Why Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control Chose Raintree to Help Grow Its U.S. Footprint

Franchise sales organization Raintree was founded in 2013 as a way to help brands find viable franchise candidates and scale their businesses. Raintree has come a long way since then — the franchise sales organization works with several brands, including Hounds Town USA and Footprints Floors, and has helped each of them meet and even surpass their franchise growth goals. Now, Raintree is welcoming a new brand into its roster: Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control, the 32-unit humane wildlife control franchise based in Canada. 

Skedaddle franchisees help home and business owners by removing nuisance animals, preventing future entry and restoring or mitigating property and attic insulation damage. Skedaddle is the largest wildlife control provider in Canada, with locations across Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec British Columbia and the northern U.S.

“As a franchise brand, we have the established operations, marketing and support already locked down, but we were looking to outsource our franchise development efforts,” said Skedaddle president and CEO Bill Dowd. “We wanted a company that was progressive, tech-forward, social media savvy and experienced in awarding franchises.”

Dowd says the Skedaddle team spent a year and a half investigating franchise sales partners and spoke with dozens of companies. “We had had three or four false starts with other organizations, but we received a referral from somebody in the franchise industry saying that we should talk to Raintree, so we did some investigation through Linkedin and loved what we saw,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’ve been in business 32 years and I enjoy doing business with people I enjoy. When I spoke with Raintree co-founders Brent Dowling and Mike Edwards, I got a great feeling. Everybody at Raintree was very friendly and honest and I knew it was time to get started.” 

When it comes to how Raintree will help Skedaddle grow through franchising, Dowd points to the team's experience, franchising knowledge and connections with brokers. “Raintree’s processes will bring franchise prospects to us and allow us to start the discussions with good leads,” he said. “We know we have a great brand, with the professional systems, cutting-edge technology and processes that allow franchisees to scale their business. Raintree will help us better spread that message across the franchising industry.” 

The Skedaddle business model stands out in the segment by providing customers with a unique service offering, Dowd says. “Most competitors just relocate animals, which results in 70% dying, but we humanely remove wildlife, keeping family units together and animal-proofing the entire home with a lifetime guarantee,” he said. “We are looking to do to the wildlife industry what Uber did to the taxi industry. All of the competitors are doing things the wrong way, and we’ve been doing it the right way for 32 years. In addition to animal control, we offer access to several other revenue streams, such as environmentally friendly pest control, attic restoration and even professional Christmas decorations. If prospects love wildlife, Christmas, or insects , they are going to love this business.”

As for the future of the brand, Dowd says he is confident that Skedaddle’s service is needed in every single city and suburb throughout the U.S. “We are competitive, and the people at Raintree are also competitive, so we aren’t going to be happy until we have hundreds of locations,” he said. “In terms of immediate goals, we’d love to get an additional five units open by the end of this year.”

Dowling notes he shares Dowd’s confidence about the new partnership and the future of the Skedaddle franchise brand.

“We review three to five franchise brands applying to work with Raintree each week, but we only bring on about one brand per quarter. We seek to partner with the highest quality franchise concepts. Skedaddle was clearly not your ordinary emerging franchise brand,” said Dowling. “They have a great item 19, strong validation and will be compelling for many franchise buyers.

Perhaps more importantly, you have two great guys in Barry and Bill driving that brand forward. As we often say here, it's sometimes smarter to bet on the jockey, and not the horse. We couldn't be happier to work alongside the Skedaddle team.”

To learn more about Raintree, visit https://raintreesales.com/