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Q: residential swimming pool ( Answered,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: residential swimming pool
Category: Business and Money
Asked by: 098890-ga
List Price: $50.00
Posted: 20 Oct 2002 01:28 PDT
Expires: 19 Nov 2002 00:28 PST
Question ID: 85387
looking for a reaserch on the questions:

how many swimming pool test kits are sold a year in usa (pools and
spas)?
what is the market size?
how many residential swimming pool owners use pool man services at
least twice a month?

Request for Question Clarification by cath-ga on 22 Oct 2002 14:54 PDT
Hello, 
I have been working on your question and have much of the info.
But the order of your questions makes me wonder:
Do you want the market size of residential pools or residential plus
commercial/public pools?  Thanks, cath-ga

Clarification of Question by 098890-ga on 23 Oct 2002 01:17 PDT
hello cath-ga
i am not looking for genaral market size
i am looking for test kits market size.
the information needed is only on residential swiiming pool and spa
i would appreciate if you can direct me to any research or other
materials on the market
thank you

Request for Question Clarification by cath-ga on 23 Oct 2002 10:14 PDT
Hi again,

The number of test kits is hard to come by, and I'm still digging, but
this question arises: Apparently test STRIPS are now supplanting test
kits in the market. Are you only interested in the kits, or would you
be interested in
the strips if that is the coming thing?   I'm going to round up what
I've got
so far, to see if it is on the right path, and send it as a comment
shortly.
cath-ga

Clarification of Question by 098890-ga on 24 Oct 2002 02:31 PDT
hello cath-ga
i appreciate your effort

test kit and strips are the same to me

if you can find more figures on the test kits and strips (as a hall,
no need to seperate them)and the pool man service market.

thank you
Answer  
Subject: Re: residential swimming pool
Answered By: cath-ga on 24 Oct 2002 12:20 PDT
 
Dear 098890,

I followed up, and found someone willing to give an educated guess on
the
testing kits based on his intimate knowledge of the pool testing
market. Richard LaMotte is VP of Marketing at Lamotte Company, one of
the big three in the business. Lamotte told me that he estimates the
total market of testing kits and strips to be $8-10 million dollars/
year. With an average cost of $4-5 dollars per unit, that would be
about 2 million units sold yearly, according to my math.
(Or anywhere from 1.6 million to 2.5 million units.)


As for the number of people using pool man services: Two other sources
confirmed that the folks at Pool and Spa Service Industry News “live
and
breathe” pool service, and are most in the know.  A further comment
from that
publication’s Editor and Publisher David Dickman is that there are
25,000 pool service workers, with an average of 50 pools each. That
would add up again to his previous figure of 1,250,000 pools being
professionally serviced.

There is also an Independent Pool and Spa Service Association of
pool service companies and individuals. You can find them at:

http://www.ipssa.com/index.html

They are located in the Western states, and provide services to their
members. They don’t keep statistics. 

 I hope that this and my comment yesterday satisfy your needs. Thanks
again! cath-ga
Comments  
Subject: Re: residential swimming pool
From: cath-ga on 23 Oct 2002 11:42 PDT
 
Dear 098890,

Thank you for your question! It is a tough one because folks in the
pool
industry are very proprietary about their numbers.  Everyone fears
that
their competitors will find out something that may give them an
advantage,
and everyone has a slightly different estimate.

I spoke with Pat Fitzgerald, the V.P. of Marketing at Taylor
Technologies, one of the major sellers of test kits. She declined to
give away any specific company
numbers, but gave this as her best guess of the total units sold
yearly:

"The National Pool and Spa Institute says there are 11 million pools
and spas
in the country, so my guess is that owners buy 11 million test kits or
strips
bottles a year."  She says owners would need to buy one per year, but
the number could vary widely by the amount of testing done, and
whether
the pool was open all year (Sunbelt) or closed in winter. She doesn't
have
a proportion for the numbers of kits vs. strips sold.

 Alissa Sard-Pollack, who does P.R. for two of the major test-strip
and chemicals firms, says that test "strips" are the big thing now in
pool testing. She says that pool men and people who are really
interested in chemistry may use the traditional "kits", but that most
home users are satisfied to use the much simpler test "strip," which
is similar to those used by diabetics to test for blood sugar.

 Carvin DiGiovanni, a spokesman for the umbrella agency, National Pool
and Spa Institute, tells me his agency hasn't broken out the pool kits
numbers separately from other "aftermarket" sales, which are $3.9
billion annually. His agency does have a great amount of residential
swimming pool info available at:

http://www.nspi.org/News_Room/news_releases/825.cfm


PKData, which does market analysis for the Pool and Spa industry,
does not have a specific figure for  total pool test kit sales,
according
to their spokesman Loren Brown. You can find their extensive reports
on the pool and spa market here: 

http://www.pkdata.net/PKData/ReportsMaps.htm




Now for pool service people: According to David Dickman, editor of
Pool & Spa Service Industry News,

http://www.poolspa.com/publications/sin/credits.html

there are an estimated 5 million pools and 5 million spas in the U.S.
(not counting
above ground pools.) Dickman says that about 25% of those, or
1,250,000
are serviced by professional pool people. (He estimates 25,000
individuals
servicing pools). According to Dickman, once a week would be the usual
interval for pool service. Less than that would damage the pool. No
one
would use a service just once a month. (Pat Fitzgerald disputes this,
and says some use service less than once a week. No hard figures.)

Dickman ads that in the Sunbelt, pool care is an all-year business and
is
largely undertaken by individuals and small businesses. In the colder
areas,
it is a seasonal business and is undertaken by larger, multi-employee
companies
from Memorial Day to Labor Day. During the winter there, pools are
closed
down and there is no service. 

The following site, 

http://www.poolspamarketing.com/pdf/2000-1996-P ool-HotTubReports.pdf

is a Market Report  from Pool & Spa Marketing  (a Hubbard Publication)
titled "United States Swimming Pool Market." This report  is old,
reflects business activity up to and including the calendar year of
2000, but is located in the 2002 Reference and directory.

The numbers there are also based on estimates and vary just slightly
from
Dickman's numbers.  They summarize that there are 4 million 210
thousand
in ground pools in the U.S. and 3 million 219 thousand above ground
pools. They further break out a "Hot Water" or spa units number for
1996
of 4 million estimated.  

By the way, according to Mr. Dickman  those above ground pools are
generally serviced by the owners, not pool companies, and  would  be a
market for the pool test kits.

Of possible interest to you,  there is a International Pool and Spa
Expo coming up in Dallas next week. Wed-Fri, October 29-Nov 1. You
would be able to gather a lot of information from the folks there, if
you're anywhere nearby. Here's the
site:

http://www.poolandspaexpo.com/default1.asp

I have given you the best guesses of everyone I can reach. Hope this
will be
of help to you. If it is, let me know and I'll post it as "My Final
Answer!"
cath-ga

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