Photos courtesy 2018 APSP International Awards of Excellence winners Much more than just a hole in the ground filled with water, the modern pool is both a marvel of engineering and a work of art. Customers can choose from a dazzling menu of features and add-ons that would have been unthinkable just a few years…
In November 2017, Fluidra S.A. and Zodiac Pool Systems announced their intention to merge, closing a $1.5 billion deal in July of this year. Fluidra was founded in 1969. Then called Astral, the pool component manufacturer was started by four families in Spain. From the ’70s through the ’90s, it expanded across the globe. In…
Jack Manilla, CEO of Portofino Pools, lives and breathes sports. “I’m an avid NFL fan,” says Manilla, who grew up hearing sports on a portable radio in western Pennsylvania. He remembers his dad simultaneously listening to the radio while reading the sports page. “Sports got in my brain,” he says. For pool professionals who also…
Though a concrete pool structure will never be 100 percent watertight, achieving an adequately sealed pool requires reliable materials and techniques. Steve Goodale, owner of SwimmingPoolSteve.com and a swimming pool specialist in Ontario, Canada, points out that because concrete is a porous construction material, “at most you are attempting to make a highly water-resistant structure.” Concrete will…
Industry leaders are often industry innovators, too. Several pool companies are using cutting-edge strategies and business practices to expand their market reach, grow their business and save on overhead costs. Absorbing Electrical To make its off-season more profitable, Aqua Quip in the Seattle, Washington, area, started its own electrical division of the company in 2006…
In the history of the pool industry, there have been few franchise businesses. Pinch A Penny, a swimming pool retail and service franchise, started in 1976; it was the lone franchise for years. So for an industry that hasn’t seen a new franchise company since 2012, adding three in the last five years seems like…
Michael Hilleary’s industrial-design education initially led him to a job designing zoo exhibits. Once, he fashioned an exhibit with clear, clean, chemical-free water for otters to play. It gave him an idea. “After watching the animals enjoy swimming, I began to think about how people could enjoy the same quality of water,” Hilleary says. From…
You’ve probably placed your big orders for the year — pallets will start showing up at the shop any day now. But maybe you’re dreaming of the day when you will do enough volume to buy in bulk. However, businesses of all sizes across the industry demonstrate there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to buying channels. Distribution:…
Dan Cunningham gets paid to expect the worst. The companies that rely on his business analysis services are grateful for his insistence that troubled times are never far off. Why? Because history has proven him right, and in Cunningham’s experience, misplaced optimism is a business killer. “The biggest mistake people make is overextending themselves when…
Swimmers and the environment bring all sorts of things into the pool with them: skin oils, dirt, sunscreen, bird waste, debris, bacteria — you name it, it’s probably in the pool water. As a service professional, you see the worst of it in poorly functioning pool filters, water chemistry frustrations and the cumbersome ring that…
For Brian Quint of Seattle-based Aqua Quip, the regional labor pool has talent, high expectations and plenty of options. Washington state, after all, is home to global juggernauts like Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon, all of which are famous for generous benefits packages and employee-centric work cultures. But if Quint’s company sells hot tubs, swim spas,…
A Google search on the state of labor in the pool industry reveals an ocean of ominous headlines chronicling talent shortages, cross-company poaching, a perception problem and even an epidemic of suicide among construction workers. But if the labor crisis is real, some companies seem to be immune. Many businesses, no doubt, are caught in…