No growing pains: The expanded headquarters of America’s Swimming Pool Co. includes indoor educational areas along with training pools — two outdoors and two indoors. Adding 4 acres to the property’s footprint also paves the way for future expansion.  The company is based in Macon, Ga.
RACHAEL HAMMET / AMERICA’S SWIMMING POOL CO. No growing pains: The expanded headquarters of America’s Swimming Pool Co. includes indoor educational areas along with training pools — two outdoors and two indoors. Adding 4 acres to the property’s footprint also paves the way for future expansion. The company is based in Macon, Ga.

The fastest-growing pool service company in the nation has just expanded.

America’s Swimming Pool Co. employees and franchise owners now will train in one location at the recently remodeled company headquarters in Macon, Ga.

The 4,000-square-foot addition includes four training pools (two indoors and two outdoors), a lecture-style classroom and indoor training facilities.

“[With this facility], a new franchise owner does not have to leave our property to get fully integrated into the swimming pool business,” said Steward Vernon, founder/CEO of ASP.

Prior to the expansion, ASP offered training to its franchise owners, but it wasn’t all under one roof.

“It was really piecemealed together from several options,” Vernon said. “We had some training facilities on site. We used existing franchise owners’ businesses as they would have jobs — we would piggyback off our relationship with them. It was really an orchestrated effort for training before, whereas now we’re all on one property.”

ASP’s facility means that not only will new franchise owners have the ability to attend the company’s two-week Pool School, but they also can send employees to Macon for a week or two of training, regardless of weather.

“It was really a first-class operation and very well done,” said John Garcia, director of chemicals, retail and national accounts for Covington, La.-based PoolCorp. Garcia toured the facility in February because ASP falls under his national accounts role.

Plus, the recent expansion also included adding 4 acres to the property footprint, clearing the way for future developments.

“We specifically built this building on the property so that we could add the same type building again in our next phase of expansion,” Vernon said. That phase is projected to commence in the next three to four years.

ASP was founded in 2001 and started franchising in 2005. Currently, the company has franchises in 200 cities and 16 states.