he idea was simple — and a long time in coming. “Why not find a way to pair automatic covers with fiberglass and vinyl-liner pools?” asked some forward thinkers.
The product was already commonly associated with upscale concrete pools. Over the past six years, fiberglass and package-pool manufacturers had been repositioning their products to compete with their concrete counterparts. The next logical step toward creating a high-end image was to add the capability of installing an automatic cover while keeping the tracks invisible.
The idea caught on so well that auto cover manufacturers began to team up with the makers of package and fiberglass pools to offer fully integrated systems. Result: The covers are more popular with builders. In the past, some had been reluctant to sell them because installation could be difficult and customers were apprehensive about the cost.
“It is amazing that we didn’t figure this out sooner because it’s all such a natural fit,” says Wes Mathis, co-chairman of the board at Pool Cover Specialists in West Jordon, Utah. “We have experienced about 18 to 27 percent growth every year. But lately, two-thirds of that growth has been in the vinyl-liner pool market. It’s been a nice marriage.”
On the fiberglass pool front, Aquamatic Cover Systems, a manufacturer in Gilroy, Calif., recently teamed up with San Juan Products in Lakeland, Fla. They created an all-in-one pool shell kit and integrated cover system that can be sold directly to the fiberglass pool dealers or builders, and easily installed.
The trend has provided the automatic cover business with one of the biggest shots in the arm the industry has ever seen. “The ease and ‘packagability’ of [the pool/cover combo] is one thing,” says Tom Dankel, Aquamatic’s vice president. “It’s a clean product with seamless installation. It’s not something that is just thrown together.”
Overcoming obstacles
The pairing of automatic covers with vinyl-liner and fiberglass pools didn’t happen overnight. The process was problematic on two fronts: First, covers can be expensive, and fiberglass and package pools customers often are on restricted budgets. Second, until recently, installation of automatic covers on these types of pools usually had unpleasant results, with the cover tracks mounted right on the deck.
|
Covering the future
|
What new frontiers are yet to be conquered by the automatic pool cover manufacturers? With vinyl-liner and fiberglass pools joining their concrete counterparts as major market niches for their products, automatic cover makers are seeking new ways to sell their products.
The next likely target is swim spas. Some manufacturers have already started designing with these little vessels in mind.
And after that, why not an automatic cover for aboveground pools? There are thousands and thousands of them out there, and the only factor standing in the way is cost and a little imagination. Some manufacturers say they’re already exploring the possibilities.
|
|
“Initially, fiberglass and vinyl-liner [pools] were limited in the types of installations you could do,” says Rick Clark, president of Cover-Pools Inc. in Salt Lake City. “You couldn’t get that nice under-track, and people just stayed away from automatic covers.”
Most consumers didn’t want to hear about the product if you couldn’t hide the cover, its tracks and mechanisms. “For years, if you wanted an automatic cover on a vinyl-liner pool, you had to have a surface track,” Mathis says. “You’d have this new, elegant pool with a conspicuous track running down the deck. We lost a lot of business because people didn’t want to look at that track.”
A few years ago, vinyl-liner and fiberglass pool manufacturers started designing a variety of systems that would assimilate the covers seamlessly into their vessels. Aquamatic’s Dankel partnered with San Juan and developed a recess box for the cover. “They ship the box to us and we preinstall the drive unit in the factory,” he notes. “The box … also serves as the shipping container.”
“When the builder gets it on site, the mechanism is already installed,” Dankel adds. “All he has to do is key the fiberglass box onto the pool and then the track is screwed to the top of the shell.”
This system gives the builders options on deck design. The coping can be brick, stone, concrete or even raised bond beams. Regardless of the material chosen by the builder, the tracks become invisible once it’s finished.
Making the move to integrate vinyl-liner pools and automatic covers was a little trickier. Package pools often incorporate custom designs more readily than fiberglass vessels can. “With vinyl-liner pools, you couldn’t stock [automatic covers] on the shelf,” Mathis says. “You had to wait for an order that had all the measurements, and then you could pick the cover.”
But by teaming up with a specific manufacturer — in this case, Fort Wayne Pools in Fort Wayne, Ind. — Pool Cover Specialists was able to tailor its product to the pool manufacturer’s specs. “Because we could premanufacture and integrate them with Fort Wayne, all the major players got interested,” Mathis recalls. “It was all about the timing. Vinyl-liner pools were growing in popularity, but this took it a major step forward, especially back East, where about three out of four installations are vinyl.
“The pool-kit manufacturers were on the sidelines and then realized they could get a piece of the auto cover market,” he adds.
Coverstar Inc. is another automatic cover manufacturer that saw the upside of designing its products to go with package pools. Like Pool Cover Specialists, it teamed up with a vinyl-liner manufacturer. The result of its efforts was a “one-size-fits-all” cover that didn’t have to be customized from pool to pool.
“What we did was put encapsulation for the track within the coping,” says Harold Rogers, Coverstar’s vice president of sales and marketing. “Basically, they could integrate the cover into the pool package and make it easy to install. It requires little to do it.”
Joe Fleming, national sales director at Blue Hawaiian Fiberglass Pools in Largo, Fla. says his dealers use a system called the “pool within a pool” to help hide the cover tracks. “If you took a free-form pool and made a rectangle around it in the concrete, you’d have a step up,” he says. “You can then put the tracks under that lip. Before, the old track was 31&Mac218;2 inches wide, but now it’s just a groove in the concrete.”
Domino effect
With consumers concerned more and more about safety these days, installers now can offer a pool with an automatic cover built right in. The appealing designs have helped boost the image — and sales — of fiberglass and package pools.
“Our sales have been strong in the Midwest, and it’s almost assumed that they’ll have [automatic covers] on pools there,” says Michelle Stewart, national sales director at Hawaiian & Aloha Pools, a fiberglass pool maker in Adelanto, Calif. “We are also noticing a surge in Central California.”
Fleming adds that by embracing the automatic cover, his company has seen its sales pick up. Of course, the pool sales mutually boost the number of covers sold.
