16W Media Group Presents The Branding Highway Podcast
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors.
16W Media Group Presents The Branding Highway Podcast
Ep # 72 Flotilla Partners: Making Waves in the Water Treatment Industry with CEO Walter Connor
Ever wondered about the behind-the-scenes workings of the water treatment industry? We sat down with Walter Connor, the dynamic CEO of Flotilla Partners, an innovative company that's creating a splash across Florida and beyond. Through an insightful conversation, Connor illuminates the journey of Flotilla Partners - from its inception in January to its unprecedented growth via strategic acquisitions.
Connor's entrepreneurial journey is as fascinating as it is insightful. Leaving behind a conventional corporate career, he ventured into uncharted waters with a stint in the portable toilets business. What's more interesting is how he successfully implemented the same business model to Flotilla Partners, bringing in a fresh perspective into the water treatment sector. You'll be riveted as Connor digs deep into the evolution of personal water consumption and the pivotal role his company is playing in transforming it.
This episode isn't just about business strategies and corporate acquisitions. Connor gets candid about the challenges of juggling family life with his role as a business leader. How does he strike a balance? What's his secret to rapidly evaluating and acquiring businesses? And why does he place so much emphasis on integrity, handshakes, and honoring one's word? Tune in for an enlightening episode with Walter Connor and get a glimpse into the world of water treatment, the power of technology in business, and the importance of values in the corporate world. You won't want to miss it!
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Sedita.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon. Welcome to episode 72 of the Good Neighbor podcast. My name is Mike Sedita and we are thrilled to be joined today by the CEO of Flotilla Partners, walter Connor. Walter, how are you doing today? I'm good. Mike, how are you? I am excellent. I'm waiting for the afternoon rain to come in, but it looks like it might hold off a little bit, because we're going to talk about water, so I figured I'd throw in a rain plug, because that's like what happens in Florida from June until September every afternoon.
Speaker 2:I don't know how familiar you are with the Good Neighbor podcast and what we do and like how we got started, so briefly, just to give you a little bit of an explanation on what we have going on, the Good Neighbor podcast started in 2020 during COVID.
Speaker 2:A guy by the name of Charlie McDermott in Southwest Florida said hey look, we're socially distant. How do we let business owners get in front of communities and families and residents and how do we let charities and philanthropic groups let people know what's going on and still not be face to face with them? And the Good Neighbor podcast was born and in the last three years, we're now a national podcast. The whole premise behind the Good Neighbor podcast is. We're a national brand with a local audience and, fortunately for me, I get to talk to cool business owners and people that have things going on in the community and learn about their business here in Tampa. And with that said, I know you guys have a lot going on at Flotilla Partners, but tell me a little bit about the business. What is it and what do you guys do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I appreciate that. So we are a water treatment services provider. We're based in Tampa, we are a private equity backed platform. We launched the platform back in January with the simultaneous acquisition of three companies across the state of Florida. We've since made two other acquisitions and we have a sixth that we are closing on in the next few weeks, so we are very acquisitive. Our goal is to be a world class water treatment services provider across the state, the southeast and beyond.
Speaker 3:So in terms of what we do and services provided on the residential side, we are handling everything from hard water concerns, drinking water concerns and well water issues. So that would be water softeners under sink, reverse osmosis, drinking water systems and then, with about one in 10 people across the state of Florida have a well water source. So there's a number of issues that arise from that, whether it be sulfur, iron and anything in between, whether it be staining that occurs from that or a smell. But I guess, at the end of the day, the blocking and tackling of what we do is our mission is to be stewards of Earth's most precious natural resource and I think, with the growing concern around the quality of water across the country and obviously the world for that matter. I think that we are filling a need by elevating this industry through the aggregation of small mom and pop businesses that we acquire, implementing technology to run the business, all to be more effective at providing services to customers.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what I was. That was kind of the first follow up question I had from this. So you guys start in January and you grab three companies. Where are those three located? Are they all here in Tampa, or are they across central Florida or the state?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so one of them is in Land O'Lakes, so the Pasco County area north of Tampa. One of them is in Tampa and then the other one is in the Port Charlotte area, our other acquisitions that we've made, since one is in the, I'd say, the Crystal River Invernus area that services all of everything from the Gulf Coast and that area all the way into Marion County, the villages, that region, and then the business that we purchased in Orlando services the I-4 corridor all the way down to Palm Beach.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's big the other acquisitions, yeah, so that's a big geographic range.
Speaker 2:That must have been a big one. Number five must have been pretty big, yep.
Speaker 3:We're growing rapidly, trying to scale and again the goal here is, yes, flotilla Partners has only been around for, at this point, about eight months, but the collective, the collective tenure and experience in the market is now pushing 150 years between these businesses. So we're preserving the legacy of those businesses. We're not being disruptive to the point where it's impacting the employees and the customers. Again, we're making investment into these businesses by implementing technology and better processes and procedures, again to better service customers.
Speaker 2:So then can you talk about number six, or is it still hush-hush, not done yet?
Speaker 3:Still hush-hush Got you. What I would tell you is that our acquisition pipeline and that would include active conversations and deals that we are getting very close to moving forward with it's across the state, it's across the Southeast and some other states. So, as mentioned earlier, our goal is to scale and we're going to do that through acquisition of a lot of these great companies. And I guess one thing to think about here is that we're not corporate raiders. We're not aggressively buying all these companies and gutting them for what has made them great. A lot of these owners are mom and pops and they don't have an exit strategy and they don't have a kid in the business. It's not a business that maybe their kid wants to be in, for whatever reason. So we're providing that liquidity event for a lot of these owners so they can move on to that next stage of their life.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, no, I wouldn't even think of the corporate raider thing. That's not what I think about. It sounds like and again, I don't know this, it's your business, not mine, I'm just a host of a dumb podcast but what it sounds like is you guys are using technology to bring these businesses up to speed so you're more efficient. But the two questions I have are are you rebranding these businesses as Flotella Partners, so it's one umbrella brand, or are you keeping that local mom and pop feel and Flotella Partners is the overlying brand? Is that part of the strategy to kind of keep it like we feel like we're mom and pop, but we're technology savvy now and we can service you better?
Speaker 3:Great question.
Speaker 3:That gets asked from every business owner that I meet with what are you going to do with my brand? It's been around for 40 years, right, I don't want it, and so forth. So I think there's two answers there. One is yes, we are maintaining the branding. There is a component of brand development that's taking place with Flotella. So a lot of our new digital marketing, a lot of our presence in terms of new marketing efforts whether it be direct mail, canvassing, as mentioned, the digital strategy a lot of that is going to be. We're investing in the Flotella brand, but we're not ripping stickers off the trucks and vans.
Speaker 2:Right, because that's a whole capital cost to do all that every time you go in. So it's smart.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, and I mean, I think, to be fully transparent. There is a point in time where, eventually, things will transition to being fully flotilla branded, but there's a time line, a shot clock to that, and we're nowhere near pushing up on that right now.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so that's a good, I mean, all it sounds like. I don't know who the private equity firm is and I don't try to do a lot of research before I talk to people because I want to kind I like this to be a conversation of two business owners in the area talking about their business. But I did do a little bit of research and your experience you personally is kind of this type of thing right. You've been a business guy going in, identifying ways to kind of process, improve companies and take them to the next level. That's part of your background.
Speaker 3:No, yeah, you know I spent out of college. I spent the better part of a decade, 10, 12 years wearing a suit corporate sales kind of whining and dining in the C-suite and I cut my teeth as a professional learning how to do that and wouldn't trade that experience. But I think I've always been an entrepreneur at heart and I left a fantastic career to start a business of all things in portable toilets. So I started a business. Yeah, so I started a business gosh 2014, doing luxury restroom trailers. So I bought a fleet of them and I was renting them out, mainly in the Tampa Bay kind of West Central Florida area, and made some acquisitions of other regular porta-potty companies across the state and kind of had this similar playbook. You know I implemented a better technology to more efficiently run the business, you know, for routing and scheduling and capacity and purposes Like logistics.
Speaker 2:Logistics, you know.
Speaker 3:Exactly. It became very clear very quickly that we were not a portable toilet company. We were a logistics company that happened to be providing a portable toilet service, and so you know that was my first business. It was successful and you know I exited that and I sold to a large strategic in 2021.
Speaker 3:And spent I had some conversations with a handful of private equity guys. You know that I knew personally and you know there was one particular firm that's backing flotilla partners that you know I developed a relationship with and really loved what they were doing and their success in the market and with you know, other founders and entrepreneurs and platforms that they had, and so, after looking at countless industries, I had, I guess, kind of taking one step back. I'd really developed a passion for skilled trade. You know I left. I was in the IT staffing and professional solutions realm and that was as exciting and as lucrative as that was. I really really loved dealing with the trades and I don't know how much more blue collar you can be than a Porta Potti company, but you know our services it's literally blue in the Porta Potti.
Speaker 3:It is literally different flavors of the blue, as I used to call it, and gross out my team.
Speaker 2:That's a nice way to put it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I used to reference it as flavors, not cents, and they did not like that.
Speaker 3:But, you know, we provided services to all of these trades companies right, and so I knew that I wanted to stay within the trades in some capacity, and I think I also wanted to do something bigger, and that's why I wanted to partner with a private equity firm and somebody that had the ability to write much larger checks that I could write personally and not having to worry about personally guaranteeing loans. And I think that there's a massive opportunity in the trades right now with an aging population of people that have been doing this for a long time and for better or worse. You know, I saw an opportunity within water treatment that there was a chance to maybe aggregate some of the market, as I mentioned earlier, and kind of get out ahead of maybe some other private equity interest there was taking place in, say, plumbing, electric and HVAC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that you know. Look, I work in a bunch of communities all over Tampa with the podcast and with some of the other marketing stuff that I do, and you're completely on point. I mean, there are AC companies that have been here in this market for 30 years, that companies are coming in and for lack of a better term, umbrella companies are coming in and buying them up and are kind of keeping the name and do it. So it is happening across the board. You know, the question I wanted to ask is is there, is there?
Speaker 2:Was there like a deciding factor for you as you're sitting here and looking at you know, across the different trades, what was it about water in Florida? Was it that there is? You know, like you mentioned wells and stuff like that. I find it crazy that there's wells in Florida, considering that the water table in the state of Florida is like the tip of my grass, let alone like underneath the earth. So, like, was there something about that that said to you, like you know, reverse osmosis systems are going to be prevalent in the next 10 years. Was there something that triggered you to do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, as I as mentioned, you know, after I sold my company, I spent probably 12 or 15 months kind of on the sidelines becoming an amateur expert, you know, analyst of sorts, and so I had the opportunity to evaluate a number of different businesses and industries and learn what made them tech, and you know, also having the experience of what made mind tech, and there was a particular business that ended up becoming one of our first acquisitions, that I had a personal relationship with the owner via my grandfather, and so that's kind of that was the trigger point to hey, maybe I should take a look at this.
Speaker 3:But what I would say about that is, once I dug in, you know, I realized pretty quickly that there, there simply wasn't. You know there's. There are some large, you know strategic in the market that have been around for decades, but it was an industry that wasn't getting the same attention and in similar fashion, like I mentioned about plumbing and HVAC and electric and roofing. But I think to take it one step further, if you look at the evolution of of kind of personal water consumption 25 years ago in the 90s, you know, bottled water came out and people were like, why would I?
Speaker 1:pay water. I bottle water.
Speaker 3:I got it out of my tap right you know, as a kid growing up here in Florida, I drank hose water with a with a, with a lizard that would, you always had to run it for an extra second in case a lizard would run out.
Speaker 3:So I think where we've come in terms of water quality, you always had that in manufacturing and healthcare and food service, but in terms of of personal consumption, we went to bottle water and in the last five or 10 years it's gone from. You know we can't waste plastic. You know we should be using, you know, reusable containers, right, and so that was a dramatic shift in hey, instead of buying these pallets of water, maybe I should, should get something at my own home. And then I think the last piece of the puzzle is you know, you look at Flint Michigan, you look at Jackson Mississippi, you know there's a, there's a growing understanding of the, the forever chemicals and plastics in the water, and an aging infrastructure of the water itself and old cast iron and iron pipes. You know.
Speaker 3:So I think I think the consumer is becoming more aware of what's in their water, even though it's being treated by municipalities. I think people are concerned about it. And so I think that was the opportunity that I saw is to be the lead dog and create a world-class business that is providing best in service, best in class water treatment services. Yeah, and I mean, and that's only Go ahead. I was going to say we're not trying to recreate the wheel. We are doing this solely by building on the blocks that have been created by these great companies, that we're acquiring them, and one of the things that we're able to do is leverage best practices from each one of those and then apply them to other locations that we acquire.
Speaker 3:So, that's what we're getting better and stronger as we get bigger, by applying all of those things across the platform.
Speaker 2:So there's two things. The first thing I was going to say, based on what you're talking about, is really two things are converging at once to make this one of those pinnacle moments. Because you have exactly what you said the globally. We're talking about recycling and the things we do in the waste that we have. So that's one component. And then at the same time we've become even though we're more obese on this planet than we've ever been in the history of man we are more health conscious overall. So people are more acutely aware of what they're putting in their body. Those combination of those two things kind of lead you to hey, look, if I have a great system built into my home that's going to give me years of service, it's worth it to do that. That was kind of my thought as you were talking about that.
Speaker 2:But the other part of it is what I was going to ask you is and you just said it kind of touched on it so you do these initial three as you're getting started what is the timeline and I'm just ballparking it Does it take you six months of? Like? You see a company in Land O'Lakes and say, ok, let me go in and talk to these owners and sit with them and kind of do like motion studies about what their day is like. Are you doing that granular of a touch and going and seeing financials and figuring out what it's worth that timeframe? Does that take two to six months before you acquire those first three? And then have you noticed now, with the experience of that, are you kind of tightening up that timeline? Can you walk into a facility that does water treatment and know within the first two days, is this worth going through or is it not worth going through? You've gotten better with that.
Speaker 3:I know within the first 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:OK, ok, cool, and but did you on that first one, or did it take a little bit of time to kind of kick over some rocks and see what crawled out, to figure out what was good, what wasn't, or the first time out of the gate you could sit down with them, talk about some financials and some operations and know I think from looking at financials and looking and asking general operational questions.
Speaker 3:I was already good at that, having had experience analyzing and making acquisitions and selling a company myself, so that wasn't foreign, clearly being a new industry for me. There certainly was a learning curve.
Speaker 2:The natural curve and terminology, stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Right, but it was a year in the works, so it wasn't like we closed on these in January. It was like, oh, what do I do now? So it was very organized and buttoned up. I would say that, like anything in life, you get better and more experienced, and so my conversations with new business owners now are more targeted. I know what questions to ask. I know what makes these businesses tick. So, yeah, 100%, there's a much swifter evaluation process now. It's simply just because I'm in it, right, right, to answer your question about timeline look, I'm not a suit, I'm an operator, I'm a. I used to wear a suit. I'm glad I don't have to wear it anymore. Me too, brother. It makes the same here. I don't tattoos.
Speaker 2:I wore the suit before I was allowed to have tattoos. I didn't have facial hair. The whole works. None of that stuff. This is I. Like this better. I agree with you.
Speaker 3:I am. I classify myself as a country club redneck. It's kind of how I would view that I'm just as comfortable playing golf at my club as I am doing anything else.
Speaker 1:Watching NASCAR.
Speaker 3:Sitting on the tailgate of my truck, so and everything and anything in between, but I would say that, with that being said, this is I'm an old school guy. I'm a firm believer that handshakes you know, being true to your word are still the most important thing. And so I think you asked me what a timeline is for buying a business, or at least getting that started. It's truly dependent on the relationship that gets developed with that business owner. Right, I'm not coming in saying I want to buy your business today. I'm saying, hey, can I buy you a cup of coffee Kind of shit and hear more about what you guys are doing, share with you what I'm doing and maybe see if there's another conversation that can be had.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And I think that's how it has to start. If you're buying or selling a business, just like any other product or service, you need to. You know, for the most part, you need to kind of like the person, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, an approach I mean it is a cup of coffee, you're right, but the approach to it, I mean you got to be good at it. You're working on number six in eight months. There could be a whole standoffish component to that. I mean, I don't know if you've run into that yet or not, but listen, if I build a business and I've done it for 40 years unless I'm burnt out and want to kind of make that transition there's got to be some people like, hey, buddy, I don't know who you think you're talking to. This is my bit, I mean. Or maybe there's not. Maybe a lot of people are just kind of like listen, it's time for me to transition. But I would think some people are kind of protective of what they built.
Speaker 3:Oh, 100%. And look, I'm fully respectful of that. In every industry that I've been in, I've been just as interested in getting to know my customers as my competitors. And so, you know, I have had some conversations with people that I find are like, hey, you know out of the gate, just so you know, I have no interest in selling my company and I'm like no worries, you know, I still would love to get to know you, right, and I it's not a, you know, I'm not burning bridges in that aspect I want to know everybody in the market, I want to know everybody in the industry. I want to know everybody. That's that makes this, this part of this niche industry, tick, and whether it's somebody I can acquire or just have a good cup of coffee with and talk, you know, that's, that's really the goal. I would tell you that the competitor in me, when I hear somebody doesn't want to sell, it's like you want more of course, of course, listen, I will, I want to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want it more, but also I'm coming, you know, I mean there's there's really no stopping this train at this point.
Speaker 2:Listen, it's like anything else, right, the girl who didn't give you any attention as the girl you wanted to get with more, the girl who's falling all over, you're kind of like, ah, all right, I guess, whatever. So I get it, man, I totally get that part of it, I mean. So we've talked a little bit about the work side of it and you kind of mentioned the golf course and the tailgate of your truck. What do you do when you're not? You know, buying out businesses and starting up companies? What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I have two kids. So you know they're heavily involved in sports and, you know, fortunate enough to have flexibility to be able to coach their teams and, you know, be a part of their lives in a way that you know, I think hopefully they will appreciate one day you know that's, that's certainly the biggest priority what?
Speaker 1:ages are they.
Speaker 2:Six and eight. Oh, those are great age and boys or girls.
Speaker 3:Eight year old boy, six year old girl. So kindergarten and second grade.
Speaker 2:But that's a fun time. That's like. That's like Little League and soccer and you know all that stuff. Now is your daughter? Is she a girly girl or is she a tomboy?
Speaker 3:I would say she's more. She's very athletic, okay, she's more tomboy, just because she's trying to keep up with her brother, but she has her girly girly moments too. So I think she loves kind of having both sides of that. But my wife was also not really a girly girl either.
Speaker 1:She was great athlete and yeah.
Speaker 3:And so you know, I think that's a lot of that comes out of my daughter.
Speaker 2:That's cool. So, but does she so? The big question is part of your fun time. Does that include any dress up tea in the afternoon, where you kind of put on some little tiara and have tea with your daughter? Is right, we're in a safe space here, walter. So if you want to talk about that, we can talk about tea time.
Speaker 3:You know what? I've been waiting for that moment and it has not happened yet.
Speaker 3:All right, it has not. I would say that you know, whether we're playing in the pool, throw the ball, doing whatever you know is with the kids, I'd say, outside of hanging with the kids, you know, if it's hanging with my boys, we're playing golf. I've I've migrated from playing basketball a couple of times a week and men's slow pitch softball to where you know. My time is just a little bit more limited. So I've kind of graduated and retired to coaching Little League and playing golf at this point.
Speaker 2:So it's funny you say that. So I actually played competitive slow pitch softball. I've played in Hawaii. I've played in California, vegas, texas. When I lived in Atlanta it was really huge there and I assume it is here. I've seen a field on 41. But at my age now my back is so bad One torqued swing and I could be, you know, could be done for hours. But I did play quite a bit and I enjoyed it. But you're right, it is a huge investment. I mean you go to play a tournament.
Speaker 2:There was a time, okay, so I'm 51. Even into my early 40s, where I would play league ball men's on Monday, sub on Tuesday, co-ed with my ex-wife on Wednesday, thursday, league men's Friday, one pitch and then play Saturday and hopefully Sunday If it was a big tournament. I mean beating the crap out of my body so bad where I've had now five shoulder surgeries and I can't even because all that softball and the way you swing down and all that stuff, I can't hit a golf ball to save my life. I get so frustrated on the golf course. So so, yeah, so that's good that you're at least able to transition to enjoy some of that time, because I couldn't do it. That would make me miserable.
Speaker 3:For the record, the transition, the basketball, was more knee related Knee related. Still still my favorite. Still my favorite thing. That happened in my late 20s, though. So I, which was unfortunate having to give that up the softball thing, I, I, still, I, I still have a cannon for an arm, I'll hose people from outfield. And the golf thing, like I said, it's just more picking my battles right now. So it's limited free time, just comparatively from before kids and my passion being golf outside of work, so that's where I spend my time.
Speaker 2:So I'll tell you one funny softball story. So I played in Alpharetta, georgia, at League Ball on Monday nights with a team, dunright Sports, and our right fielder was a guy by the name of Mark Wollers who was the closer for the Atlanta Braves and won the 1995 World Series on the pitchers mound winning the World Series.
Speaker 3:We used to call. That was my favorite team growing up, so I it's my favorite team since I'm 10.
Speaker 2:So he's playing right field, we're playing a team and the kid just doesn't stop talking trash. He's on first base Now I'm pitching. I specifically throw a ball outside so he'll shoot it to right field to Mark Wollers through 100 mile an hour fastball. The kid's rounding second. I'm like I'm talking to him as he's going around the base Don't go, Do not go on him. Wollers throws a ball from about 280 feet. When I tell you, Walter, it doesn't get more than seven feet off the ground, hits the third baseman's glove waist high and the kid is still six feet from the bag. Our third baseman just laughs, walks over, tags him and as he's walking off the mound, I'm like you're an idiot. He was a major league pitcher and he's cursing me out as he's walking off the field. But we had some good teams and Mark is a great guy. He's a realtor in Atlanta, but yeah, so softball was great, my ex-wife played. We had a really good coed team, but again my arms are shot from, just like.
Speaker 2:I don't have a cannon anymore Not that I ever really did. I was more of a pitcher, which is a skill you know. If you play that, you've got a guy that could actually throw and make it move a little bit. But yeah, I miss it sometimes, but I don't miss it on Sunday mornings when I would just lay on the couch and groan and not be able to move. So I'm past that point in my life. So what do you shoot? What's your handicap? What do you shoot when you shoot golf?
Speaker 3:It used to be a whole lot better. Right now it's a 14. Just because I mean, if I'm out once every other month limited practice there's moments of brilliance, and I played in high school so I used to be more consistent in my scoring. I think if I played a whole lot, I'd be yeah, if I played the way I did back in my 20s, I'd be sub 10. But I just don't have the time to be at the end anymore.
Speaker 2:It's that one chip from like 95 yards to three feet of the pin that'll get you coming back every time. Over and over you shoot it off into the like. I ruined so many people's houses and windows when I lived in Atlanta. It was terrible. But then you hit that one shot and you're like everything just worked and I want to come back and play some more. Then you hit 50 balls in the weeds but you get that one shot and it kind of keeps you coming back. But you get to do that, so that's good. And what part of town do you live in? What area?
Speaker 3:South Tampa. It's where I grew up. Ok, very cool.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Is your wife a beach person or boat person? You guys do any of that stuff, or no?
Speaker 3:Not really, yeah, I mean, she's actually from the same area that I'm from and we were fortunate to have a family. Family has a beach house in Annemarie, so we try to get down there as often as possible, and very nice when it went available. And yeah, I mean, look, you grow up in Tampa, you're just the water's part of you, whether it's fishing or just being. I mean, I spent a ton of time out on lakes up in Odessa too, learning how to ski and wakeboard and that's cool. So I'm not a guy that spends every waking moment at the beach, but I love being at the beach.
Speaker 2:To answer your question, so we've talked about your business. We've talked about your business acumen and the foresight to kind of get into this line of work in this industry. We've talked about what you do for fun. As people are listening to this, I mean this is a great podcast, not only for other business owners who have that entrepreneurial spirit that are thinking of possibly going into their own business, but also for homeowners that have an investment in their property. If there's one thing you want, that group of people people that are listening, that are homeowners in their car driving and saying maybe I need to make this investment what's the one thing you want them to take away from what you do? Or about the businesses that you guys own I'm not naming the brands by brand, but Votilla Partners as a whole what do they need to know?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say that the water treatment industry and historically there has been a bad image to it there have been some players, and there still are, that are a little bit more snake oil. They want to sell you on all these things that are going to kill you when they do this water test in front of you in a high pressure sale at your home. That's not who we are. We are a service-first company that is, a solutions provider. We are not pushing product, so we're not trying to knock on people's doors and try to explain to them the world's going to end if they don't install this piece of equipment.
Speaker 3:I look at this and to me it's an essential item, no different than your HVAC system or the plumbing and or electrical infrastructure. The state of Florida and other states have incredibly hard water, so without a water softener or a descaler, you're probably going to see that build up your shower heads and your faucets. All that stuff is building up in your pipes. So this is an investment in the integrity of the infrastructure of your home. It goes beyond for women a lot. I don't have any hair, but having hard water really disrupts the quality of their ability to wash their hair your skin.
Speaker 3:obviously the drinking water side, but if you really just break it down to preserving the integrity of your house, the plumbing and your appliances, you don't have to go far to find the technical specs of what the water quality is in the state of Florida, as it relates to even just hard water, not even getting into drinking water. So having some form of a water softener or descaler really helps maintain the longevity of the plumbing infrastructure of your home and, again, other appliances, including hot water heaters. So I think the way I would like to end this is we're not snake oil. Don't buy from those people. They're just trying to make a sale and move on. Find somebody that is reputable and that you can trust.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you one other follow-up question before we wrap this up, and this kind of came up with the answer that you just gave. So you're buying multiple family-owned businesses From a, and you said the thing you said that made me think of this. You said you talked about service and solutions. Okay, not necessarily a product. There are multiple manufacturing brands out there. I would think and again I could be wrong, again just a podcast.
Speaker 2:You know marketing guy, but when you buy XYZ company in Lando Lakes and then XYZ company in Orlando, did they use different manufacturers of brands? And is one of the things that you guys do is go in and evaluate that? Or is it like are you, are you a manufacturer? Are you married to a specific type of brand? And what I'm thinking about with, like an air conditioning company, some just use Reem or some just use Carrier or do you guys look at each solution individually? Or is there a line of products that you guys do use and have you had to kind of swap some of that out at different companies that didn't use those previously?
Speaker 3:It's a great question. So I guess the easiest and quickest way to answer that is I would say that, for the most part, you know there are some major manufacturers out there that dominate the market in terms of you know this equipment and each individual company that we're acquiring. You know they all have specific ways they like to do an install, specific things, maybe tweaks and nuances to some of this equipment. For the most part, they're all using some of the same stuff. Okay, you know not all, not all the time. You know there is some variance there and I would say this goes back to us not disrupting what's made these companies. You know what they are.
Speaker 3:So the short answer is we're not changing anything initially. We are constantly evaluating our vendor partners, the equipment, what is best in class, based on the solutions that seem to be? You know that we need to seem to provide and we're we're not like choosing who the best vendor is that can give us the best pricing. It really truly is based on what we feel like is the most functional in the field, what solves all the problems, what is the easiest to service, what is the best option for the customer, not what is the best option for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I've definitely. That's something that you hear a lot. And again, I keep going back to air conditioning because I do kind of put these two things on a similar parallel. You know, I've heard AC guys say to me XYZ brand is a great brand, but man, if I have to service it, it's so technical, to service it, it's difficult. So there has to be that, that kind of that balance of the good quality of product and also from you guys, from a functioning standpoint, your ability to install it at you know, reasonably easy and to be able to get it set up easy and service it easy.
Speaker 2:So thank you for answering that question. That is. That is that was one of the things that just kind of popped up. So I guess the big, real big question is you guys have all these different brands. Is there, like, what is the easiest way to contact you? Do you guys have a central location or is it just hey, if you're in Land O'Lakes, contact this one, if you're in this area, contact that. And if that's the case, we can put that in the podcast, in the information that we post. But is there an easy point of contact, like a landing page, where they can go and put in a zip code or something like that to find what's what the closest flotilla partners brand is near them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a great question. So we are in the process of going live with our. We do have a website right now flotillapartnerscom. It's a fairly general, you know site that we created at the onset of launching the platform back in January. We are we've engaged with a marketing firm, that is, we're probably four to six weeks from launching our digital initiative that will be relaunching our website. That will be tied into our technology in the field and our ads and so anybody anywhere could type in their address and find the best way to reach us. So, again, we are a in the process of aggregating these companies. We're still building and we're not going to stop. So we're continuing to improve that. You know, that was kind of part of the initial launch was hey, we needed a general website just as we got started, which it looks great. But what we're launching here soon is going to be incredibly more, you know, functional and interactive with customers.
Speaker 2:Okay, so. So here's the thing I'll ask you and I'll let you kind of lay it out there. You know we're in Pasco County. This is a good neighbor podcast, pasco, because I'm in Pasco County, but this can be heard anywhere, any place. Do you want to give out? Is there a central phone number? Is there? Is there? What's the easiest way? Someone listening to this, as hey, I got to find out what my options are, whether they're in South Tampa, orlando Lakes or Orlando. What is the best way?
Speaker 3:If you go to flotillapartnerscom and there is a contact us page within the site and that is the the most streamlined way for us to get back in contact with you, regardless of your geographic location.
Speaker 2:Perfect. So, folks, if you're listening to this, you know your water is important. It's something you put into your body and you have an opportunity to upgrade your systems where you're protecting your family, your kids from and like. I'm not going to do the scare tactics, but there is stuff in our water. I don't know a lot of people that like to drink tap water. I certainly don't drink out of the hose anymore like I did when I was a kid. So making an investment in your home, this is part of that. So if you're looking for a company that focuses on service and solutions for your need, contact flotillapartners. It's flotillapartnerscom. Walter Connor, the CEO, thank you so much for being on the Good Neighbor podcast. You have a great afternoon.
Speaker 3:Hi, mike, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast PASCO. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPASCOcom. That's GNPPASCOcom, or call 813-922-3610.