In July 2011 The British Pest Control Association launched a new magazine called ‘alexo’ aimed at anyone who commissions pest control for their organisation, or has an interest in it from the client side.  It’s around 50-60 pages, published twice a year. The magazine contains a series of feature articles on different aspects of pest control (urban, agricultural, construction, retail, strange environments, sports, etc.), a directory of pest controllers, a gutsy editorial, and some short newsy articles as well.

Why ‘alexo’?

alexo means ‘I protect, or I defend’ – which we think sums up exactly what our industry does; day in, day out.  The focus for the magazine and BPCA is public health protection and promotion. We’ll try to focus on solutions not problems, and prevention not pests.

Who’s it aimed at?

It’s aimed at anyone with a responsibility for placing pest control contracts. The people who give servicing companies their work – or indeed those who currently don’t.  It will be sent to at least five thousand circulation, twice a year.

So what’s this about?

As part of BPCA’s Strategic Plan to deliver benefits and improve professionalism, the BPCA Board agreed to develop alexo magazine to promote the sector.  BPCA President Martina Flynn said ‘alexo offers a real innovation for the pest control industry. We believe it will make clients much more aware of the importance of our industry, and also the need to use professionals for pest control.’

We have also been asking pest control customers and those who police the sector what they want.  The short answer is ‘professionalism’ – they want to know the companies they use for pest control are proper and legitimate businesses, trained to deliver results and minimise risk.  Similarly, clients want to see how the sector is addressing the challenges of new pest species, rodenticide resistance, bed bugs, etc. The magazine is designed to demonstrate how the BPCA supply chain both delivers that professionalism and solves those challenges.

Clearly there is no precedent for a magazine of this type in pest control.  Not even the biggest servicing companies produce a large magazine specifically for customers.  BPCA is leading the sector by being first to market with a publication of this type.