Dear infopros,
thanks for your patience!
Jack Cergol, Chief Staff Executive for the National Pool and Spa
Institute says that he doesn’t have figures yet for 2003. However,
last year (2002)the pool manufacturers saw between 8-10% growth.
This year, so far, he’s getting anecdotal evidence that sales have
been soft. This is attributed to all the spring rain in the
Northeast,
and Midwest and South. But sales seem to have picked up lately,
starting in August. And you can still build pools in the south and
southwest all through the winter. So he’s not saying for sure
that this year will be worse than last. Also, since 911, people
are traveling less and staying home more. So the pool industry has
probably benefited from that because “people look to their home to
be that vacation place.”
To get any idea of how the softening in new pool sales affects
other sectors of the pool industry, Cergol gave me the total
number of in-ground pools in the U.S.: 5 million. Then the
number of new pools built in 2001 was 240,000, and the number
of pools built in 2002 was 270,000. So there was a difference
between those two years of 30,000 pools built. As Cergol
says, if there are 30,000 less pools built this year, the impact
on the other sectors (chemicals, toys, service, etc) will be
probably be “negligible.’
Cergol says, “On the hot tub side, sales have grown between
8-12 percent every year. That’s an incredible industry.” He
thinks the emphasis lately on health, staying home, and family
togetherness will continue to contribute to healthy hot tub &
pool sales. He thinks that the pool buyer demographic is skewed
higher than average, and a little less vulnerable to economic
pressure. (The hot tub owner is about average, and above
ground pool owners a little bit lower. The demographic research
he has, however, is from 1997, and will be repeated soon.)
As for your question about mass marketers and club stores,
Cergol says he doesn’t know if their pool chemical sales are
taking away from the pool specialty stores. He says that
more and more mass marketers ARE selling hot tubs. But he says
that’s not eating into the specialty hot tub retailers because they
provide a full-service type of security that consumers like.
The National Pool and Spa Institute is the umbrella association
for all the pool industry trade people, manufacturers, service,
chemicals, et. You can find them at:
National Spa & Pool Institute
2111 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-838-0083 Fax: 703-549-0493
http://www.nspi.org/about_nspi/
I spoke with a Mike Miller, a manager for a wholesale spa buyers
group in San Diego. He had a gut feeling that while
mass market stores and club stores have grown “slightly”
in their share of the spa and supplies industry, it has not been
“dramatic” growth in recent years. He says where they
take over the market is where they take over every market
and that is with the price-conscious lower end consumer. He
has not noticed any big losses among his retailers to the
big stores, certainly it would be under 10% if he had to
guess.
Mike Miller 619-282-6800
Richard Lamotte, Vice President of Marketing for Lamotte company
(one of the top three in pool testing), was very forthcoming.
He just got back from a distributors’ conference in Monterey,
California. There were 16 companies there (representing chemicals,
and other pool products.) He said he felt his company was fortunate
to be doing FLAT business, because everyone else there was hanging
their heads. He saw figures that one of the largest chemical
suppliers is down 10-12% this year.
The cause of the slowdown that he cites, along with everyone else,
is the weather. Manufacturers were not able to start their spring
building in the NE, the Midwest and the South because of all the
rain. Many of them lost contracts. The large in-ground pools saw
“not much growth,” but were able to start up in August. The above
ground pool business “dropped like a rock.” One small businessman
usually sells about 12 of those above ground pools a season.
He only sold 6 this year. This is consistent with Cergol’s comment
that the above ground buyers are more vulnerable to economic
dips.
Lamotte says that the weather affects testing more than the economy
does. Many homeowners didn’t even open their pools this year ‘til
July 4th, so they weren’t testing ‘til then. Public pools, which
must test 3-4 times a day, remained closed too.
Lamotte said everyone at the conference was trying to get stores to
make “early buys” to bolster their 2003 numbers. He said the
distributors were “cautiously optimistic” about next year,
believing that the chance of two bad weather years is unlikely.
Richard Lamotte, VP of Marketing
800-344-3100 (within the U.S.A.)
410-778-3100 or 410-778-3101
Charlie MacDonald, of FME Public Relations, does PR for Biolab, which
is the world’s largest manufacturer of pool chemicals.
He agrees that the weather has hurt Biolab’s business this year. The
company is “still profitable, but has not met it’s projections for the
year.” Cold weather has cut down on the “bather-load,” and kept pools
closed. Rain has also kept people out of the pool. Less people
in the pools means the pools need to be sanitized less. While Biolab
is “still profitable” this year, “sales are off projections.”
He said energy costs are up this year, and for manufacturers, that
also cuts into profitability.
BioLab Water Additives
P.O. Box 30002LawrencevilleGA 30049-1002USA
Region: Americas
Fax Number: + 678 502 4724
Telephone Number: + 678 502 4699+800 600 4523 extn. 4242
Email Address: mprather@biolabinc.com
In general, MacDonald says that the pool chemical industry is somewhat
resistant to economic downturn, because people have to keep cleaning
the pools they have. And if they can’t afford to travel, they can stay
home and use the pool. But slowdowns in new pool construction
will eventually hurt the chemical business too.
Dave Dickman is editor of Pool and Spa Service Industry News. He says
he has not gathered figures for market size for this year compared
to last. But he does know how pricing is doing. He says that after
years
of steady increases, pricing is staying flat this year. In Southern
California,
the average pool man is charging $75 dollars a month for full service,
(just like last year) and in Florida and Northern California the
average
price is $90 a month (like last year.) He says pool service is so
spotty and seasonal in the rest of the country, the figures can’t
really be trusted. He has
no way to predict next year’s industry health, since he doesn’t have
figures on market size yet.
Pool and Spa Service Industry News, Editor and Publisher David Dickman
e-mailed him at:
dadickm@aol.com
Website:
http://www.poolspa.com/publications/sin/
PKData is the market analysis company that does the research
for the National Pool and Spa Institute. I spoke with Loren
Brown, who was very helpful last time we spoke. However,
now he is requesting that you contact him directly. Most of
their information is proprietary, and available for a charge,
including the 2003 U.S. Residential Swimming Pool and Hot Tub Market
Report just out.
The website is at:
http://www.pkdata.net/PKData/About.htm
Brown’s e-mail is:
lbrown@pkdata.com
Costco Wholesale Products (the club store) had the rosiest
report to give me of anyone. David Greek is the buyer for
sporting goods (including water sports) for the corporate
office in Issaquah, WA. He told me that the Pool and
Spa division, which sells chlorine and pool supplies, above ground
pools, and spas, was up 33% for 2003 over 2002 (their
fiscal year ends Aug 31). The Water Sports division, which sells
inflatable pools, goggles, wet suits, pool floats, and pool chairs,
was up 28%. (Even with all the bad weather.)So he’s very confident
in predicting that next year will show the same increases.
Greek says Costco has been selling pool products ever
since it has been in business, but he says he doesn’t
know whether it’s conclusive whether they are taking
market share away from the pool specialty stores. He says
they are not competing directly because they don’t sell
the full breadth of product that specialty stores sell.
In chemicals, for example, they only sell chlorine, 3” tabs,
HTH granular, and Sockit.
Costco Wholesale Corporation
999 Lake Drive
Issaquah, WA 98033
Finally, pool toys! Cindy Lopez is the Marketing Director of Sevylor,
Inc. which is the largest distributor of inflatable pool toys in
the U.S.
She says the bad economy has hurt the pool toy industry “a little.”
She says her industry and her company were affected right after
9/11- even though people didn’t travel, they were very cautious
about spending the first year. However, since then, “it’s been a
progressive upswing, “ as “people are looking for inexpensive ways
to have recreation.” She says, “I think we’re going to have a
better year this year.”
SevylorŪ Inc.
Corporate Office
6651 E. 26th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90040
TEL: 1-323-727-6013
FAX: 1-323-726-0481
General E-mail:
sevylorinc@sevylor.com
Marketing/Advertising E-mail:
marketing@sevylor.com
I tried to talk with Leslie’s Poolmart, Inc, the nation’s largest
pool supply company. The spokesman there declined to talk.
The latest figures I could find on the website indicated that Leslie’s
had 3.8 percent growth in 2002.
http://www.lesliespool.com/index4company0.asp
While I was on hold with the National Pool and Spa Institute, I heard
a recording that held an interesting fact. The President’s Council on
Physical fitness and sports reports that swimming is the number one
sport in the country. 100 million people a year participate in
swimming.
With that kind of popularity, the pool industry does not seem likely
to go under!!.
I hope these several “snapshots” from various companies gives you
the kind of overall picture you wanted of the health of the
swimming pool industry. If anything is unclear, please press
the “clarify answer” button, before you rate my answer.
Take care,
cath-ga
Google Answers Researcher
search strategy:
pool industry growth
pool manufacturers
Pool toys |
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