Sun Pools Owner Curt Prystupa Discusses Fiberglass Pool Industry's Future
Posted by Marcus Sheridan on Sat, Jan 23, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
**Note from Marcus: As I mentioned in our previous article by Ashley Gill of Leisure Pools, I recently sent a letter to every major manufacturer of fiberglass pools in the United States and asked them to participate in our blog by discussing the future of their industry. Curt Prystupa was the second owner to respond and the following contains his enlightening thoughts. Thanks Curt!**
The swimming pool industry in general has been severely impacted by the current economic storm the United States market is experiencing. The ways things have always been done have changed the mainstream of the internet has fueled a significant market share increase for the fiberglass pools. The consumers are able to see what the real choices are for the backyard resort and have sought out the fiberglass pools for their backyard pool. This has evolved from the awareness of the pitfalls from the traditional choices for backyard pools whether a vinyl liner kit pool or a poured in place cement pool. The longevity, installation time, job site construction mess, maintenance of the pool and features have been geared towards today's consumer. The fact is that the construction industry has been very hard hit in the job market and the pool companies have scaled back their workforce like most industries, trying to get more done by cross training staff to do multiple tasks and reducing operation costs. A typical fiberglass pool can be installed with a fairly small crew of just a few workers and the pool shell being factory fabricated takes the skills of forming the pool out of the picture making the fiberglass shell and good alternative to the labor intensive cement and vinyl in-ground pools. It makes sense for the pool companies to build and install the fiberglass pools.
The solid growth in the industry spearheaded a little trade war with the various fiberglass pool manufacturer's they were trying to one up each other with more designs, more options, shell colors , more factories, more production. The reality is that to properly manage this business you can't have too many designs too many colors, too many possible combinations. The larger companies in the industry making more designs in different colors created an inventory nightmare, as the pools don't fit in a box and the designs didn't stack together making it difficult for installers to get multiple pools to reduce the shell costs to the consumer. These larger companies are now in some sort of bankruptcy proceedings and are paying for the mistakes of the runaway growth and not paying attention to the marketplace, ‘build it and they will come' failed.
The future of my company Sun Fiberglass is very bright, we have just celebrated of 15th anniversary this month we are introducing two very exciting designs, offering two new interior shell colors. We have two EPA approved title 5 factory locations, the Kentucky facility is the most centrally located fiberglass pool factory in the United States. The Florida plant has a very seasoned staff with true composite craftsman that construct all of our molds and designs. We started realizing the market pressures and started to institute a "Just in Time" production program where the pools are basically built to order; this reduces the handling of the pools and offers our customers factory fresh products. This has reduced the service calls on the products and offers a clean factory fresh ready to go pool shell for the installing contractors. We have also streamlined our pricing for the pools included more value added options like LED lights and built in waterfall cascades that are standard on certain models to increase the value of our products in the marketplace. Sun Fiberglass doesn't cut any corners we never use resin fillers or bondo layers using our Critical Point Lamination Process we have one of the heaviest pool shells in the business.
When the market rebounds the fiberglass pools will be stronger and stronger as the craftsman that would construct the traditional cement and vinyl pool move on or retire into other job fields the next generation will look more and more to the fiberglass composite in-ground swimming pools. Sun Fiberglass plans on taking care of the next generation of buyers and contractors with the best built pool in the business.
Curt Prystupa
President/CEO
Florida State Certified Swimming Pool Contractor since 1993
Sun Fiberglass Products
Brooksville, Florida Albany, Kentucky
1-800-764-7946 1-866-964-7946
http://www.sunpools.com/