January has a way of sharpening the mind. The decorations come down, the phone starts ringing again, and most business owners find themselves asking the same question they asked last January: is this the year?
If you own a pest control business and the thought of selling has crossed your mind more than once, 2026 may be the strongest window you have seen in years. The tax landscape is shifting, buyer appetite remains robust, and the conditions that make pest control attractive to acquirers are firmly in place. But windows do not stay open forever.
The BADR Rate Has Risen
The Budget of October 2024 set out what many business owners had feared. Business Asset Disposal Relief, which allows qualifying business owners to pay a reduced rate of Capital Gains Tax (the tax on the gain when you sell something for more than it cost) on the first £1 million of lifetime gains, has changed. The rate rose from 10% to 14% in April 2025, and it rose again to 18% in April 2026.
To put that into real numbers: a pest control sale that realised £500,000 in qualifying gains in the 2025/26 tax year paid £70,000 in CGT at the 14% rate. For a sale contracted after April 2026, the same gain costs £90,000. That is £20,000 more tax on a half-million-pound gain, simply because of timing.
The important point is not that you must rush. If you have been thinking about it for a while, the cost of continuing to think about it has already gone up, and starting the process early gives you a realistic runway to prepare properly.
PE Appetite Is Not Slowing Down
Private equity interest in UK pest control, from investment firms that buy companies to grow and sell on, has been one of the defining trends of the last five years, and heading into 2026, there is no sign of it cooling. Pest control is an essential service with recurring revenue, low customer churn, and fragmented ownership, which is precisely the kind of market that PE-backed consolidators, groups buying up many firms in one trade, target.
The best time to sell is when the business is performing well and you still have the energy to present it properly. Selling from a position of strength is always better than selling because you have to.
Rentokil Initial remains the dominant player, but the mid-market is where the real activity is happening. Smaller PE-backed platforms are actively acquiring smaller businesses, building regional density and operational scale. For owners with strong contract books, this means genuine competition among buyers, which drives better terms and higher prices.
The consolidation wave also means independent pest control businesses are shrinking in number. The pool of interested acquirers is larger today than it may be in 2028 or 2029, when many platforms will have completed their buying phase.
January Is When Serious Sellers Start
It is easy to fall into the same pattern every year. Owners think about selling over Christmas. They come back in January with good intentions but decide to "wait until things settle down." By March, the season is starting to pick up and it feels like the wrong time. By summer, the business is busy and selling drops off the radar. Autumn arrives, another year has passed, and the whole cycle repeats.
The way out is to break that cycle in January. Not by putting the business on the market the first week back, but by having a free first conversation about where it stands. What is the business likely worth? What would need to happen to maximise its value? What does a realistic timeline look like? These are not questions that require commitment. They require curiosity and a willingness to explore.
January is also the quietest month in the pest control calendar. Call volumes are lower, contracts are ticking over, and you have more headspace than you will at any other point in the year. If there is ever a time to step back and think about the bigger picture, this is it.
What You Can Do Right Now
Get your numbers in order. A buyer will want to see several years of accounts. They will look at adjusted net profit, not turnover. If your accounts are messy or your profit is suppressed by discretionary spending, now is the time to start tidying up.
Audit your contract book. How many contracts do you have? What is the total annual contract value? What are your renewal rates? Are contracts written and signed, or informal and handshake-based? The contract book is one of the main drivers of value in a pest control business, and buyers will scrutinise it closely.
Assess your team. Do your technicians have BPCA or NPTA qualifications? Are they on proper employment contracts? How long have they been with you? A stable, qualified team is a genuine asset. A team that might leave when the owner does is a risk that will be priced into any offer.
Think about owner dependency. If you disappeared for a month, would the business keep running? If the answer is no, that is not a reason to abandon the idea of selling, but it is something to start addressing. Even small steps towards reducing your involvement, such as delegating key accounts or training a supervisor, can materially improve your valuation.
Starting the Conversation
None of this requires you to decide anything today. Selling a business is one of the biggest financial decisions you will ever make, and it deserves careful thought. But careful thought is not the same as indefinite delay.
If 2026 is the year you have been putting off, a free first conversation, in confidence, is the natural first step. It is a clear look at where you stand and what your options are.
This is how Simon runs a sale, from the first conversation to completion.
