Tony O'Donovan, Head of Pest Control at Tesco (a member of CEPA!) talks to Daniel Schröer on Talking Pest Management.
Tony O’Donovan is one of the many people worldwide that really loves pest control from the bottom of their heart. With over 25 years experience in the industry, he is head of pest control worldwide at Tesco, one of the world’s largest retailers with close to 7,000 stores internationally.
Tony shares with Daniel exclusively, that Tesco has signed a new contract with its service providers for connected pest control technology involving tens of thousands of digital traps in the majority of its estate covering 4,000 stores in the UK for use both inside and out.
This, Tony believes, is the world’s largest contract for connected technology in the world and surely marks the tipping point for digital pest control in our industry.
For his group, data is gold. "We need to know what is going on and why. As a client for pest control services, to understand what is happening, how we can help and how we can do better," Tony explains.
Digital is not a "silver bullet“ and it probably takes significantly more budget for his group, but "somebody had to take the leap of faith.“
Tony is unique in his role too, as he knows the client’s side as well as the pest management and prevention side. Tony predicts that pest control will change from a reactive process to a proactive one. The industry will move away from technicians to auditors. A process of up-skilling – he hopes the industry will change and adopt this new , and so will be seen as a far higher skilled service industry than it is viewed at the moment.