The pool/spa industry now has a handful of companies on the stock market, and their first-quarter reports are painting a quantified picture of the unprecedented demand of the last year.
In it’s first quarterly report after launching its initial public offering, Hayward reported a net sales increase of 96% compared with Q1 2020, to $334.4 million. That reflected the company’s global operations. When U. S. net sales were isolated, that number went higher, showing a 105% increase to $271.5 million.
Overall, the company exhibited a net sales growth of 40- to 45%. Gross profit increased by 112% to $159.9 million.
After the announcement, Hayward’s stock rose 21%, according to Nasdaq.com.
For the whole fiscal year, Hayward expects net sales growth of 40% to 45% year-over-year.
Fellow “Big 3” manufacturer Fluidra saw a sales increase of 61% to 508 million euros (about $620 million) for its global operations. North American sales showed an 86% increase in sales year over year. European sales rose approximately 65%.The rest of the world saw increased sales of 9%.
The company attributes the growth to residential pool activity. Its Residential Pool division grew 77.8% in sales, while the commercial pool business dropped 13.2%.
Saying Q1 of 2021 broke records for the company, Fluidra expects a 25% to 30% sales increase for the whole year.
Rounding out the Big 3, Pentair reported first-quarter sales of $866 million, up 22% from $710 million in Q1 2020.
Pentair expects Fiscal 2021 to see a sales increase of 6% to 11%. These figures account for the firm’s residential and commercial water-treatment operations as well as its pool-products business. The company said the pool category grew 50%.
Fiberglass- and vinyl-liner-pool maker Latham Group, the most recent firm to enter the stock market, was scheduled to release its first-quarter earnings earlier this month, after press time.
Megadistributor PoolCorp also set sales records in the first quarter.
For the first time, it surpassed $1 billion in sales, which President/CEO Peter D. Arvan called “a milestone in our company’s history.”
Net sales increased 57% to $1.06 billion, compared with $677.3 million in Q1 2020.
In the company’s Q1 earnings call, Arvan said its Texas sales grew by 68%, Florida by 33%, and Arizona by 29%.
The distributor expects sales growth for the whole year to be approximately 20%, depending in part on constraints imposed by labor and supply-chain constraints.
Leslie’s Poolmart, which has also gone public, reported a record quarter as well. Its Q1 sales of $145.0 million marked a 17.9% year-over-year increase. For the year, it expects sales of $1,175 to $1,195 million.
