www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
Pool&SpaIndustry JUN 2011 SPN
27 PUTTING THE CLIENT FIRST
Alan Stokes started building pools 43 years ago. Aqua Rio Swimming Pools is now Hampshire’s biggest specialist swimming pool building business, family run and a passionate supporter of SPATA
Alan Stokes admits he’s a good listener.
“When someone talks to me about wanting a pool, it gives me a thrill because there’s nothing better than discussing it with the end user. I listen and we provide the pool exactly as they want it,” says Alan, still at the head of Southampton based Aqua Rio Swimming Pools – and Hampshire’s biggest specialist swimming pool company. “I love getting close to the client and sharing their enthusiasm for the project. It’s infectious and very important.”
For Aqua Rio, designing and building swimming pools at the top end of the market has become a family affair and a success story. Alan’s brother Richard, father Len, brother-in-law Dave, son Ian and apprentice grandson Lea have developed the company into a long term family business where large pool projects, mostly now indoor pools, have kept the business alive and prospering.
“We’re really busy now which is great but we are focused on the very top of the market and life is a lot easier there. We were lucky enough to sign up a £400,000 pool project at the start of the recession. It’s a very expensive pool, a major project and that fireproofed us in the first year of the cutbacks. Of course I reacted, cut back and cut costs everywhere I could. Our servicing work was cut in half as
people started doing it themselves and then everyone started buying chemicals off the internet so I can’t disguise the fact that things have been tough. I think they have been for the whole industry. The good news was that in the middle of all the tough times we had a mini- boom in refurbishments. I think these kept us and a lot of other companies alive.”
Alan started the origins of Aqua Rio Swimming Pools in 1968 when he bought an excavator. “I didn’t know anything about swimming pools. I started a plant hire business and dug foundations for new houses. Then a neighbour asked me to build him a swimming pool and I went away and learned how to do it. It sounds unlikely but that’s how it happened.” Two years later his brother returned from Canada and they developed the pool side of the business. In 1972 their father Len joined and they formed Aqua Rio concentrating on pool construction. Alan is a passionate supporter of SPATA and he believes the association has been a close and essential part of how his own pool building business has grown and matured. “SPATA has teeth – that’s important. It has been hugely successful and influential in putting together building standards for the industry – ensuring quality work and consumer confidence. I can’t stress how important that has been
“I love getting close to the client and sharing their enthusiasm for the project. It’s infectious and very important”
over the years – it’s the most important thing in our industry,” adds Alan, a SPATA Past President who is still on the SPATA council. “When I started to get involved with SPATA it was a bit like an Old Boy’s Club. The first meeting I went to was in 1969 in a pub. In the early 70s Peter Geekie was influential in developing SPATA and expanding the idea of regional meetings which developed SPATA and it became much more professional.
“I think the setting up of the BSPF was a brave move but it has worked and what we have seen is a steady increase in the professionalism of the organisation and stronger and stronger standards – that’s all you can ask.”
He urges more specialist companies to join.
“I don’t know why they wouldn’t. There are some of the biggest multi-national companies who feel they don’t need an association but
for the rest of us it’s essential. “I keep thinking about retiring but the business is vibrant and rewarding. We are recruiting again now for the first time in a while. Recently our staffing has been the lowest for 30 years and that has been a sign of the times but it is getting better. Our strength is building high quality pools, mostly indoors and keeping our costs tight. We restrict ourselves to Hampshire. It’s worked for us and helps us keep a level of control. I have built pools abroad – one on Barbados another in Antigua but that’s because I built Hampshire pools for clients and then followed them when they wanted something abroad. “It’s all down to that thing about being close to the client.” spn
i FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
F AQUA RIO SWIMMING POOLS ( 023 8045 3773 :
www.aqua-rio.co.uk
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