Top 100 Silver Anniversary!

The past six months have been a fun trip down memory lane for the PCT staff as we prepared for this special 25th anniversary issue of the Top 100. I’ve “known” the list longer than I’ve known my kids (one of whom is now in college), so let’s go ahead and get that weird “time flies” fact out of the way.

A little history about how this list came about: In 1997, PCT’s sister publication, Lawn & Landscape, published its first Top 50, a list of the industry’s largest landscape contractors. After witnessing the popularity of that project (and how it morphed into the Top 100), we decided to give it a shot in our market. In 2001, we started collecting data. Subscribers were contacted throughout the year, and every reader received the form on their September 2001 issue. That still happens today (although the form is on our January issues).

While that part of the process remains the same, there are many more pieces that have changed throughout the years due to changes in technology. I went back into our archives to read my ViewPoint column in that first Top 100 issue, which was published in January 2002. Regarding how we gathered information about companies, I wrote, “We visited our local library and researched numerous volumes of Dun & Bradstreet to secure additional revenue data and cross check our numbers.” We also “faxed forms to hundreds of subscribers.”

After apparently sorting through reams of paper, our staff compiled the first PCT Top 100. The 100th company on that inaugural list (there was actually a tie for the final spot) earned revenues of $2.6 million. The first Top 100 cover story package included only the list and five pages of company profiles. (There was no Top 100 poster back then since the fold-out piece we hang on our walls now didn’t appear until the 10th anniversary in 2011.)

As the years went on, we knew we didn’t want to only feature company profiles. It was important to the success of the project that our content speaks to everyone in the industry, not just those on the Top 100. We do that by featuring articles about building a business, coverage of mergers and acquisitions news, and articles about changing industry trends. That edict especially comes to life in this month’s coverage: this issue has two Top 100-related posters (the list and a special anniversary map) plus 35 pages of editorial content.

Of course 25 years of technology makes a difference in how you do things as well. I encourage you to read “Taking Stock, Charging Forward”, in which we take a look at major trends that have shaped the industry and Top 100 companies over the past quarter century.

Want even more compelling content? There’s so much more online — things we can’t do in print — so please click this QR code to see all the digital elements our team has been working on the past few months. On our website we have a racing bar chart that shows how the Top 15 pest control companies have changed position during the last 25 years; an interactive map that features the locations of each of the Top 100 firms, including all of the demographic data included on the list and live links to each of their websites; a video of all PCT Top 100 covers from the last 25 years; a list of all of the companies who have ever been on the Top 100 (more than 275!); video interviews with PMPs on the list; and more.

One final note about this special anniversary issue. While we often tout all the things we can do online that we can’t do in print, if you’re holding the magazine in your hands right now, this issue is a great example of something we can do in print but not digitally. Print readers can see how we’ve highlighted our silver anniversary on the cover this month via a special foil treatment. It’s an exciting detail for our team because it’s the first time the PCT logo has been on the cover in any color other than red. This cover had to be sent to our printer weeks in advance, and we contracted with a specialized vendor to assemble the cover and the foil treatment. Special thanks to our graphic design and production teams — Jim Blayney, Andrea Vagas and Michelle Wisniewski — who produced this initiative and brought it to life.

And of course the PCT editorial team — Brad Harbison, Jackie Mitchell, McKenna Christy and Patrick Rhonemus, as well as our numerous contributing writers — deserve plenty of kudos as well for their hard work in compiling all of this data and content. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to your feedback. Here’s to 25 more years!

The author is publisher of the PCT Media Group.