Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene RETAILER FOCUS NEWS
Prime Time TV Promotion Rubber Duck Fears
Kent-based, The Hot Tub & Spa Company, scored a major publicity coup for itself and the industry as a whole, with its recent appearance on the popular This Morning television show Attracting audiences of up to two million This Morning broadcasts live on weekdays from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm featuring news, home and garden, food and real life features.
High profile tv couple, Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, were at the presenting helm for an extended piece on hot tubs showing three different price banded spas including The Hot Tub & Swim Spa Company’s Hydropool model.
Reporter Alison Hammond had clearly done her hot tub homework and managed to give out price-point information despite the distraction of swimwear clad models who clearly were suffering in water that had not had sufficient time to be heated.
Aqua Warehouse, the UK’s leading supplier of rubber ducks to the trade, moved to reassure spa dealers following negative reports on the cleanliness of the popular bath-time toy.
They poured cold water on hygiene claims pointing out that their superior stock was not affected.
Several national media titles carried the report claiming researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, experiments on six identical bath toys in the laboratory. “Fungi were identified in 58 per cent of all real bath toys and in all dirty water control toys,” they wrote in a paper published in the journal Biofilms and Microbiomes. “All bath toys analysed in this study had dense and slimy biofilms on the inner surface.” None received a clean bill of health. A large number and variety of bacteria and fungi had colonised the ducks’ interiors: 75 million cells per square centimetre. Potentially disease-causing bacteria were identified in 80 per cent of the bath toys, including legionella. Commented Aqua Warehouse’s John Mabey: “We are satisfied by the quality and integrity of our supply of sealed ducks. “Of course we would always recommend the common sense approach and it would be wise to replace display ducks on a periodical basis. John adds “the scare stories failed to dampen sales with record numbers of ducks going out of the door this season.”
ABOVE: The Hot Tub & Swim Spa company’s Christina Mantoura-Clarke pictured with This Morning’s Ruth Langford and Eamonn Holmes.
ABOVE: Dealers need to take a common sense approach on hot tub ducks. Pic. Courtesy of Complete Spas.
Location Is Key Ingredient For Barnsley Hot Tubs
Two years into selling hot tubs, Sean Pickles of Barnsley Hot Tubs has decided to invest in location, location.
He has moved out of his plusher showroom, on the same business estate, opting instead for a ‘rustic theme’ display room on the busy Carlton Road. “We had a smaller but posher unit around the corner that we have given up in favour of the location facing main road,” explains Sean. “In fact it is part of an old colliery and we want to keep the rustic theme despite the makeover.”
Sean first dipped a toe into the hot tub market four years ago; hiring for two years. He progressed to direct sales in 2016, dabbling with a couple of other brands before settling on Marquis as his major supplier for both hot tubs and swim spas. “We are much happier with the margins offered by Marquis, who are able to cut out the middle man,” Sean reveals. He is also importing his own brand of CE marked Chinese spas
8 Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene NEWS 10 Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene RETAILER FOCUS
and is displaying a Tylo sauna available through Golden Coast. Barnsley Hot Tubs boasts more than 15,000 followers on Facebook, mostly thanks to a promotion, combined with local community radio, with an Intex spa as a first prize.
ABOVE: Sean Pickles is reaping the rewards of a Barnsley Hot Tubs relocation.
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