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Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene FRESH APPROACH


A Fresh Approach The rebirth of Chinese-sourced hot tubs… ABOVE: The Riptide brand represents a quality approach to Chinese-made spas.


A ripple of reaction reverberated around spa showrooms in response to the Riptide Pools promotion in the April issue of Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene.


The full page advert, proclaiming US-made hot tubs were overpriced, oversold and over here was a direct reference to the war time era when American soldiers were accused of sweeping British sweethearts off their feet, becoming known as GI brides. “I did not set out to upset anyone,” responds Huw Chivers, the UK brains behind the Chinese-funded Riptide revolution. “It was meant to be good old fashioned British tongue-in-cheek humour,” he continues. “But I am glad people have taken notice. “You don’t intend to fall out with anybody but the industry has to accept the market is changing,” he reaffirms.


Investing in the region of £800,000 into the UK alone, Riptide


Pools are reinforcing their message about quality-produced Chinese hot tubs now available in the UK at, they claim, half the price of their American counterparts.


RETAIL FOOTPRINT The Chelmsford Hot Tub Barn has become a Riptide retail footprint that is being rolled out to strategic points at Pole Hill and at Ashford in Kent, Farnham in Surrey, Alton in Hampshire, Southend in Essex and also in East Anglia with stores in Cambridge and Kings Lynn. Additionally, the first full sole Riptide dealer is now established with multiple sites in the Birmingham area.


And it is not just in the UK that Riptide is setting foundations.


Riptide’s parent company, Crystal Island Leisure products has been quietly establishing footholds throughout the world with


14 Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene FRESH APPROACH


ABOVE: The Chinese parent company is investing in the region of £800,000 into the UK alone.


acquisitions such as All Seas Spas in Holland, H2Eaux in France, and Oasis Spas in Australia, to name just a few.


Huw and his wife Sarah, have been selling hot tubs out of their Chelmsford base since 1996. Entwined with the HotSpring range over a 30 year period, the couple set about re-establishing themselves after their high profile dealership failed in 2008, at the height of the credit crunch.


By 2009 the pair had re-established and were building their own swim spas in the UK, but finding them too expensive to secure a stable business they travelled to China to find an alternative source. “I visited five different factories and could not have been more impressed with Crystal Island Manufacturing, an ISO 9001 company,


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