Seeing Green

Evergreen Pest Solutions co-owners Byron Gifford, Adam Allred and Daniel Stevens all worked together at Eclipse Marketing before launching their pest control company in 2014.

But Gifford’s industry experience goes back much further than that. After going on his religious mission trip, the Brigham Young University graduate knocked on doors in 1996, selling pest control for SalesNet, a vendor partner of Terminix years ago.

He eventually joined Eclipse, which marketed pest control for Orkin, and became an owner of the company.

In the mid-2000s, he also helped found Pointe Pest Control.

But after the 2008 recession, he and his partners sold their Pointe branches, and he left pest control to focus on other industries.

When Gifford, Allred and Stevens started Evergreen, they knew they’d focus on door-to-door sales, since that’s what they knew best.

“Really, our background is the South,” Gifford said. “So we grew our company through door-to-door sales.”

In addition to its Utah headquarters, Evergreen has locations in Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Management says they expect to open a branch in Phoenix this summer.

Evergreen, which debuted on the PCT Top 100 earlier this year at No. 47, also has branches named Greenline Pest Solutions and Greenway Pest Solutions, depending on if there’s another company called Evergreen in the market.

Gifford’s company focuses mainly on residential pest control and is working to “beef up” its mosquito control services. Gifford said termites, too, are going to be a big part of the company’s niche in certain markets such as the Carolinas, Virginia and Alabama. In those states, Gifford said, customers often bundle termite and general pest services.

“We know how to do termite,” Gifford said. “There’s certainly more liability, and it’s a lot different approach than general pest. We haven’t wanted to, in the past, really dive into it, but we’re ready now.”

But Gifford said none of those things are what he thinks sets the company apart.

“What makes us unique is that we have very little employee turnover,” he said. “Our guys love it here. We pay well. We’re growing fast.”

The author is a former associate editor of PCT.