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Updated November 7, 2003
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| Pool & Spa News welcomes news tips from our readers. Send news items, with company and contact information included, to Shannon Harman at sharman@hanleywood.com or fax to 323-801-4986. |
MPG Bestows Design Awards
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 Patio Pools of Tucson, Ariz., won six top awards for outstanding design and construction in the Master Pools Guild’s Excellence Awards Contest. Patio Pools took home the Gold in the following categories: “Freeform, 250 square feet or less,” “Freeform, 251-500 square feet,” “Natural, 251-500 square feet” and “Public Swimming Pool, Commercial.”
Then the Arizona builder won Silver in the categories of “Concrete Pool Renovation” and “Concrete Spa Attached.” In all, 216 awards were given out during the Guild’s meeting in New Orleans earlier this year, with the top award — International Winner, Freeform Pool — going to Master Pools by Artistic Pools in Atlanta.
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Horizon Venture Acquires Scumball
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Horizon Ventures, a Deerfield, Ill.-based wholesale distributor of pool and spa products, announced that it has acquired Scumball, an oil-absorption product, as well as other spa products, from Wham-O, an Emeryville, Calif.-based toy company. Horizon stated that it will honor current pricing for 2003 and is actively working on 2004 programs regarding early buy, pricing and show specials.
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NSPI Updates School Schedules
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The National Pool & Spa Institute is offering an updated schedule of Tech I and II Schools and certification exams. To see the latest school calendar information, visit www.nspi.org and click on “NSPI Education.”
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Perma Crete Opens New Headquarters
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 Perma Crete Resurfacing Products, a manufacturer of concrete resurfacing material, has opened its new headquarters.
The three-acre property is located in Nashville, Tenn., and features a 50,000-square-foot main facility housing a state-of-the-art product testing lab, automated production facilities, corporate offices, dealer training rooms, a fitness center and an executive dining room.
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Custom Molded Products Expands
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 Custom Molded Products, a Tyrone, Ga.-based manufacturer of injection molded fittings for pools and spas, has broken new ground on a 69,000-square-foot space adjacent to its existing buildings.
The new structure will increase the company’s facility to 97,000 square feet of warehouse and 9,000 square feet of office space. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2003.
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Pools Closing Across Germany
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Germany is in the grip of a financial crisis that’s forcing the closure of city services from libraries, opera companies and day-care centers to swimming pools. Officials coping with lower tax revenues and investment and rising unemployment must cut costs somehow, according to sources such as The Christian Science Monitor and Deutsche Welle. Frankfurt alone has 13 pools in danger of shutting down.
“The nationwide threat to their Badekultur (bathing culture) has galvanized Germans,” states the Monitor. As Gert Benner told the paper, “There’s a new thinking process in Germany. We’re seeing a huge number of initiatives to keep our pools open, and they’re driven by people, not by the government bureaucracy. It’s a key step.” Indeed. Benner himself heads one of the first nonprofits to run a municipal pool.
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Riverside Pump Buys Homelite
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 Riverside Pump Manufacturing of Cheraw, S.C., announced it has acquired the Homelite pump product line from Charlotte, N.C.-based Deere and Co.
Riverside Pumps has purchased the tooling, intellectual property, work in progress and production rights to the product line, and plans to market the pumps under the Riverside Pump name.
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Hayward to Sell AquaLeader
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Hayward Pool Products, an Elizabeth, N.J.-based manufacturer of pool equipment, has entered into an agreement to sell the assets of its aboveground pool company, AquaLeader. Crystal Water Investments — headed by the family of Steve Cohen, president and owner of aboveground pool manufacturer Wil-Bar Int'l — plans to purchase the assets.
Hayward’s decision to sell the company is part of its commitment to refocus its efforts on its core business of pool equipment. Cohen and his investment group said they intend to run AquaLeader as a company separate from the Wil-Bar Int'l companies.
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Great Lakes to Take Cost-Reduction Steps
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Great Lakes Chemical Corp., an Indianapolis producer of water-treatment products and parent company of BioLab, announced plans for a series of manufacturing consolidations and reductions, and other cost reduction steps. The goal is to generate nearly $30 million over the next 12 months.
The initiatives include consolidation of facilities and workforce reduction. “These actions involve many difficult decisions; however, they will provide a sustainable and improved cost structure that will ensure Great Lakes remains strong, both from an earnings and cash flow perspective,” said Mark Bulriss, president/CEO.
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© 2003, Pool & Spa News
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