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  • The ServiceMaster Company, LLC Reports Preliminary Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2013 Financial Results

    27 Feb 2014 8:23 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    The ServiceMaster Company, LLC Reports Preliminary Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2013 Financial Results

    Fourth-Quarter 2013

    • Revenue increased 6% to $713 million
    • Pre-tax net loss of $23 million; 11% decline versus prior year
    • Adjusted EBITDA(1) increased 9% to $90 million

    Full-Year 2013

    • Revenue of $3.2 billion was flat to prior year; 8% revenue decline at TruGreen offset 4% growth in remaining businesses
    • Pre-tax net loss of $627 million included $673 million of non-cash goodwill and trade name impairment charges related to TruGreen in second-quarter 2013
    • Adjusted EBITDA decreased $95 million to $476 million; $127 million decline at TruGreen more than offset growth in the remaining businesses
    • Company completed the spin-off of the TruGreen business from the ServiceMaster portfolio on January 14, 2014

    February 27, 2014 // Franchising.com // MEMPHIS, TENN - The ServiceMaster Company, LLC, one of the world’s largest residential and commercial service networks, today announced preliminary unaudited fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 results. The company reported fourth-quarter 2013 revenue of $713 million, an increase of approximately 6 percent compared to the same period in 2012. The company reported full-year 2013 revenue of $3.2 billion, relatively flat compared to the same period in 2012.

    The company reported a fourth-quarter 2013 pre-tax net loss of $23 million, versus a pre-tax net loss of $20 million one year ago. The company reported a full-year 2013 pre-tax loss of $627 million. This compares to a pre-tax loss of $827 million one year ago. Both periods included goodwill and trade name impairment charges at TruGreen, $673 million in 2013 and $909 million in 2012.

    The company reported fourth-quarter 2013 Adjusted EBITDA of $90 million, an increase of $8 million compared to the same period in 2012. The increase was primarily driven by the impact of higher revenue in fourth-quarter 2013 and lower claims costs at American Home Shield, partially offset by higher selling expenses to drive growth, primarily at American Home Shield and discrete charges at Terminix. The company reported full-year 2013 Adjusted EBITDA of $476 million, $95 million lower compared to one year ago, driven by the $127 million Adjusted EBITDA decline at TruGreen, which more than offset the Adjusted EBITDA increase in the remaining businesses. A reconciliation of net loss to Adjusted EBITDA is set forth below in this press release.

    "Excluding TruGreen, our fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 financial results for the remaining portfolio met our expectations," said Rob Gillette, ServiceMaster’s chief executive officer. "We’re pleased that Terminix, American Home Shield and ServiceMaster Clean all reported full-year 2013 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth versus prior year."

    The separation of the TruGreen business from ServiceMaster as a tax-free spin-off of TruGreen through a pro rata dividend to the stockholders of ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc., was completed on January 14, 2014.

    "This separation should enable ServiceMaster to concentrate on growth and realize our full potential faster," said Gillette. "We believe the future for the remaining ServiceMaster portfolio is compelling. We have great businesses and great people, and we’re committed to taking the steps necessary to continue to drive both revenue and bottom-line growth."

    Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2013 Earnings Conference Call

    The company will discuss its fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 operating results during a conference call at 8 a.m. central time today. To participate on the conference call, interested parties should call 800.732.5617 (or international participants, 212.231.2902). Additionally, the conference call will be available via webcast. A slide presentation highlighting the company’s results and key performance indicators will also be available. To participate via webcast and view the slide presentation, visit the company’s investor relations home page at www.servicemaster.com.

    The call will be available for replay until March 27, 2014. To access the replay of this call, please call 800.633.8284 and enter reservation number 21707691 (international participants: 402.977.9140, reservation number 21707691). Or you can review the webcast on the company’s investor relations home page.
    For full segment review and forward-looking statements, please visit the Investor section at ServiceMaster.com.

    About ServiceMaster

    With a global network of more than 7,000 company-owned, franchised and licensed locations, Memphis-based ServiceMaster is one of the world’s largest residential and commercial service networks. The company’s high-profile brands are Terminix, American Home Shield, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec. Through approximately 13,000 company associates and a franchise network that we estimate independently employs over 31,000 additional people, the ServiceMaster family of brands provided services and products to approximately 5 million customers during the last 12 months. The company’s market-leading brands provide a range of residential and commercial services including termite and pest control; home warranties and preventative maintenance contracts; on-site wood  repair; home inspections; home cleaning;  services; and disaster restoration. Go to www.servicemaster.com for more information about ServiceMaster or follow us at twitter.com/ServiceMaster or facebook.com/TheServiceMasterCo.

    SOURCE ServiceMaster

  • An angel helps a hoarder clean up

    19 Feb 2014 6:17 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)
    Piles of debris obscured most of Arturo Gavilanes' living room at his home on Pacific SW. Friends say they did not know Gavilanes was a hoarder because he had not allowed anybody inside his home for decades. (Courtesy of Lupe Lopez Haynes)
    Piles of debris obscured most of Arturo Gavilanes' living room at his home on Pacific SW. Friends say they did not know Gavilanes was a hoarder because he had not allowed anybody inside his home for decades. (Courtesy of Lupe Lopez Haynes)
    By 
    PUBLISHED: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 12:05 am

    They couldn’t find him.

    Arturo Gavilanes, 80, has been a frequent sight around the Barelas neighborhood for most of his life. He eats breakfast at the Red Ball Cafe or Juanita’s on Fourth Street, eats lunch at the senior center on Seventh Street. He rummages through trash cans in the alleys and hauls the treasures he finds to his small adobe home on Pacific SW.

    At least they were treasures to him.

    His back is stooped, but his mind is still sharp, particularly when it comes to the chronology of his life – the year his family moved into the Pacific home (1956), the year he quit work as a cook for an airline catering service to care for his dying mother (1984), the year he met Lupe Lopez Haynes, who became the angel in his life (2003). More at source: ABQ Journal    Find a cleaning service near you. 





  • Charleston council to consider contract for janitorial services

    19 Feb 2014 6:14 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)
    CHARLESTON undefined City council members are scheduled to vote on three agenda items during their meeting tonight.

    A resolution authorizing the execution of a contract for janitorial services with Excel Carpet Care is slated for a vote.

    Mayor Larry Rennels said Excel Carpet Care has been providing services for the city for a few years and this is a resolution to continue those services in the Lincoln Douglas Debate museum, the Charleston Police Department training facility, the CPD building, the municipal building and at the recreation department.

    If the contract with Excel Carpet Care is renewed, it will cost the city a little more than $2,000 per month for cleaning and maintaining the buildings.

    In other business, council members are slated to look at a resolution authorizing the waiver of the bidding process for the purchase of lime from a single-source vendor.

    More at source: Journal Gazette

  • Self-cleaning solar panels reflect a brighter future

    13 Feb 2014 8:41 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    SLICK3

    ToyotaUK/FLICKR

    Solar panels collect dust, dirt and snow. But solar panels coated with a superhydrophobic coating could shed build-up for a self-cleaning surface.


    A slick technology for the solar power industry was announced this week by a group of national laboratory.

    The scientists have developed an inexpensive “superhydrophobic” coating that, applied to solar panels, would make them self-cleaning and therefore more efficient.

    The superhydrophobic coating has been in the works for a year and a half, said Scott Hunter, the principle scientist on the team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. 

    Although superhydrophobic materials have been studied for over a decade, Hunter said he believes his team has developed the best superhydrophobic surface yet for self-cleaning.

    “It’s a really useful and important idea,” said Alex Martinson, an assistant chemist in the material science division at Argonne National Laboratory southwest of Chicago. As the price of producing solar technology decreases, the costs of installing and cleaning solar panels becomes more significant, Martinson said. Solar panels that would be self-cleaning “makes the whole system more affordable,” he said.
    More at source: News Medhill
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  • 40 jobs swept away as cleaning product company moves

    13 Feb 2014 8:39 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)
    Caldrea, the cleaning products business that was founded in Minnesota, is moving its operations to Wisconsin.

    The Business Journal reports that S.C. Johnson & Son, which bought the Minneapolis-based company six years ago, made the decision as part of the restructuring of the privately held company.

    MinnPost explains that Caldrea produces the Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day line of eco-friendly household cleaning products sold across the United States, including at Target and True Value.

    More at source: Bring Me The News

  • Are cleaners cleaning up too much?

    04 Feb 2014 8:28 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)
    A reader in California decided to hire professionals to help keep her house clean. She made a verbal agreement with a husband-and-wife team to clean her house every other week. She writes that they told her the fee would be $30 an hour for a two-hour session.

    The couple arrived and cleaned her house within an hour. The reader had already made a check out to them prior to their service for $60.
    "I gave them the check with no discussion about the shortened time," she writes. "The next time they came, it was the same scenario. Again, they accepted the check without question or discussion."

    Now, the reader is a bit flummoxed. She wants to know how to handle the situation when the cleaning crew returns.

    "If they only clean for one hour, I feel their pay should be for an hour's worth of work," she writes. "If they want to get paid for two hours, I feel they should be working in my house for two hours."

    More at source: Chicago Tribune

  • Knoxville janitorial workers caught in the middle of dispute with no paychecks

    04 Feb 2014 8:25 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    KNOXVILLE (WATE) - A group of women who work for a local janitorial service are asking where their money is.

    It's been a frustrating two weeks for the women. Since they live paycheck to paycheck, missing a payday or two hurts.

    We usually don't see them working, but big department stores will have a cleaning crew that comes in early before the store opens.

    Most of the time, the crew works part-time and are paid minimum wage every two weeks.

    The women 6 On Your Side talked with were last paid at the end of December.

    "We worked, we continued working up until Sunday," said Karla Hood.

    Hood is referring to Sunday, January 26. That's when her supervisor Danielle Parker and coworker Lizabeth Hutchins stopped working for a local independent cleaning service that has janitorial crews at two Belk stores in Knoxville.

    "Everybody had their own position. You had a bathroom person who also did the doorways," said Parker.

    "We did bathrooms, mop, sweep, stock," said Hutchins.

    The women worked part time, seven days a week, three to four hours a day. They received paychecks in the middle and end of December, but none since. They say they were supposed to be paid on January 15.

    More at source: Wate.com

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  • Cleaner charged with tax evasion

    29 Jan 2014 6:54 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)
    CAMDENundefinedA Medford resident and owner of several commercial cleaning businesses entered a plea of not guilty after being arraigned on Jan. 16 on charges of tax evasion and failing to pay payroll taxes, authorities said.

    Zenon Rotuski, 66, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 18 on one count of employment tax evasion and five counts of failing to pay over payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), officials said.

    “As we approach this year’s tax filing season, this indictment is a reminder that business owners have a responsibility to withhold income taxes for their employees and remit those taxes to the Internal Revenue Service,” stated Shantelle P. Kitchen, special agent in charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Newark Field Office. “The failure to withhold and pay over employment taxes is a very serious offense that will not be tolerated.”
    More at source: South Jersey Local News

  • Emergency cleaning company buys new building for expansion

    29 Jan 2014 6:53 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    A local emergency clean-up company purchased a larger building in Moraine to make room for growth in the company.

    PuroClean Emergency Services, currently located at 2500 Stanley Ave. in Dayton, purchased the buildings at 2023 and 2029 Edgefield Road. The building, sold byKaplan University, was 18,000 square feet, with a 5,000-square-foot annex building.

    The company’s investment in owning its own real estate will put life into a long-vacant building in Moraine, which is starting to see a renewal of business interest from companies taking advantage of its proximity to Interstate 75.

    More at source: Biz Journals

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  • Cleaning tips to avoid flu, norovirus

    25 Jan 2014 8:12 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    PORTLAND, Ore. – The Influenza and norovirus season is in full swing, and health officials say cleaning your home is part of the defense you need to put up to fight getting sick.

    The flu virus can live a day or two on surfaces in your home. The tougher norovirus can survive up to two weeks, according to Tri-County Health Officer Justin Denny, MD, with the Multnomah County Health Department.

    “It’s likely to be spread in your household; it’s hard not to. Typically every one [norovirus] case causes two more, and if you don’t clean up causes 14 more. That’s why cleanup is so important,” said Denny.

    Fortino Barajas says his Maids by Trade cleaning service is busy right now, with clients wanting a good cleaning after viruses infected their homes.

    “It’s very common this time of the year. We get a lot of calls for that type of cleaning,” said Barajas.

    He recommended, along with a complete cleaning, that residents focus on door knobs and handles, kitchen and bathroom areas and play areas.

    Denny said bleach is required to kill the tougher norovirus. He said to use from five tablespoons to two cups of bleach for every gallon of water, depending on the surface you are cleaning.

    “Any beddings have to go in the washing machine right away with bleach or high temperature. That’s the only way to kill it,” Denny added.

    The flu virus is more fragile and can be killed with non-chlorine cleaners. With both illnesses, health experts say you need to stay home if you’re sick, because person-to-person contact is the most common way for illness to spread.


    More at source: KGW.com

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