Company: Handy House Inc., Foxboro, Mass.
President: Marty Murphy Jr.
Type of business: Portable restroom services
Number of employees: 55
Revenues: WND
Year founded: 1975
Marty Murphy Jr. passed the Massachusetts bar exam in 1993, the same year he officially bought into his family’s portable restroom service company, Handy House Inc. He still hasn’t figured out which profession encourages the most jokes at his expense.
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Portable restroom companies have a sort of a Rodney Dangerfield-esque reputation in that they don’t get much respect. But unlike Dangerfield’s lame comedy routine, the services that companies like Handy House provide are a necessary fact of life.
“It’s one of the things people think of last, yet when you arrive with your kids at an event it’s often one of the things that comes up first: ‘Mom, Dad I’ve got to go to the bathroom,'” Murphy said.
“Our industry suffers from a perception problem: people see our business as a dirty industry,” he said.
But, Murphy explained, such companies provide an environmental service that helps prevent unsanitary conditions. Just imagine what would happen at an outdoor concert or any other outdoor event if the portable restroom had never been invented.
“We’re a portable sewer line,” Murphy said.
“We do our very best to work with planners,” he said, adding sometimes event organizers hope to trim their budgets by skimping on portable toilets, which can result in, well, messy facilities.
Handy House bases its recommendations for the number of restroom units needed at an event on a formula, which takes into consideration, among other things, the number of people expected, how long the event will last, and whether alcohol will be served. There are no specific health laws regulating the number of portable restrooms required at public events in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to Murphy. Some other states, including Maine, Arkansas, and Utah have what are called “mass gathering” laws that set up guidelines for public events.
When Handy House marketers recommend using more portable rest-rooms than the client wants to pay for, Murphy said, “we’re seen as kind of being self-serving but two things are going to suffer: the public and our name.
“We’ve walked away from events where we felt our name was going to suffer and public health was a concern,” he added.
An event’s reputation can suffer as well. People just won’t stick around that long and spend money at an event if there are no clean bathrooms available, according to a study done at the Center for Business and Industrial Studies at the University of Missouri in St. Louis.
Murphy said he’s seen good things happen for groups committed to providing an adequate supply of restrooms for event participants, such as the Massachusetts’ Walk For Hunger and the Pan-Mass. Challenge, which is a charity bike race for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. “Their events grow each year,” he said, which is due in part to the fact they make sure participants are comfortable.
And though some folks might look at the portable restroom as a plastic outhouse with nothing more than a translucent ceiling for light, such facilities come in a variety of models now, including some upscale versions that put airplane bathrooms to shame.
For instance, there’s the Handy House Ultra White Restroom, which is designed for “the finest outdoor events” and includes a flushing toilet, a sink, soap and paper towel dispensers, and interior lighting. Then there’s the Presidential Restroom Trailer, which has hot and cold running water, heat and air conditioning, and a stereo system.
And since 1993, they have included hand sanitizer, which requires no water, in the most basic models, he added. “There’s only so much you can do with a 4-by-4 cabana style portable restroom, but we try. The days are gone when people should be disgusted using a restroom.”
Handy House was started in 1975 by Murphy’s father, Marty Murphy Sr. At one point the company had offices in Dedham, Mass., and Johnston, R.I., but the Murphys closed both of those in 1995 and opened one office in Foxboro, which provides a central location between Providence and Boston.
Over the past five years the company has quadrupled its size, in terms of the number of units and sales volume, the younger Murphy estimated. This was accomplished through a series of acquisitions of smaller companies, including the recently completed purchase of Jiffy John in Gloucester, Mass.
Actually, Handy House’s acquisitions are part of an overall industry trend toward consolidation, said Murphy, who is president of the Portable Sanitation Association International, a 600 member trade association. A number of “mom and pop” shops, which on average own 200 to 300 units, are looking to get out of the business, he said.
“The business is becoming more complicated; there’s a lot more regulation there’s health issues, employee issues,” Murphy said.
“We think our growth can be attributed to the fact that we take care of our employees,” he added. “If you take care of them, then they’ll take care of your customers.”
Handy House serves “a wide variety of customers” in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and eastern Connecticut. Construction contractors provide the company with its “base business,” while special events planners help keep Handy House busy from April to October with outdoor events.
Among the events Handy House has provided facilities for are the Tall Ships visit to Boston Harbor, Pope John Paul II’s New England visit, and movies shot around southern New England, including Brad Pitt’s upcoming film “Meet Joe Black,” according to information on the Handy House Web site.
