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SPN FEB 2011 Pool&SpaIndustry
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk SPAFIX OWNER SUPPORTS
NEED FOR BETTER STANDARDS We profile BISHTA member Spafix UK Ltd, one of the UK’s leading hot tub repair companies whose owner Darren Waters is a great supporter of industry ambitions to raise the standards in hot tub engineering
T
he ambitions of hot tub association BISHTA to develop an industry wide qualification scheme for specialist engineers have a champion in Spafix
owner Darren Waters.
Darren, who founded Spafix, now the country’s leading hot tub repair specialists, in 2007 believes a more formal training and qualification scheme for hot tub engineers would raise industry standards and be an important development for BISHTA.
“The quality of engineers handling hot tub repairs is varied. There are some very good people and a lot of companies handle their own servicing and repairs but there’s also cases where less experienced dealers in tough times have turned their hand to servicing and have struggled. Servicing and repairing might look easy but it isn’t and knowledge only comes from experience and being out there.” Spafix specialises in installation, servicing, repairs and maintenance of a range of major hot tub makes and last year moved to new 4,500 sq foot premises in Havant. He and the business are active on BISHTA’s technical committee and helped in the recent work to set up the new association regulations.
“We pride ourselves in working to the highest standards possible and that’s the way it has to be,” adds Darren.
“There are people who call us in who’ve already been visited by three or four different engineers and they can’t fix the problem. Often
“Servicing and repairing might look easy but it isn’t and knowledge only comes from experience and being out there”
we can get it sorted out within an hour or so – that shows how the standards of work vary.” Darren now has five employees at Spafix and is due to take two more on this year. After a brief flirtation with being a chef after college he went to work for Spaform in 2000 and started work assembling spas. He learnt through experience and in four years with Spaform he had moved to being office supervisor in charge of a network of engineers. In 2004 he broke off with a partner and formed Complete Hot Tub Services, a business which took on work from Spaform and eventually took on all the servicing and repair work for Hindhead Hot Tubs and worked with Aegean Master Spas.
In 2007 he and his business partner agreed to disagree about the direction of the business so Darren set up Spafix as a sole trader. “The plan was to work for myself and remain a one man business,” he said. It was during this time when he was asked by dealers and companies to repair a wide a range of hot tubs. “I dealt with all the work dealers couldn’t handle ranging from Chinese imported spas to established brands.”
It was during this time Darren admits he built up a “wealth of knowledge”.
“I often had to do my own research into how tubs needed to be fixed and after work in the evening I’d learnt what needed to be done.” The basis of that experience led the business to expand. In 2008, the business was incorporated as Spafix UK Ltd and in the same year they moved into 600 sq feet of business premises in Waterlooville in Hampshire.
Spafix now has 110 UK trade customers. Darren exhibited at Piscine in Lyon last autumn and picked up 85 new leads.
“It was well worth it as those leads are being converted and 25 have already started trading with us. The business has also opened up a new retail outlet in Havant to service customers with spare parts and chemicals.”
The development of the business hasn’t been without a gamble or two – the biggest was probably starting what is now a thriving online parts supply business but when it started meant a
significant outlay in buying stock in. Darren’s view is that while there’s no single biggest fault when it comes to hot tub repairs there are seasonal issues.
“From mid March to mid May there’s a bit of a peak when people start switching on their heaters which have been turned off over the winter. Perhaps they haven’t been drained properly and often there’s water which has got through to the element but yes heating issues are certainly the biggest problem.
Darren is supportive of BISHTA’s work and is keen to carry the message of how important quality engineering and high service standards are. He also has the ambition to spread the Spafix name and work standards to a national level by taking the businesses current base in the south east and south of England to work alongside and with other companies – pulling them together as a UK wide operation. He already works on an associate basis with other repair companies in the South West, South Wales, Midlands, Scotland and East Anglia.
“Ideally I’d like to create something where we extend what we are doing now and offer it as a service to a wider group of customers and maintain the highest possible quality of repair and servicing.” spn
i FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
F SPAFIX UK LTD ( 0845 009 4991 :
www.spafix.co.uk
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