Rentokil at four-month low after profits warning (UK)

[bin.dare]

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=588512

"Rentokil warned yesterday that its profits would fall next year, sending shares in the rat-catching to security firm down by more than 5 per cent to a four-month low.

...

Mr McGowan ... said that at any one time there were "several live prospects on the go" but it was a bit like buying a house. "Until you have exchanged contracts, you haven't closed the deal

[Eurobabe]

1. that is a nasty name for a company anyhow

How blatantly ugly, rent 2 kill.

[notadmblnd]

2. Is that the plant service?

My company used one called Rentokil that just came in and swapped out office plants every month or so.

[bin.dare]

3. flower company called rent-2-kill ?

Rentokil does rat killing plus security. they also have a number of other little co's, maybe plant exchange is one of them. On the other hand, maybe the plant business is a front for their security stuff ! hmmmm.

[Igel]

4. The research assistant side of me couldn't let this rest.

http://www.rentokil-initial.com/about_history.php

"The story of Rentokil Initial begins, suitably, with a pest control problem and a Professor of Entomology. The pests were death watch beetles in Westminster Hall ... and the Professor of Entomology, was Harold Maxwell Lefroy. ... Lefroy was asked ... to study ways of exterminating the beetles in the hall.

... In 1924, Lefroy and his assistant ... started supplying bottles of woodworm fluid from a small factory in Hatton Garden, which he called 'Ento-Kill Fluids' - an amalgam of the Greek word 'entomon' meaning insect and the English word 'kill'.

New-found success inspired the pair to register a company in 1925. Their first choice for a name was, predictably, 'Entokill', but trade name objections did not allow this. So, instead they settled on Rentokil Limited.

Lefroy was accidentally killed by poisonous fumes in a laboratory experiment the following year, and initially, it seemed like the year-old Rentokil would be buried with him. ..."

[bin.dare]

5. the story gets more interesting ...

if you discover anymore tidbits, post them.