you build trust. We’ve built consumables into our product ranges very deliberately trying to hit opening price points and making sure we’re maximising distribution, are cost competitive and affordable. The more touchpoints there are around our brands, the stronger our brands become, because we basically are solving people’s problems.”

STV’s products, whether sold in garden centres, diy or hardward stores, enable customers to take care of their own pest problems without having to call in a professional. Edwin sees this as an important issue as with costs rising, professionals will become even more expensive. As well as partnering with wholesalers Decco, Stax Trade Centres and Home Hardware, STV has a team of 12 calling on garden care buyers at garden retailers and hardware stores building relationships. The company is also trying to break into the dry cleaning market.

Seasonality

Although individual pest groups have their own peak seasons, the STV range means its products can be sold all year round but Edwin sees many UK retailers take pest control off the shop floor in favour of Christmas products. Although he understands why, he says it reduces footfall as people still need pest control. He sees it with his Australian customers. “They are currently in mid-winter and rodent control is up significantly. Our products bring footfall to a fixture in the dark months of the Australian winter when there isn’t a lot of traffic going down the gardening aisle.” He also gets calls from people wanting clothes moth control when they come to getting their jumpers and woollens out of storage for the winter. His suggestion is to move pest control to a less obvious place on the shop floor so it remains available all year round.

When it comes to new products, Edwin has a three-year view. He doesn’t look at sales in year one. In year two he will get an idea whether or not the product is likely to be successful and in year three he can see if it definitely works or not and make a decision on its future.

Poison-free trends

Like many businesses, STV did well during lockdown as people stayed at home and took more notice of the world around them. But increasingly customers are looking for more sympathetic and humane methods of control. “Around 60-70% of our products are poison free and numbers suggest it’s about one in three sales,” says Edwin. “There is a trend here. It’s less pronounced on insect control because you tend to need remedial products. If you’ve got bed bugs for example, you want a quick-fire solution and reluctantly pick up traditional control which tend to be those with registered active ingredients. Certainly with vertebrate controls there’s been a very positive swing away from chemical control.

“Within rodent control we have four headings and they’re quite instructive. You’ve got bait and kill, catch and kill, which are lethal controls and then catch alive and repel. If you look at the millions of pieces of rodent control product we sell, they all subdivide into one of those four headings. Our data captures that as a way of analysing what’s happening, non-lethal is a consistent growth area.”

of rodent control product we sell, they all subdivide into one of those four headings. Our data captures that as a way of analysing business standards. “It won’t happen overnight. I think it will take about 18 months to deliver and we are a few months in already.”

The future

With the extra space from the latest expansion, Edwin believes the company can double its size without having to change premises. The current climate means Edwin is realistic about growth and although he has figures in his head, he says 10% growth is more likely especially if he can keep a tight grip on overheads. “Let’s be honest, we are not going to break any records in the next couple of years.” Even though price rises on most commodities are increasing, Edwin believes there isn’t room for significant price increases for the consumer. “We would normally bring in new season prices in September but will freeze pricing until the end of February. We are also introducing price drops on some of the higher ticket lines as a way of ensuring we continue to build distribution and show value for money where we can,” says Edwin.

The biggest single inflationary cost is going to be energy but as the company runs its warehouses on a biomass boiler and solar energy this should be contained. STV is now also going through the process of gaining B Corp certification, which drives continuous improvement of social and environmental business standards. “It won’t happen overnight. I think it will take about 18 months to deliver and we are a few months in already.”

Edwin Allingham in the warehouse. Edwin Allingham with The Big Cheese and other STV brands.

The name game

Early on Edwin understood the need to brand his products to make them recognisable. He also needed to foster a loyal customer base and encourage repeat sales. “In the early days Proctor Brothers owned a brand called The Little Nipper and I needed something that would compete with that. So I shut myself in a darkened room and came up with The Big Cheese. I registered the name and since then all rodent products have been sold under this brand,” says Edwin.

Ninety percent of the company’s revenue now comes from pest control products. The Big Cheese is the brand for vertebrate controls and Zero In for invertebrates with Ultra Power working across both.