The Pool Patrol: a company with a commitment to safety

by brittney_cutler_2 | October 22, 2021 10:06 am

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By Brittney Cutler

When The Pool Patrol first opened its doors in 1995 the company handled a variety of work, including pool maintenance, liner replacement, plumbing, pumps, filters, and heaters. It was approximately five years later when the company started to focus solely on automatic covers, whereby committing full-time to the product in terms of providing installation and service. Pool Spa Marketing recently spoke with Allan Horwood, the owner of British Columbia’s The Pool Patrol, to learn more about the shop’s culture, some recent projects they have been working on, how the industry has been affected by the pandemic and what he sees for the future of the business.

Pool & Spa Marketing (PSM): What makes your company unique?

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Allan Horwood (AH): I think it’s the passion for the product and for the industry. It’s also the pride that we have in our work. As the owner of the company, I’m still very hands-on. The company is directly related to the person on top. When the person on top cares deeply and always strives to provide great service, I think it trickles down through all levels of the company and the employees.

PSM: How large is the shop?

AH: We have two 186-m² (2000-sf) warehouses that act as a distribution point and service centre for auto-covers. We have an office/warehouse centre in Vancouver and a similar office/warehouse in Kelowna. We have three full-time employees at each location, plus myself to which I drift between the two shops.

PSM: What is the primary business of your shop? What secondary business does your shop also perform within the aquatics industry?

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AH: Our primary business is selling and servicing automatic pool covers. As for the secondary business, we don’t want to compete against the pool builders who give us business. If you’re a pool maintenance company, we have no interest in doing pool maintenance because that same company will generally refer us when any auto-cover repair, sales, or services are needed. So, we have elected not to compete against the same people who give us business.

PSM: Does your shop perform renovation work?

AH: We solely focus on auto-covers—we’ll do major repairs including removal and reinstallation of newer units. We do mechanism upgrades, which could fall under the category of renovations; we’re literally taking a large amount of the auto-cover system out and putting another large amount of the system back in. We’re involved in renovations on pools from a consulting standpoint, where there is an older pool, and a builder is going to tear it apart. On many of these projects, an auto-cover is being installed and builders will often consult us to figure out how to do it. We do a lot of consulting work and a lot of site business.

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PSM: What type of projects have you been working on recently?

AH: We’re currently involved in a ‘triple infinity edge’ auto-cover, with hidden tracks on two sides. The water level is at the height of the deck and spills over into a gutter. In this case, the track is hidden on the wall. We’ve done a ‘double infinity edge’ pool cover with the tracks exposed; however, this is a newly designed auto cover and we’re attempting to hide the tracks in the pool’s spill-over area.

PSM: How much of the automatic cover installation process is handled in-house?

AH: We have three components to the company: a retail/consumer division where we sell auto-covers directly to the consumer; a wholesale division, where we only sell to pool builders and they install the product themselves; and a sub-contractor division, where pool builders hire us to install a product we sold them. We split the business in these three areas for simplicity.

PSM: What equipment does your company currently use to complete your projects?

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AH: We use a lot of hand tools. All five of our service vehicles are fully equipped with a variety of hand-powered tools that would be required to tackle any auto-cover job.

PSM: What does your planning and design process involve?

AH: As the owner of the company, I spend a lot of time driving from site to site and talking to people. On any given day, I talk to landscape architects, homeowners, general contractors, and/or pool builders. I spend an enormous amount of time on the phone, looking at drawings, and being on-site. I enjoy driving to the job site and talking to everyone on-site. This aspect of the job can be very time-consuming when factoring in traffic and how busy we are. A lot has changed—especially with COVID—I can now use Zoom or FaceTime to inspect a jobsite.

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PSM: How is technology changing your business?

AH: In a lot of cases, the pool industry is slow to respond and embrace technology. It’s getting better, but with being in the business for 35 years, I recall clearly when fax machines came on board and people were reluctant to use them. I think technology has helped, but the pool industry has not embraced everything that is currently available. We’re also guilty of this, too. Certainly, using FaceTime has helped a lot, as the builders we work with who are on a jobsite can simply call us on FaceTime and so we can help them.

PSM: What is the key to staying successful in this industry?

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AH: There was a time in The Pool Patrol’s history where we became a little stagnant. In looking back, I’d say one of the keys to success is to not stand still; you’re either moving forward or moving backwards. At one point, we were unaware we were moving backwards, losing market share, and not moving in the right direction. So, we had to make some changes quickly, and once we did, we started moving forward again.

PSM: What are the future plans for your business?

AH: Right now, during COVID, we must manage supply chain issues, the growth of our company, while at the same time maintain the quality of service we provide to the businesses we already have. This has always been a mandate of The Pool Patrol; we never want it to get to the point where we’re unable to continue offering the high level of service that we’ve offered in the past.

PSM: How has COVID-19 affected your business operations? How has the shop coped through the various stages of the lockdowns?

AH: When COVID first hit in March 2020, every small business froze, including ours. For about two weeks, nothing happened, we had just expanded, we hired a new employee, and I thought the sky was falling. I thought this was going to be the end of the business as there wasn’t going to be anyone with any money and, typically during times of economic downturn, discretionary spending has not been kind to the pool and spa industry. In this case, I was wrong, the weather was great, people had to be home early with their kids, and summer holidays had started early. As a result, the pool industry was booming. This period was exciting but also scary because we were all trying to social distance which meant putting one employee in a service truck as opposed to two. We were not sure of the risks which was also scary at times. Now, it is getting a lot better, people know how the disease is transmitted. I’ve asked my staff to be careful and to take all the provincial advice into account.

PSM: How has the shop adapted to the surge in homeowners looking to create a backyard staycation? What is being done differently now in terms of shop operations to handle the increased number of projects compared to pre-pandemic?

AH: Like everyone, we are pivoting like crazy. Early on I don’t think anyone was keeping up properly as the pool and spa industry was blindsided and as a result there were backorders and delays. Our conventional methods of shipping and receiving product were failing and we had to start using a dedicated 19.5 m (64 ft) flat deck full of auto covers to be shipped across the country. This way we could control the reliability and cost of the shipping and keep our customers properly informed.

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/general/the-pool-patrol-a-company-with-a-commitment-to-safety/

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