Re-Branding Effort

Re-branding efforts don’t always meet with success, often times because they are not driven by the company’s CEO, but by the organization’s marketing department. However, this does not appear to be the case with Greg Brophy, president and CEO of Securit. His focused vision has helped to propel his company throughout the years.

"Our average growth was 40 percent [per year] for the first 15 years," Brophy says of Shred-it. "For the last three years, it’s been 25 to 30 percent."

While franchise agreements played a role in Shred-it’s initial growth, the company has since moved away from that model and has not sold any franchises in roughly eight years. "I needed good people to help me grow the business because I didn’t have the management team strength," he says.

The company has bought back all but 32 of its franchises, primarily because the owners were ready to retire or move on to other business ventures, Brophy says.

Securit exercises strict control over its franchisees, according to Brophy, regularly auditing these operations. "The only thing our customers are signing up for is security," he says. "We have policies and procedures to protect the chain of custody."

In addition to using regimented standard operating procedures throughout the company, Securit holds mandatory training sessions during the year for its corporate employees and franchisees and has a training team on staff. All of Securit’s new sales associates must attend a 12-week training program, Brophy says, but the duration and intensity of the other training programs varies by position. For example, the company’s truck drivers get customer service, health and safety and new technology training periodically throughout their tenure with the company.

"Our training department is pretty robust, and employees can also take online courses and get certificates in different competencies that we are looking for," he says.

This emphasis on training and standard operating procedures helps the company deliver consistent service no matter the location, Brophy says. The company has been able to successfully apply this approach to its new areas of service, as well.

While the Shred-it brand was well established, Brophy saw the need to offer clients an expanded range of services, including records management, disaster recovery programs, online records management and media vaulting.

To provide the high-level of service its customers require and Brophy aspires to, Securit employs bar coding to keep track of records down to the file level, Brophy says, and the company is currently researching RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. But he stresses that the effectiveness of these types of systems hinges on the discipline of the records center staff. "You have to have the discipline that no box, file or tape moves in any direction without being scanned in first and the system knowing exactly where it’s going" Brophy says. "It’s a disciplined process of standard operating procedures. Shred-it has very strict standard operating procedures, so it made sense to apply that same discipline to the records storage business, and we have found that it delivers the results our customers are looking for: We are finding the boxes 100 percent of the time," he adds.

Brophy continues, "If you develop well-thought out processes that can be repeated, you will be able to deliver consistent good service. If you do that well, then you let the people within the organization focus on building relationships with customers and taking care of them and taking care of each other. If each branch is constantly developing new processes, then they can never put their focus on building relationships within the branch and with customers. It frees them up. It allows them to do what’s most important."

With the company’s emphasis on data protection extending beyond secure document destruction, Brophy opted to move away from the Shred-it brand, though the company’s document destruction services will continue to be marketed as such. "It’s a very good brand, and people know it."

However, for the overall business, "Shred-it was too descriptive," Brophy says. "It’s very good if you’re shredding, but not good if you do anything else."

That’s why Brophy opted for Securit, which emphasizes the security aspect of the services his company provides. "We now have a name that represents all of our services and we’ll build a good brand over the years."

While signage and marketing materials at many of Securit’s locations have been changed to reflect its new moniker, Brophy says, "It’s an evolutionary process. Hopefully by the beginning of 2008, we’ll have it all in place, so that the client will perceive us as Securit with three lines of service."

He continues, "It’s a big challenge once you’ve been around for 19 years using one brand—Shred-it—and then you change and you offer all of these other services. Getting the name recognition within the market as well as securing the acceptance of our employees has proved integral to this challenge."

While the re-branding effort brings a unique set of challenges, Securit appears to have met with success in rolling out its new services, iff the company’s customer base is any indication.

Securit currently services 2 million containers through Shred-it and an almost equal number of cartons through its records storage segment. "We’re growing at over 100 percent a year on the carton side," Brophy says, with plans to continue its 100 percent yearly growth rate for the next three to four years. However, the Shred-it brand is growing at a more modest rate, with 110,000 to 120,000 new containers added yearly, he says.

To aid in the growth of its records storage business, Securit has acquired five companies in the last few years, Brophy says, with plans for one new acquisition quarterly. "On the records side, about 50 percent of our growth is through acquisitions," he says. This is different from the primarily organic strategy Brophy used to grow Shred-it and will enable the company to increase the size of its footprint quickly.

While Securit employs different growth strategies across its various service groups, one thing that remains consistent is the company’s goal, which in Brophy’s words is, "to be a truly great, world-leading company." He says, "We want to be one of the trusted partners for companies globally to take care of their information security. We are in 16 countries now, but there are a lot of countries that we want to go to and a lot of services we want to offer. We are fortunate, we have a great team of people and a great customer base, and I am extremely positive and excited about our future."

Brophy’s excitement and positive attitude appears to be infectious, as Securit employees often refer to his positive energy as "inspiring."

Brophy does try to inspire those around him, but he’s also looking for inspiration from them. "I think the most important thing for employees is for them to feel they can make a difference in the company. Most people that care about their careers want to make a difference and have an impact, and they can do that here. We need their influence and we need their energy and we need the impact of their experiences to make us a stronger company." n