Pest control firm Rentokil sees profits drop by a third due to costs

PEST CONTROL company Rentokil saw its profits drop by nearly a third amid a series of one-off costs, despite its hygiene business booming during the pandemic.

The firm said it had spent millions on acquisitions and integrations, settled some old payrolls in

France, and taken a £2.9m charge for disposing of faulty personal protective equipment.

Pre-tax profit dropped 32 per cent to £229.8m on revenue of £2.8bn, up 4 per cent, Rentokil said. With adjustments to strip out one-off costs, pre-tax profit rose 4.2 per cent to £355.2m.

Chief executive Andy Ransom hailed the hygiene business, which saw revenue boom by 36.8 per cent last year.

It launched disinfection services across the world in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the second quarter of last year, selling deep cleans to businesses.

Disinfection brought in £225.1m in revenue.

Mr Ransom said: “The medium-term prospects for our hygiene business have never looked more promising as the demand for global hygiene services is sustained post the pandemic.”

However, he warned that the good times for the disinfectant business are unlikely to continue in the long term.

“We will continue to provide disinfection services as part of the crisis response, but expect volumes and prices to significantly unwind as the year progresses and the crisis hopefully abates,” he said. However, when stripping out the disinfection unit, ongoing revenue dropped by 4.6 per cent in the hygiene business.

Pest control revenues grew by 1 per cent across the year, as the unit was deemed an essential service.