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March 1, 2006
February 2, 2006
October 10, 2005
October 9, 2003
September 23, 2003
September 4, 2003
March 3, 2003
InStar Services
Group Bolsters Disaster Management Capabilities, Response
Speed and Reach with Formation of National Network
FORT WORTH, TX - March 1, 2006 - Commercial enterprises
across the entire U.S. and their insurers are poised to benefit
from new InStar Services Group, Inc. developments that effectively
forge the first true national, single-source supplier network
in the commercial loss management industry.
InStar has added comprehensive, nationwide mitigation and
cleaning capabilities to round out its existing consulting,
project management and disaster reconstruction services. In
addition, the company will now guarantee response to commercial
customers within 45 minutes of their initial call and be on-site
to any U.S. location within two-to-four hours to begin emergency
mitigation because of an increased local network of mitigation
service providers. For commercial-loss decision-makers, which
include both the affected businesses and their insurers, response
time represents a critical factor in the efforts to mitigate
damage, reduce business downtime, and minimize financial loss.
The enhanced capabilities are driven by the integration of
InStar with the ServiceMaster Clean national operation, which
resulted from a ServiceMaster (NYSE:SVM) Feb. 2 agreement
to acquire InStar.
"While several providers have aspired to this, InStar
is the first company to fulfill the industry's need for a
true single-source provider -- one that is national, fast
and able to deliver a total set of commercial loss management
services," said David J. Demos, president and chief executive
officer, InStar Services Group, Inc. "This development
for InStar comes at a time when more and more commercial enterprises
are viewing disaster-related services as a business necessity,
due to factors that include the likely persistence of unpredictable
weather patterns with the return of the La Nina phenomenon
in 2006."
"This move reflects our longstanding and experienced
management team's commitment to continually enhance the superior
service that our customers know to be the hallmark of our
business," Demos added. "The operational excellence
and national footprint of ServiceMaster Clean will only add
to the value that we bring our customers, who can still expect
the same unparalleled InStar customer experience."
InStar, whose management team will remain intact after the
acquisition, operates its offices in the Southeast, Southwest,
Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions and has strengthened it's
ability to mobilize a workforce and manage projects nationwide.
About InStar Services Group, Inc.
InStar Services Group, headquartered in Fort Worth, operates
from 25 locations around the United States to provide rapid
response to disasters nationwide. InStar delivers turnkey
property damage restoration services designed to minimize
business interruption, which include emergency response, mitigation,
cleaning and reconstruction.
About ServiceMaster Clean
For more than 50 years, ServiceMaster Clean has been a leader
in the restoration and cleaning industry. Based in Memphis,
ServiceMaster Clean, a subsidiary of The ServiceMaster Company,
has more than 4,000 franchises worldwide providing emergency
mitigation and restoration services, as well as janitorial,
commercial and residential carpet cleaning.
About ServiceMaster
ServiceMaster currently provides outsourcing services for
more than 10.5 million residential and commercial customers.
As America's service brands for home and business, the core
service capabilities of the company include lawn care and
landscape maintenance, termite and pest control, plumbing,
heating and air conditioning services, cleaning and disaster
restoration, furniture repair, and home warranty.
These services are provided through a network of over 5,400
company-owned and franchised service centers and business
units operating under leading brands which include Terminix,
TruGreen ChemLawn, TruGreen LandCare, Rescue Rooter, ServiceMaster
Clean, American Home Shield, AmeriSpec, Merry Maids and Furniture
Medic.
ServiceMaster Announces
Significant Actions to Strengthen the Enterprise; Acquires
Commercial Disaster Response and Reconstruction Business
DOWNERS GROVE, IL - (BUSINESS WIRE) - February 2, 2006
Plans Sale of American Residential Services (ARS) and American
Mechanical Services (AMS); And Reengineering of Support Organization
ServiceMaster
(NYSE:SVM) announced today several actions designed to increase
shareholder value. To expand its successful disaster restoration
business, the Company has entered into an agreement to acquire
InStar Services Group, which is engaged in the commercial
disaster response and reconstruction business. The Company
also announced its intention to sell its American Residential
Services (ARS) and American Mechanical Services (AMS) companies
so it can concentrate resources on its main growth businesses.
The Company also announced the launch of Project Accelerate,
which is designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness
of all business and field support functions.
Acquisition of InStar Services Group, Inc.
The Company announced today a strategic expansion of commercial
disaster restoration through the proposed acquisition of InStar
Services Group, Inc. The Company expects to complete the acquisition
of InStar during the first quarter after clearing antitrust
review.
With estimated fiscal year 2005 revenues of approximately
$130 million, InStar is a leading direct provider of commercial
disaster response and reconstruction services in the United
States. InStar provides a continuum of services, from planning
prior to an event, to emergency response following the event
and continuing service through cleaning, recovery and reconstruction--a
customer relationship that can span more than 18 months.
"The acquisition of InStar will complement the services
of ServiceMaster Clean and changes the game in the commercial
disaster response and restoration market," said Jonathan
Ward, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Combining
the capabilities of InStar with ServiceMaster Clean will create
a single source solution for the delivery of comprehensive
commercial loss services on a national basis, and an opportunity
for our customers to significantly reduce business interruption."
In the delivery of services to national, regional and local
customers, InStar will handle the work directly or in combination
with ServiceMaster Clean franchisees. Currently, InStar has
24 offices covering 28 states in the Southeast, Southwest,
Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Regions and has the ability to
mobilize a work force and manage projects nationwide. ServiceMaster
Clean, the market leader in residential disaster restoration,
has over 1,000 disaster restoration facilities in the United
States and Canada. By combining their capabilities, they will
be prepared to deliver the full spectrum of services to both
commercial and residential customers.
Sale of ARS and AMS
The Company announced that it is exploring alternatives for
American Residential Services (ARS) and American Mechanical
Services (AMS) including the sale of both businesses. The
Company has retained William Blair & Company as its financial
advisor to assist in this process. The Company has stated
that it does not expect to disclose developments concerning
the status of this process unless and until it and its Board
of Directors has approved a definitive transaction.
"Our best opportunity to build shareholder value is
to have fewer priorities and to pursue them with greater intensity.
We have applied that thinking to both our strategies and our
portfolio," said Ward. "This action reflects the
Company's continued commitment to brands which have the ability
to achieve sustainable national market leadership and a high
potential to achieve significant and consistent growth in
share, revenue and return on capital."
Future-State Business Model
The Company also announced the launch of Project Accelerate,
an internal, multi-phase reengineering project designed to
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of all functional
support areas. Upon completion, Project Accelerate will result
in an organization that is better aligned to respond faster
to the marketplace, its customers, and provide better day-to-day
support for front line associates who are in the homes and
businesses of customers every day.
"This project is consistent with our goal of becoming
systematically stronger and is expected to have a positive
financial impact on the enterprise," said Ward. "The
reduction in direct support costs, combined with more effective
purchasing of outside services and other cost reductions,
is targeted to produce annualized savings in the range of
$50-75 million. The result of this project will be a smaller,
yet more effective support organization which is appropriately
focused on our best growth opportunities."
The Company plans to execute the majority of the project
during 2006 and early 2007, with ultimate annualized saving
levels achieved in the second half of 2007. During this time,
a significant portion of the savings will be reinvested in
initiatives to reach and keep more customers, and offset rising
factor costs.
Conference Call Details
The Company will review these actions and discuss its outlook
in a call at 2:00 p.m. CT on February 2, 2006. Interested
parties may listen to the call at (800) 263-9155. The conference
call will include Jon Ward, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
and Ernie Mrozek, President and Chief Financial Officer. The
call will be broadcast live and can be accessed at the ServiceMaster
web site, www.svm.com. The call will be archived on the site
for 30 days and may also be accessed for seven days at (800)
633-8284 (#21282889).
ServiceMaster currently provides outsourcing services for
residential and commercial customers through a network of
over 5,500 company-owned and franchised service centers and
business units operating under leading brands, which include
Terminix, TruGreen ChemLawn, TruGreen LandCare, ARS Service
Express, Rescue Rooter, American Mechanical Services, ServiceMaster
Clean, American Home Shield, Amerispec, Merry Maids, and Furniture
Medic.
As America's Service Brands for Home and Business, the core
service capabilities of the Company include lawn care and
landscape maintenance, termite and pest control, home warranty,
disaster restoration, cleaning, furniture repair, plumbing,
heating and air conditioning services.
InStar is currently owned by an investor group led by TowerBrook
Capital Partners L.P., a private equity firm with offices
in New York and London. Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.
served as financial advisor to InStar and TowerBrook.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements concerning future
results and other matters that may be deemed to be "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that these
forward-looking statements, which look forward in time and
include everything other than historical information, be subject
to the safe harbors created by such legislation. The Company
notes that these forward-looking statements involve risks
and uncertainties that could affect its results of operations,
financial condition or cash flows. Factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied in a forward-looking statement include the following
(among others): weather conditions that affect the demand
for the Company's services; changes in the source and intensity
of competition in the markets served by the Company; labor
shortages or increases in wage rates; unexpected increases
in operating costs, such as higher insurance premiums, self
insurance and healthcare claim costs; higher fuel prices;
changes in the types or mix of the Company's service offerings
or products; increased governmental regulation including telemarketing
and environmental restrictions; general economic conditions
in the United States, especially as they may affect home sales
or consumer spending levels; and other factors described from
time to time in documents filed by the Company with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: ServiceMaster
Steve Bono (COM), 630-663-2150
Ernie Mrozek (CF), 901-766-1268
Bruce Byots (INV), 630-663-2906
SOURCE: ServiceMaster
InStar Provides
Disaster Relief to Hurricanes' Affected
With Hands-On Expertise and Donations
FORT WORTH, TX - October 10, 2005 - Hundreds of InStar
Services Group disaster restoration technicians arrived in
Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama on the heels of Hurricane
Katrina; when Rita struck little more than three weeks later,
more were deployed to Louisiana and Texas. Most of them haven't
been home since. In the wake of devastation, these professional
disaster remediators are drying, cleaning and sanitizing buildings,
removing debris and damaged structures, and laboring to restore
normalcy to apartment complexes, schools, hotels, factories
and other commercial buildings. But that's not all they are
doing. InStar donated $20,000 to the American Red Cross for
hurricane assistance, and has added more than $8,000 to match
employee donations.
The scope of Katrina's effect has sobered employees and employers.
Jim Wilson, an InStar principal, says simply, "I've worked
all the major storms over the last 20 years, and I've never
seen anything like this." The extent of the damage has
posed additional challenges for restoration workers, adds
Wilson. "When we first came in, there was no water to
drink, no food, no fuel, no place to stay." Some of these
obstacles remain, with FEMA workers and evacuees occupying
available hotel rooms for many miles around. InStar crews
have been housed up to an hour and a half from the jobs they
are working, and in tents and RVs scattered across four states.
Curfews and early closing of markets, restaurants and Laundromats
complicate daily living for workers on the job seven days
a week.
Logistics are an ongoing complication, according to Dave
Davis, senior vice president, who has been in New Orleans
since the week the levees first failed. "In addition
to fuel shortages, we've had no access to water for sanitizing,
so we've had to ship in water from other locations to use
in our tanks." Work is progressing, despite the challenges
of moving equipment through the narrow streets of the French
Quarter and processing crews through checkpoints amid heightened
security measures. Greg Boling, InStar technical advisor,
who is also currently in New Orleans, adds that in the face
of shortages and lack of available utilities and services,
outside resources and connections are critical. "Through
our extended contacts, we were able to negotiate an arrangement
with a company out of state to bring in 200 Dumpsters for
demolition materials, when there were none available locally."
InStar has mobilized 350 people in New Orleans and close
to a thousand in the region, seasoned employees, according
to Wilson. "Our people can handle the challenges and
the stresses. Everybody doing this work for us has done it
before. It's a unique bunch that we count on: in situations
like this, we count on them sunup to sundown, seven days a
week." Boling sums up: "We're just getting started.
But we'll be here until the job is done."
InStar Services Group, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas,
operates from over 20 locations around the United States to
provide rapid response to disasters nationwide. InStar delivers
turnkey property reconstruction services, from security and
containment to mitigation, cleaning, repair and reconstruction,
designed to minimize loss of business and the costs of reconstruction.
Gillette Named President
of Northeast Division
FORT WORTH, TX - October 9, 2003 - The Board of Directors
of InStar Services Group, Inc. (InStar) has named Mr. Joseph
M. Gillette president of their northern division, Action Fire.
InStar is a nationwide provider of property restoration and
reconstruction services to the insurance, property management
and multi-family housing industries.
Prior to this promotion, Mr. Gillette held the position of
vice president and chief operations officer at Action Fire
Restoration, joining the company in 1997. He succeeds David
J. Demos. He has over 20 years of industry experience and
holds the prestigious designation of Certified Restorer (CR)
earned from the National Institute of Disaster Restoration.
With offices in Chicopee and Auburn, Massachusetts, the northeast
division of InStar provides its services to property owners
across northern Connecticut and throughout Massachusetts.
As president, Mr. Gillette will guide the division's growth
as New England's premier provider of disaster recovery and
property restoration services.
InStar Services
Group Assists Gibson After Fire: Leader In Disaster Restoration
Working With Guitar Giant's World Headquarters
NASHVILLE, TN - September 23, 2003 - Gibson World
Headquarters suffered residual water and smoke damage from
a blaze that destroyed a nearby apartment building last Wednesday
night. Fires on the roof of Gibson's 2-story, 30,000 square
foot corporate headquarters were extinguished by Nashville
firefighters. As a result, executive offices and the company's
IT department suffered water damage. InStar Services Group
was called in to provide emergency services and dry down the
structure to prevent further damage. "Minimizing downtime
is crucial in this situation," said Greg Dillon, Division
Manager for InStar, "it's our job to get them back in
business."
InStar Board Appoints
Demos President
FORT WORTH, TX - September 4, 2003 - The Board of
Directors of InStar Services Group, Inc. (InStar) has named
Mr. David J. Demos president. InStar is a nationwide provider
of property restoration and reconstruction services to the
insurance, property management and multi-family housing industries.
Prior to this appointment Mr. Demos headed InStar's northern
division, Action Fire Restoration, based in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
He founded Action Fire Restoration in 1989 and has over 30
years of industry experience. As president of InStar, he will
guide the company's growth and expansion as the nation's premier
provider of disaster recovery and property restoration services.
InStar Services
Group, Inc. Opens Memphis, TN. Facility
FORT WORTH - March 3, 2003 - Instar Services Group,
Inc. (InStar), a nationwide provider of service in the emergency
reconstruction and restoration industry, announced today the
opening of their newest facility in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Memphis location, headed by Area Manager Gerald Strangmeyer,
was opened in direct response to customer demand. With the
opening of this operation, customers are now able to access
InStar's full compliment of products and services through
24 locations around the United States.
The mission of Instar Services Group, Inc. is to be the premier
provider of nationwide service in the emergency recovery and
restoration industry. We fulfill this mission by constantly
satisfying our customers on a day to day basis. "Our
Business Is Putting You Back In Business."
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