Rollins (ROL) Risk Factors

Economic downturns may adversely affect our commercial customers, including food service, hospitality and food processing industries whose business levels are particularly sensitive to adverse economies. For example, we may lose commercial customers and related revenues because of consolidation or cessation of commercial businesses or because these businesses switch to a lower cost provider.  Pest and termite services represent discretionary expenditures to many of our residential customers. If consumers restrict their discretionary expenditures, due to inflation or other economic hardships, we may suffer a decline in revenues from our residential service lines. Disruptions in credit or financial markets could make it more difficult for us to obtain, or increase the cost of obtaining, financing in the future. Increases in interest rates may cause a reduction in new home construction or real estate transactions, which could result in a decrease in revenue. In addition, there can be no assurances that fuel prices, raw material costs, or other operating costs, all of which may be subject to inflationary pressures, will not materially increase in future years and we cannot predict the extent to which any such future increases could materially adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

An element of our business includes further expansion into international markets. Our ability to successfully operate in international markets may be adversely affected by political, economic and social conditions beyond our control, local laws and customs, and legal and regulatory constraints, including compliance with applicable anti-corruption and currency laws and regulations of the countries or regions in which we currently operate or intend to operate in the future. Risks inherent in our existing and future international operations also include, among others, the costs and difficulties of managing international operations, difficulties in identifying and gaining access to local suppliers, suffering possible adverse tax consequences from changes in tax laws or the unfavorable resolution of tax assessments or audits, maintaining product quality and greater difficulty in enforcing intellectual property rights. Additionally, foreign currency exchange rates and fluctuations could have an adverse effect on our financial results.

In the normal course of business, we are involved in various claims, contractual disputes, investigations, arbitrations and litigation, including claims that our acts, omissions, services or vehicles caused damage or injury, claims that our services did not achieve the desired results, claims related to acquisitions, allegations by federal, state or local authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, of violations of regulations or statutes, claims related to wage and hour law violations and claims related to environmental matters.  These claims, proceedings or litigation, either alone or in the aggregate, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Additionally, our business is significantly affected by and subject to regulation by various federal, state, provincial, regional and local governments in the countries in which we operate, including, but not limited to, environmental laws, antitrust laws, consumer protection laws, employment laws, including wage and hour laws, payroll taxes and anti-discrimination laws, immigration, human health and safety laws and other regulations relating to the pest control industry. We are unable to predict whether such laws will, in the future, materially affect our operations and financial condition.

Our ability to compete effectively depends in part on our rights to service marks, trademarks, trade names and other intellectual property rights we own or license. Although we have sought to register or protect many of our marks either in the United States or in the countries in which they are or may be used, we have not sought to protect our marks in every country. Furthermore, because of the differences in foreign trademark, patent and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws, we may not receive the same protection in other countries as we would in the United States. If we are unable to protect our proprietary information and brand names, we could suffer a material adverse effect to our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary information, or to defend against claims by third parties that our products, services or activities infringe their intellectual property rights.

Our internal information technology ("IT") systems contain certain personal, financial, health, or other protected and confidential information that is entrusted to us by our customers and employees.  Our IT systems also contain the Company's and its wholly-owned subsidiaries' proprietary and other confidential information related to our business, such as business plans, customer lists and product and service development initiatives. From time to time, we have integration with new IT systems due to organic growth and acquisitions. In addition, we grant third-party business partners and service providers access to confidential information in order to facilitate business operations and administer employee benefits.  Employees, third-party business partners, and service providers can knowingly or unknowingly disseminate such information or serve as an entry point for bad actors to access such information. Our privacy compliance and digital risk management initiatives focus on the threats and risks to enterprise information and the underlying IT systems processing such information as part of the implementation of business processes.  The Company also relies on, among other things, commercially available vendors, cybersecurity protection systems, software, tools and monitoring to provide security for processing, transmission and storage of protected information and data. The systems currently used for transmission and approval of payment card transactions, and the technology utilized in payment cards themselves, all of which can put payment card data at risk, meet standards set by the payment card industry ("PCI"). We have also implemented policies and procedures, internal training, system controls, and monitoring and audit processes to protect the Company from internal and external vulnerabilities and to comply with consumer privacy laws in the areas in which we operate.  Further, the Company limits retention of certain data, encrypts certain data and otherwise protects information to comply with consumer privacy laws in the areas in which we operate. We continue to evaluate and modify our systems and protocols for data security compliance purposes, and such standards may change from time to time. We monitor certain third-party business partners and service providers for compliance and vulnerabilities.  Activities by bad actors, changes in computer and software capabilities and encryption technology, new tools and discoveries, cloud applications, changes in multi-jurisdictional regulations, and other events or developments may result in a compromise or breach of our systems. Any compromises, breaches, application errors or human mistakes related to our systems or failures to comply with applicable standards could not only disrupt our financial operations, including our customers' ability to pay for our services and products by credit card or their willingness to purchase our services and products, but could also result in violations of applicable laws, regulations, orders, industry standards or agreements and subject us to costs, penalties and liabilities which could have a material adverse impact on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. A breach of data security or failure to comply with rigorous multi-jurisdictional consumer privacy requirements could expose us to customer litigation, regulatory actions and costs related to the reporting and handling of such a violation or breach. Furthermore, while we maintain cybersecurity insurance, our insurance may not cover all liabilities incurred due to a security breach or incident and this could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We operate in a highly competitive industry. Our revenues and earnings are affected by changes in competitors' prices and general economic issues. We compete with other large pest control companies, as well as numerous smaller pest control companies, for a finite number of customers. We believe that the principal competitive factors in the market areas that we serve are quality and speed of service, customer proximity, customer satisfaction, brand awareness and reputation, terms of guarantees, safety, technical proficiency and price. Although we believe that our experience, safety and quality service are excellent, we cannot assure investors that we will be able to maintain our competitive position in the future and any competitive pressures we may face could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Our strong brands, Orkin, HomeTeam Pest Defense, Clark Pest Control, Northwest Exterminating, Trutech, Western Pest Services, The Industrial Fumigant Company (IFC), Waltham Services, Okolona Pest Control (OPC), Critter Control, and others, have significantly contributed to the success of our business.  Maintaining and enhancing our brands increases our ability to enter new markets and launch new and innovative services that better serve the needs of our customers.  Our brands may be negatively impacted by a number of factors, including, among others, reputational issues and product/technical failures.  Further, if our brands are significantly damaged, our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.  We continue to develop strategies and innovative tools to gain a deeper understanding of customer acquisition and retention in order to more effectively expand and retain our customer base. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will depend largely on our brands' ability to remain a service leader and continue to provide high-quality pest control services that are truly beneficial and play a meaningful role in people's lives.

Our ability to remain productive and profitable will depend substantially on our ability to compete with other pest control companies to attract and retain skilled workers, create leadership opportunities and successfully implement diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Our ability to expand our operations is in part impacted by our ability to increase our labor force. The demand for employees is high, and the supply is limited. Ongoing labor shortages could negatively affect our ability to efficiently operate at full capacity or lead to increased costs, such as increased overtime to meet demand and increased wage rates to attract and retain employees. A significant increase in the wages paid and benefits offered by competing employers could also result in a reduction in our labor force, increases in our labor costs, or both. Prolonged labor shortages, increased turnover or labor inflation could diminish our profitability and impair our growth potential which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. In addition, decisions and rules by the National Labor Relations Board, including "expedited elections" and restrictions on appeals, could lead to increased organizing activities at our subsidiaries. If these labor organizing activities are successful, it could further increase labor costs, decrease operating efficiency and productivity in the future, or otherwise disrupt or negatively impact our operations which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation and business.