GETTING THE BUGS OUT
‘Little Man’ Heads Up Western Exterminator Family
By SAMANTHA LEE
He’s probably the most recognizable member of the family.
Van Halen put him on concert T-shirts. 20th Century Fox used him in a scene from the film “Die Hard.” And you can’t miss him on billboards as you drive along Orange County freeways.
His name is Kernel Kleenup, though he’s affectionately known as the “Little Man.” The top hat-wearing mascot has brought attention to Anaheim-based Western Exterminator Co., which was started 80 years ago with $25 by Swedish immigrant Carl Strom.
These days, Western Exterminator counts annual sales of about $130 million with 37 offices in California, Nevada and Arizona. The company calls itself one of the country’s largest family-run pest control businesses.
Last week, Western received the large business award at the Business Journal’s second annual Family Owned Business Awards luncheon in Irvine.
Founder Strom kept it in the family. His brother-in-law, Ray Lovejoy, became a partner in the late 1920s. Through the decades, the family brought on outside managers, but descendents of Strom and Lovejoy still own the majority of the company and sit on its board.
Roy Ashton, the company’s vice chairman who started with Western in 1956, said Strom thought of the business as a family.
“If anyone had a problem, Carl always wanted to help,” Ashton said.
Strom’s son, Robert “Bob” Strom, 74, is vice president and a board member. Carl Strom’s nephew, John “Ole” Anderson, 74, is chairman. Lovejoy’s son, Richard, 77, is secretary, treasurer and a board member.
Anita Blanchard, Carl Strom’s niece, and Luann Furman, Lovejoy’s granddaughter, also sit on the board.
Carl Strom led the company until he died in a 1961 plane crash. With the help of Bob Strom and Lovejoy, Strom’s wife Daisy served as president until she died in 1992.
Strom and Lovejoy said they recalled helping seal cans of ant pesticide as kids in Carl Strom’s Los Angeles factory.
According to Bob Strom, Carl once told him and Lovejoy that working together is like being married.
“And we’ve acted like it ever since,” Bob Strom said with a laugh. “We always manage to come to a consensus.”
A big shift came in 1973, when Western moved from Los Angeles to Orange County.
At that time, vice chairman Ashton, then a service manager, was named general manager. He later went on to serve as president.
“The owners were still involved in day-to-day operations, but it was the first time professional management took over,” company spokeswoman Nancy Ringman said.
Expanding beyond family wasn’t an issue, according to Bob Strom.
“We just felt he was the best man for the job,” he said of Ashton.
The company went outside the family again in 2000 when it named Michael Katz as president. Katz joined when Western purchased another family-run pesticide company, Bowyer and Hudson, in 1979.
“I was a little worried at first,” Katz said. “I wasn’t family, and they didn’t owe me anything.”
But Katz said a big bear hug from Bob Strom on his first day made him feel at home.
“This particular family business really manages to stick together and separate any family issues they have,” Katz said.
Third generation members also fill the company’s ranks. Chairman Anderson’s son, Tom, is a customer-service manager. The chairman’s son-in-law, Guy Young, is the company’s fleet manager.
Bob Strom has two sons in the business: Michael, who produces the company’s educational videos; and Chris, who works in the commercial division.
The family business has started to trickle down to a fourth generation. Young’s son Ryan, 22, works part time for his father’s fleet department while attending college.
The company’s business is 60% residential pest control, 40% commercial. Western employs more than 1,000 people companywide and handles 80,000 customers monthly, according to officials.
Through the years, Western has expanded into food safety, an outgrowth of its commercial division. The company offers classes on food safety as well as food processing audits. Clients include major restaurants and supermarkets.
According to Katz, Western is looking to expand into other areas, including bird management services. Last year, Western acquired a bird control business, he said.
Western itself gets about four buyout offers per year, according to Katz. But selling hasn’t been a consideration, he said.
“There’s just too much pride in this company to even consider an offer,” Katz said.
The company recently moved from a 10,000-square-foot space to a 25,000-square-feet building in Anaheim.
“The new facilities will suit our needs and allow for growth for the future,” Katz said.
An eight-foot statue of Kernel Kleenup is set to sit in the new building’s lunch patio. Kernel Kleenup got his name in the 1960s after Western held a naming contest. The mascot came about in 1931 after a phone directory salesman offered to have a logo created for Carl Strom and Ray Lovejoy if they took out an ad.
