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Local Voices

Red Coat

Ashley and John Marrat of Red Coat Services, based in Brookhaven, were named “Entrepreneurs of the Year” by Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE), which held its annual awards and holiday luncheon on December 5 in Magnolia Hall at Piedmont Park in Atlanta.

            The Marrats operate the state’s only company specializing in bed bug detection and eradication, using pesticide-free heat remediation, along with an alpha-dog employee – Sade, a beagle trained in insect detection.
            "Consumers and businesses alike do not have the real information when it comes to bed bugs," Ashley Marratt says. "General pest control aggravates the problem with pesticides and DIY methods are useless to fully eliminate a problem. We don't use a sprayer or toxic chemicals - just heat, so our work is 'green,' and it's guaranteed to work."

             Until recently, bedbugs were largely an unpleasant relic of a bygone era, but increased global travel and pesticide resistance have reintroduced to them public areas and, increasingly, private homes. The Marratts had worked with service dogs since 2000, training them to sniff out drugs, explosives, firearms, and other contraband. When widespread bedbug infestations started making news in recent years, the couple realized another skill set of her four-legged colleagues: insect detection.

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            “Even though we had impeccable financial ratings, several banks turned us down during the credit crunch, so we turned to ACE, who assisted us with acquiring this new equipment,” John Marratt said. “Now we’re serving the state and poised for even bigger growth.”
               ACE, a nonprofit  community development finance institution with offices in Cleveland and Decatur, extends loans to small businesses and start-ups that lack access to traditional forms of credit, as well as Georgia Green Loans and energy efficiency audits.

                  ACE serves 68 counties in Georgia, including metropolitan Atlanta. Since 2000, ACE has loaned more than $10 million to hundreds of businesses, helping to generate or retain more than 2,500 jobs in Georgia. CNN Money has ranked ACE among the Top 10 microfinance organizations in the country.

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