"Our goal was to do pest control in a different way, a natural organic way and show people that you didn't need to use toxic chemicals for everything."
Mr Kaiser was brought up in Bochum, a coal mining town in Germany, near Cologne. His parents were butchers and he started off in the hospitality sector as a dishwasher, eventually rising up through the ranks to become a chef. In a bid to help his English while studying for an MBA in hospitality management, in 1993 he paid a three-month visit to New Zealand and loved it.
The following year he and his girlfriend Christina - who is now his wife - holidayed together in New Zealand and scored jobs and nine-month visas to work at a hotel run by Germans in Pauanui, Coromandel. In 1999 the couple again holidayed in New Zealand and he got offered a job to run the Hotel du Vin in Auckland, where they spent a year. The couple moved to Rotorua in 2000 to run the Swiss Lodge, before he was headhunted for the Treetops job in 2005.
"I found through the internet that there were all sorts of environmentally-friendly ways to handle pest control," he said. "I travelled overseas to investigate different methodologies and techniques and when I came back I launched the company."
The company now covers all pests, including rodents, and has about 60 people working through subcontractors in Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Tauranga and Rotorua, where he has a team of four.
Alpeco has partnership and agency agreements for a number of international products. It began with Thermo-bug, which kills by heating up a room like a sauna. Other products include Cryonite, which freezes insects and bugs, and e-Mitter, which signals to a mobile phone when a trap has been sprung. The company has also developed non-toxic lures to attract rodents into traps and has developed an environmentally-friendly aerosol pest control spray.
Mr Kaiser said the company placed a lot of emphasis on further development of products it was handling, and learned a lot from feedback from its experienced subcontractors around the country.
"We are now partnering with Thermo-bug. We developed a complete new system here which they are making in Germany. The heating system was good, but I thought we could improve it better, so we designed another machine to work with it and make it better."
Mr Kaiser will take part in major European pest control trade show Pest Protect in Germany in March as the key speaker on bed bug control. He said the biggest challenge in starting the business had been to overcome negativity within the pest control industry towards new ideas.
"There are a lot of changes internationally, but the industry is 10 years behind here," he said.
Bruce Thomasen, general manager of Alpeco client Skyline, said Mr Kaiser had initially established trust and confidence by providing equipment and solutions on a trial basis.
"He's well researched and provides very good options that have supporting background and information on why we need to make decisions," he said. "I trust his recommendations and he's excellent to deal with."
Mr Kaiser was a key business mentor for his fellow countryman Alex Schmid and helped line up investors for his new Redwoods. He is also working on a new project to build a major adventure park.
Although he enjoys water sports for recreation, Mr Kaiser said: "I don't have days off."
Heiko Kaiser:
Role: Chief executive, Alpeco
Born: Bochum, Germany
Age: 46
First job: Dishwasher
