ServiceMaster first came to Canada in 1953 when Frank Flack partnered with Thane MacNeill to provide carpet maintenance in the Toronto market. Soon Thane became the owner of the distributorship known as ServiceMaster of Toronto, and years later was joined by his son, Duane. In 1967 Gary Franklin joined ServiceMaster as the distributor in the Hamilton area. Gary’s distributorship grew over time to include most of Canada. Additional distributorships were purchased in Atlantic Canada by Gord Loomis, in Manitoba by Frank Jaeger, in Saskatchewan by Cas Pielak, and in British Columbia by Chris Stringer and Greg Leith.
The Management Services Division came to Canada in 1981 focusing on the health care market. Several years later they expanded their services to the education and industrial communities as well.
ServiceMaster International began purchasing back its distributorships in 1997, including ServiceMaster of Canada. By 2001 all of the Canadian distributorships were owned by our parent company, and all the franchise support operations within Canada were merged under the umbrella of ServiceMaster of Canada. Our head office is located in Mississauga, Ontario, and includes training facilities and a warehouse.
Over the years Canada has made several contributions to ServiceMaster operations internationally. A program initially known as Spotlight was launched in 1973 and is the father of modern carpet care maintenance methods. It consisted primarily of the concept of spot cleaning, complemented by less frequent deeper cleaning methods. Additionally, Canada pioneered the sale of franchises by service line. Now the standard at ServiceMaster, Canada was the first to sell one service line per franchise per territory.