Drug screening service ESS expands to Sedalia

With that ammunition in hand, Springfield-based Employee Screening Services Inc. expanded into Sedalia on April 1. Conner isn’t stopping there, with plans for new offices in Osage Beach and Kansas City, Kan., by summer.

Longtime client Jim Spears of Delta Roofing Inc., 3636 S. Farm Road 101 in Brookline Station, said ESS helps keep his work sites safe through 15 annual drug-screening sessions.

“If (my workers) walk off a roof (because) they get to thinking they can fly, … it can be all over,” said Spears of the possible effects drug use could have on his 20 employees.

Conner’s company has averaged 45 percent annual revenue growth since he bought it in February 2000 from Marcelyn and Gary Bunch. What started as a home-based endeavor with one car in 1991 has grown into a company with 17 employees, revenues of $1.22 million and offices in six cities, soon to be eight.

ESS established its Springfield office in 2002 at 2055 S. Stewart, Ste. F. The company soon added offices in Rolla, Joplin, Lebanon and Columbia.

The Sedalia office cost about $21,000 to open and should generate $100,000 to $200,000 in new yearly revenues, Conner said. The planned Osage Beach office should generate “substantially more” in revenues because Conner foresees providing screening services to many of the area’s resorts.

ESS also works in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois and Kentucky.

When Conner took over, revenue had dipped to $60,000. Revenues jumped to nearly $250,000 within 10 months, he said.

“I took the bull by the horns,” Conner said.

Conner credited good customer service and godly values for the growth.

“ESS is very easy to work with, very friendly,” said client Roxan Shadden, front office supervisor for Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons Inc., 1103 E. Montclair St.

Conner wouldn’t put a number on ESS’ clientele, though he said government agencies and schools account for a significant portion.

ESS doesn’t plaster its name on its company cars, and its screeners don’t wear shirts with emblems on them. They approach a business discreetly, taking care not to alert workers of their presence until it’s time to perform the tests.

Drug screeners carry a single duffle bag full of forms and small plastic cups. One-by-one, workers give the ESS screener information and take a cup into an on-site bathroom. ESS then sends the urine samples to Advanced Toxicology Network, a lab in Memphis, Tenn., and typically receives results in a day.[[In-content Ad]]