Pacific Sweeping, Industry Leader in Southern California

Pacific Sweeping, INDUSTRY LEADER IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BY BOBBI JACKSON

Pacific Sweeping provides power sweeping and power washing for more than 30 cities across five counties in southern California. The service cleans a staggering 350,000 miles of roadways and 15,000 parking lots per year. The company’s clients include Cal Trans, counties, utility companies, service providers for public events, and various government construction projects, and government agencies such as the City of San Diego, the State of California, the U.S. Navy Shipyards, and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Lee Miller, President, and CEO of Pacific Sweeping, is currently a Board Member of NAPSA, and he has served as an Advisory Board Member for California State University (Dominguez Hills), and Cal State Fullerton and he served on the board of the local MSA (Maintenance Superintendent’s Association for many years.

MOVE FROM PUBLIC WORKS MANAGEMENT TO PRIVATE SECTOR

Founded 45 years ago in 1968, the company started as Cannon Pacific Services. In 2013, Miller changed the name to Pacific Sweeping, to better signify the kind of service the company provides. Lee came into the business in 2007 with a B.A. in Public Administration/Organizational Management and an MDE in entrepreneurial studies from UCLA. For the 15 years before becoming an owner of Pacific Sweeping, he had managed three local cities’ government public works operations for southern California’s public works department. There, he had overseen public works maintenance operations, which included contracting for all facets of roadway cleaning, public facilities repair, and related services. When Lee was invited by Cannon’s owners to take a look at the business, he had been contemplating an exit from the municipal world. He agreed to come on board with Cannon as an equity partner and began running the company. He bought out one of the other two partners in 2009, and the other in 2011, making him the sole owner.

ORGANIC AND STRATEGIC GROWTH

Miller performed a major restructuring of Pacific’s operations, leading to a growth of more than 300%. When he came on board in 2007, the company employed 16, most of whom were in one county and still work for the company today. He reflects on the company’s evolution, “Over the years, we’ve grown both organically and by careful strategic design.” Lee goes on to explain, “At our peak, we had 57 employees. Recently, we’ve scaled back to 46. Sales are down about 15% due to the pandemic. Municipal budgets have been shrinking due to lost sales taxes, and shopping centers are being closed. We’ve grown steadily between 2% - 8% each year up to now. This is the first year we’re experiencing zero growth.” In the broader view, today the company has nearly 50 pieces of equipment servicing five counties, making Pacific Sweeping the largest privately owned and operated business of its kind in the region. Lee attributes Pacific’s continuously strong growth over the past decade to his customers’ confidence in his team’s consistency in delivering quality work within their budgets. The company has made some small strategic acquisitions. Lee recounts his process, “We’ve ventured into new counties by gaining a beachhead in each one, winning a large contract and then building a volume of accounts around those.” The company now has six satellite locations, complete with supervision on each of those sites.

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He notes that the company had done some weed abatement and landscaping tasks in the past, but found that that service market was “ultra-competitive,” so they decided not to pursue it. He said they also considered

road and parking lot repair work as an additional revenue channel. But, Lee commented, “Everybody in Southern California is in pavement repair, so we just stay in our lane.” There are 40-50 service vehicle drivers in the field, on average, and the mobile team of six mechanics. An administrative team of Each location is fully selfsix people handles all the sufficient, with the main The company’s management and business central facility handling Business Development functions of the company. all equipment repairs in the mechanics’ shop. The Manager, Rosio Vitela, Lee’s son, Hayden Miller, is Pacific Sweeping’s VP of 10,000-square-foot central makes cold calls and Operations and Fleet. He is facility maintains a full array networks in the business an expert in diesel mechanics of parts in its inventory center. There’s a mobile community and trade and is professionally trained in management and supervision. team of six repair mechanics, associations. He handles all operations. Lee for on-site repairs when says his role in the company necessary. these days is about half-time in the office and half PACIFIC SWEEPING BUSINESS MODEL in the field, doing primarily executive-level work, The company provides municipalities, construction negotiating big contracts, and guiding the vision and project managers, HOAs, and commercial customers culture of the company. with contract pavement cleaning as well as on-call and PACIFIC MARKETING, BRANDING, AND SALES emergency services. Lee provides a picture of the sales operation at Pacific, Breaking down the business model, Lee explained, “We have a dedicated business development manager “About 80% of our work is municipal, 15% is private who oversees the sales department. Her role is primarily and HOA work and the remaining 5% is parking lots, to seek out and network with potential large customers. pressure washing, and construction sweeping.” The We have a CSR (customer service representative) who company has special equipment for construction, takes all incoming calls that are urgent service requests. primarily mechanical broom sweepers, and truck He performs in the sales role on all of those calls. My types especially suited for municipal street sweeping role in the sales process is to review contracts and to and parking lot sweeping, as well as power-washing ensure that we can meet specifications and pricing equipment. commitments.”

The company’s Business Development Manager, Rosio Vitela, makes cold calls and networks in the business community and trade associations. The company also subscribes to a couple of government contract bid services. She also reaches out and investigates and pursues those opportunities. Lee expressed, “Rosio has been with the company for nearly 15 years and does a fantastic job at promoting Pacific Sweeping and its brand.” He estimates that about 50% of the company’s revenues are generated from sales efforts, around 25% from repeat business, and about 25% from referrals. “We provide monthly service to about 450 active accounts, but have around 2,000 that we provide service as needed.” The sales and marketing team utilizes a database with outreach activities. Lee notes, “We outsource the online and the email campaign to Rick Brown at the

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Karcher Group. They’re doing fantastic work and they are continually updating our website and managing our email campaign.” He has rebranded the business in the last 10 years. It was known as Cannon Pacific Services for many years. He explains that since the rebranding, the company has registered the new name, Pacific Sweeping, and has registered and promoted its great tagline, “A cleaner road will follow.” Lee points out that an inherent marketing benefit of being in the municipal street sweeping industry is that the large expensive equipment is present throughout the area, projecting the company’s professional image. Pacific Sweeping additionally utilizes the national service alliance 1-800-Sweeper, to generate new revenue sources and participate in the 1-800-Sweeper buying group where he saves thousands each year on routine items they would be purchasing anyway.

PACIFIC SWEEPING DISTINGUISHED RFP RESPONSE

On Lee’s practical view of his company’s position in the regional market of municipal sweeping prospects, the advantage for Pacific is that city decisionmakers are inclined to prefer working with reputable established vendors. In keeping with that reputation, he approaches contract bidding with an attitude of helping cities devise their specifications for street sweeping services in ways that most appropriately reflect the realities of the industry. He is quoted in another interview (linked below) explaining that cities hire street sweeping based on either the best price or best value. To obtain the best value requires bidders to develop a meaningful response to a municipality’s request for proposal (RFP). Lee’s RFP experience in public works oversight affords him a unique perspective from so much experience on both sides of the proposition. His ability to think as an advocate for the city and to customize the bid for each city’s particular needs has produced exceptional results for Pacific in the RFP arena. Some of the matters Pacific’s bidding process includes in discussion with city representatives are sweeping regulations, storm run-off guidelines, routing, equipment changes, service frequency, and air quality

management. Pacific’s business development manager also lets’ decision-makers know what the company is

doing in the surrounding municipalities and why they’re doing it. Lee finds that cities are very interested in such discussions because most want their cities to be current with industry standards and trends, and they want to be paying a fair price. Lee is proud of his company’s “Dirt Free Guarantee.” The He points out that various levels of customer service language of the guarantee is posted on the company’s mean varying pricing levels. For customers who require website. It simply assures customers that if they are more rapid response times, the higher degrees of dissatisfied with their service for any reason, they reactiveness naturally must be can contact Pacific within a reflected in pricing. The Pacific field services reasonable timeframe and receive a re-servicing of the CULTURE OF SERVICE AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY team reports on every area until it meets with their MANAGEMENT Pacific Sweeping was one of the first companies in the curb mile they sweep, providing critical data to satisfaction. The guarantee emphasizes the company’s goal of bringing country to adopt the newly help cities improve customers to have confidence comprised ANSI standards for effectiveness... that the quality and the value the power sweeping industry. As to be expected from a ... of the service they receive from Pacific Sweeping is superior to business that has risen to such a challenge, Pacific’s team all competitors. adheres to stringent internal quality requirements. As a NAPSA Board Member, Lee Miller’s role is to provide “We have a Safety and Quality Control coordinator, who his insights and direction to the national association and spot checks service calls to ensure quality control. He to collaborate with industry members to educate on also serves as our safety coordinator. His role is to review excellence in power sweeping operations. So, it makes dashcam footage and GPS data, and resolve issues in sense that he strives to maintain NAPSA’s high standards the field and ensure a safety culture.” Lee goes on to throughout his organization. emphasize, Lee discusses Pacific’s historically very low turnover Every employee is an inspector in this business, and rates, in contrast to the current situation in 2020, “We everyone is selling. have had problems since the onset of the pandemic If we see something out of the ordinary, we have a very finding people looking for work. We have had to hire strong team of operators and support employees to three new people, and it took some time.” manage it.” He attributes the company’s low turnover to, The Pacific field services team reports on every curb “our culture and the stability the business offers to mile they sweep, providing critical data to help the cities employees. We call ourselves customer- and employeethey serve to improve the effectiveness of their street centric.” He clarifies that that means the leadership team maintenance programs. is not focused so much on the business as they are on

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the needs of the customers and employees. They seem to reason, and rightly so, that focus on those is the key to the success of the business. federal environmental rules and regulations. In all functions of the business, the Pacific team takes pride in working with the community to help promote the health of the state’s waterways and the Pacific Ocean, after which the company takes its name.

EMPHASIS ON TEAM BUILDING AND TRAINING

The exceptional extent of team-building and staff

training at Pacific captured our attention. Scrolling through the company’s Facebook page reveals an elevated commitment to team development. The page is packed with images that would excite any talented business manager, pictures of one after another training session, team training meeting, team

certification event, etc. For just one example, the colorful photos of the company’s annual Division 1 meeting to discuss vehicle inspections, technology use, and work quality, and to conduct safety training, portrays the company’s

ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

investment in robust training and information sharing One thing that stands practices. out about Pacific The post also mentions Sweeping leadership is The company maintains milestones recognized by the Lee Miller’s consistently a fleet of modern, division. Accomplishments expressed commitment low-emissions commercial depicted include pictures of the to environmental conscientiousness and industrial sweeper division’s Certified Sweeping Operator program graduates. throughout all facets of the trucks and half its fleet runs The post also featured the business’s operations. The on alternative fuel. group’s celebration of its lowest company maintains a fleet of modern, low-emissions ... worker’s compensation incident rate in the past 15 years! And, commercial and industrial sweeper trucks and half its there was mention of the great barbeque the company fleet runs on alternative fuel. hosted for the Division 1 team. The company also subscribes to management best Posts on the Facebook page also announce Pacific’s practices for the sweeper industry and promotes those upcoming Division 2,3,4 and 5 annual meetings. principles to all its customers. The Pacific team strives The company additionally conducts two annual allto meet the state’s tough CARB regulations, NPDES employee meetings, which the pandemic has affected. requirements, and the gamut of other local, state, and Since in-person meetings are not allowed under state

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