SWIMMINGPOOL INTERNATIONAL
The podcast from pool experts for everyone
SWIMMINGPOOL INTERNATIONAL
#12: The Lighthouse Journey-velocity swim jet and much more with.
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A warm welcome to our international swimming pool podcast. In front of me sits Angela. Angela Herman, export manager at Banker Manufacturing in Germany.
SPEAKER_01And in front of me sits Michael. Michael Fither, export manager at Fluvor Schmeinberger from Tubing in Germany. Hi Michael.
SPEAKER_03Hi Angela, how are you today?
SPEAKER_01I'm pretty well. We're in this beautiful, beautiful Whitney, I have to say. And I haven't seen, since we live in mainland Europe, so much grassland for a long time, I really have to say.
SPEAKER_03I come here normally twice a year or so.
SPEAKER_01It's amazing. I just recommend if you want to have a quiet, peaceful moment, just go to Whitney. Yes.
SPEAKER_03And but more interestingly, we are sitting here today with uh with Dan, Dan Phillips, uh managing director and owner of um Lighthouse, and we are very exciting to learn more about and to get to know uh Dan uh better. And very much welcome, Dan. Nice to uh to see you again. Welcome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the Tomnik really is why we're here today. It's called your company is called Lighthouse, which I kind of already like a lot to be honest, because it's not such uh you know, you can yeah, I mean lighthouse is related to water at the end. Yeah, and uh it's um I have been at your place where you also manufacture and there is a lighthouse. That's right, yeah, in Plymouth.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so the the name lighthouse actually derives from Plymouth, where one of the first lighthouses in the world was designed and built, um, and it's currently on the hoe in Plymouth, right on the land. They moved it from a rock out at sea and brought it into land when they had to build a new one out on the Ed of Stone Rock, and it's called Smeaton's Tower. Um, so Plymouth actually has a history of engineering and lighthouses, which all fit with the water. Wow. And that's where the name sort of derived from originally.
SPEAKER_01And you said it's the oldest maybe in the world. When was it built then?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I'm not sure the exact date, but it was one of the first lighthouses in the world. Um was Smeaton's Tower.
SPEAKER_03So it's a couple of hundred years.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah, yeah. A few centuries.
SPEAKER_03Interesting. I I never thought about this uh when hearing the name uh lighthouse is a company name.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I I really love it because it's really catchy, you know, and and you even have this cool story, but we are definitely not talking only about lighthouse. It's because we call the podcast today velocity, swimjet, and much more. Yeah. And um, well, just start and tell us something. You are a family-owned business, as as we probably flew and bank alike a lot, no? And you call it it's a lighthouse journey. So what is it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think it's like any um business. They evolve from scratch, from a seed in someone's mind originally. Um, a bit of a background. I'm originally a pool engineer, lived in South of France for a long time, uh working on swimming pools, so that's where we got into the industry. Um, on moving back to the UK, uh we started a pool company, uh standard end user pool company, building pools down in Devon, which was very successful, and we had a lot of requests for swimming pool heat pumps at the time. Uh, because of our history, well, my personal history being in France, at the time we imported heat pumps from France rather than going to a traditional UK distributor, um, because we didn't know them at that point, and then that grew over time, where that manufacturer was looking for a distributor in the UK, and because we had that contact, I speak French as well, we started bringing them in from France direct and then selling them to the trade, which is quite good. That company in France grew quite extensively with other products within their range, pool cleaners, uh, robots, um, pumps, things like that. And over time, the business built from a pool company, builder, into a distribution company. And then in 2015, we decided to solely go into distribution and supply and the trade.
SPEAKER_03Okay, and uh in in between, you also uh when I looked at your website, you know uh you also started uh the this installation. You still do installations?
SPEAKER_02No, so 2015 we stopped working and doing installations with the public. Um business just got too busy. Um we're obviously doing some things right. Yeah. And I had to take the decision then, you know, do we continue building pools, maintaining servicing pools, or do we concentrate on the distribution and the product development and the engineering of how swim pools work and bringing that to the UK market? Ah, okay.
SPEAKER_01And you are you said distribution, but at the same time, you're a manufacturer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we are, and I think you know, very similar to the Benke story. Um, you know, we're a family-run business, and we my natural being is to be curious. So over time, as we evolved doing distribution, we saw we've seen gaps in the market, we've come up with ideas. Um, my business manager John Whiteside, he's very into developing new products as well, been in the industry for 30 years himself. So we both have ideas. Some of them stick, some of them don't. Um, and actually, that's a side of the business we do find exciting as well because we can come up with products that people like, develop them from scratch, um, and yeah, bring them to market. So it gives us an opportunity with our trade partners to offer them some of the best products in the world from great manufacturers in Europe because of the volume, but also some bespoke British-made products that we can design, play around with, and really get our teeth into. So, yeah. And you distribute uh all across the UK? So for products that we import, yeah, so the likes of Bayroll, Polytropic, Wibotics, Cover Seal, some of the really best brands that are available in the market. We just generally concentrate on the UK, Ireland, and Channel Islands. But for our heat form branded items, so particularly our swimjet velocity and our panel pools, we are starting to export that to other countries, um, particularly India at the moment on the swimjet and a little bit into Europe at the moment, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Ah, and well, I I guess we get into it a little bit deeper um once we are talking. But uh, so you are manufacturing the swimjet?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So in Plymouth, we manage as well as our main distribution hub, we manufacture velocity swimjet, we manufacture the heat form panel pool system, which is really popular with the commercial market in the UK. So swim schools where people are renting a warehouse, for example, putting a freestanding pool in. Heat form's perfect for that because insulated with recycled plastic bottles. So standard pool has about 9,000 half-litre recycled plastic bottles in the walls to keep the insulation in. Um, we also do our own statid covers as well that we manufacture down in Plymouth and we design and do all the metal work and electronics and things, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wow. You're really white, white spreaded what you do, no? What kind of what you what you offer actually.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think so. And I think it's also for us it's looking at what we can do as good, if not better, than what's available, and what we can't. So there's products out there that we we distribute that actually we never touch. We look at it and go, you know, that's the best product in the market. Can we improve it? No. So actually we don't need to. Let's just bring it in from a good manufacturer. Other things we look at and go, do you know what? That's great, but it could be better, it could be more energy efficient, more powerful, more uh ecological, all those things. Um, so that's when we look at it and go, actually, we can do that better ourselves. So let's let's look at it from there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was actually kind of like uh as we have in a podcast, just for everybody also to know, we have a little storyboard, and the next question would have been so uh yeah, you are one of the independent distribution companies in the UK.
SPEAKER_03The only, the only.
SPEAKER_01The only, actually.
SPEAKER_02Uh no, I I correct you on that, Michael. We're not the only independent distributor in the UK. Um, I think we're probably the the broadest independent distributor in the UK because there's all the other companies who we work with or alongside that we get on very well with. I think in this polarized world that everyone's seeing, particularly the corporate growth that's happening. UK, obviously the corporate growth's coming from Europe because of bigger markets, you know, it's becoming even more polarized with acquisitions and things like that. So you haven't got two tiers, but you've almost got two kind of separate ethoses and and and viewpoints of how it works. So you've got your big corporates, we all know who they are. They're in Europe, the big in the UK. Then we've also got in the UK probably four or five independent distributors who have their specialisms. The likes of, you know, I don't want to mention Paramount Pools, Plastica a little bit, um, Fairlocks a little bit, Aquiflex who do the liners, but they've all got their specialisms that everyone knows them for. Um, I think we're probably one of the only ones who've got a very good broad range of products.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so yeah, that was what I actually meant more. Uh you know, uh the distribute distributors that only do liners. I don't, it's more like uh a dealer than a distributor. Yeah, exactly. And you are you're distributing a broad package.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we pretty much do everything apart from white goods, um your skimmers and your pipe work. Uh we pretty much cover every other product that's available. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, that was actually then the question: what makes you different and special from all the others?
SPEAKER_02Um I think there's twofold there. One is our ability to offer a solution to pretty much every problem uh with a product or with knowledge, um, and that's by having that broad range of products, 100%. So customer can come to us, trade partners can come to us, and we can pretty much satisfy their whole order. Um the second thing which I think really does set our model or us uh apart is a the knowledge because of our technical knowledge. You know, we're engineers at heart, so if someone's got a problem with a pool, we actually understand term pools. We're not. We're not yeah, we're not box shifters, you know. We're not we're not there to take 10 boxes and sell them at a margin, we're there to 10 boxes and sell them to the right person for the right reason for the right application, right? So that they're looked after and satisfied, you know. Um, my priority has always always been technical knowledge and technical support as opposed to boxes and and volume. I mean the volume's great, don't get me wrong, but you know, we're in it, we're in this to support our customers from a real engineering point of view as well as a product point of view.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And because of that, do you then have um or is that maybe a silly question, that uh pool builders that have to make something for uh for a high-end client and don't know too much about it themselves, which I see in the pool pool business more and more, the lack of knowledge of pool builders, then you are the right company to go to because you can actually even help them with design, or is that a bit too far?
SPEAKER_02No, I I would say yes. I think there's there's a threshold where people use external designers. You know, there's quite a few companies, the consultants in the UK who do the full designs, but we actually work quite closely with them. Ah, okay. Um, but yes, we do because, like, for example, with the Bayroll controllers, yeah, you know, the dosing systems, they do so much more than people realise. And actually, since we've got involved with it, we're educating. This is what the training centre here in Windows is doing the education, and the amount of every single training session we do, people are like, I didn't realise it did all that. And it's actually understanding the products rather than just putting it on a wall and doing, for example, pH and chlorine. Yeah, it's a poor control system, it can do everything. So, why are you buying three systems when you can do it all with one? And that comes just from knowledge and giving them the confidence that when they're installing it, and like you said, people are the learnings within the industry, there's a lot of young people joining the industry because the original guys are actually retiring. Exactly, same in Europe. Yeah, it's no one's fault, it's just the nature of the evolution of time. Um, and there are a lot of young people coming in, they don't understand the products. And our job is to go, and this is what I think the fundamental role of a distributor is is not to shift boxes, is to be that next level of knowledge above the pool builder, probably just one step below the manufacturer, or even as much as the manufacturer. Yes, because at that point, you guys or or the manufacturers, they employ us as distributors to know the products and to give them to give that support to the clients. The clients are looking towards us to say, that's great, I know it does this, but I've got a problem. We could we can't just read out the manual because they've read the manual, they're phoning us because they've already gone through the manual generally, not all of them. You hope they have, you know. Um, and so but if we haven't got that knowledge, then what is our point? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, I think you say something super interesting, and we are actually here where we are in the podcast at the moment, it's really at your training center.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and uh and I might I I must say it's very impressive.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, so we built this uh November, I would like to think about November 23, I think, or maybe 22, I can't remember. Yeah, three or three years ago, three or four years ago. Um, with that m mindset that actually we were originally going around the country, we had we had what we called the burger van. So going back six, seven years, we actually bought um literally a food truck trailer, and we kitted out as a swimming pool equipment, and it was a full working pool within it. Wow, um, everything on display. And what we would do, myself and John, we'd take it in turns, we'd drive around the country to pool companies, we'd pull up, we'd open it up, we'd get the coffee machine on, get the the croissants out and things like that, and show them all the equipment working in this food uh essentially food truck. Um, and it was nicknamed the burger van. So we turned up with it. It was really quite funny, but it worked because people were going, oh, we understand it, we physically can see it, we can touch it. It's not a catalogue, it's a product, it's a real product, and you know what you're talking about. Um, so this the idea of the training centre was to expand that to be able to accommodate more and more people. And I think last winter we had about 420 pool engineers through the door for training over the winter. Um, we're just about to launch in a couple of weeks the schedule for winter 25-26, and we'll probably have the same in again.
SPEAKER_01When would it be?
SPEAKER_02Uh we start in October and we run through to February because that's the window when they've people have got time to come in and educate them there. After that point, what we found two or three years ago when we first did it, the March sessions literally had hardly anyone in them because everyone was getting busy. And because we can't time when the sun comes out, we've got to be careful on that.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, yeah, yeah. That's interesting, very interesting. And uh, do you then also uh invite manufacturers, or is it generally done by uh your own people, you and your own people?
SPEAKER_02Um we do have a little bit of that. Um, but again, which we did originally, and you know, Bayrol were absolutely because as you know, Bayrol's a big company, lots of products already established in the UK. When we first launched the Bayrol brand with through the training centre as well, they came over and they helped us massively. They came over and did the training. Alphonse came from the water treatment, Ilya from technic, and they did that training for us. But after about 12 months, we had the knowledge. We've got Kath, my water treatment manager, she presents the water treatment side of things.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02Um, I do the technic because I really enjoy it. Right. I really enjoy the getting in my head into it and things like that. Um, but the manufacturers do support us, but again, going back to what I was saying a minute ago, it's our job to be able to give that support. So because it's our job to give that support, we we now take it on. Um, but if there's a new product that we need to be able to support, manufacturers normally come over and go really good.
SPEAKER_01And I just can say, as I know you, that you really you're really into it. Uh when you present a product, it's like you're wow, you perform so amazingly, and and I've seen it. It's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, appreciate that. Yeah, I think I think it's it's easy to present a product you like. Yeah. If you understand it, it works and you have faith in it, it's easy to say to someone, this is how it works. I think it's the best product for that job, and that's quite straightforward. I think that's the ethos of what we've done myself and John, particularly over the past three years, since our business changed with supply chains and things like that. We've gone out there and we've gone looked at so many products, so many manufacturers, and picked what we believe is the best available. You know, and we've just launched Power Lighting from Australia a month ago, and by far the best lighting system I've ever seen in swimples. I've been here for 25 years, John's been here for 30 years. We've both gone, that's gonna be a product that's gonna change our business. Um, and we've done that with everything. Benke filters, that was a big thing for us. The absolute amazing product. Um, you look at it and go, that's different, that's amazing. You know, and all the other things, white bots, polytopics, payroll, all the same. Um, and that's one of the key points of what we're about is finding something good.
SPEAKER_03Right. Yeah, right. And um just popped up this question. Do um pool builders sometimes come here with homeowners just to have a look?
SPEAKER_02Yes, particularly for velocity swim jet and for cover seal. So those two products we do get we get swimmers coming in here quite regularly to test the jet. Ah, and I will be honest, we've not had one swimmer come in and swim against our jet and not buy one. Well, ah, and I have tried others, um, and that is a tantamount to the product, but also as you can see, the training center, you come in, you see it, you try it, you try both versions, the hidden and the overall, and you go away going, That's what I want. Yes, yeah, you're creating a dream, you're creating a dream for people, you know, and that's the important thing.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes. Uh well, uh that was the uh the initial slogan of the uh of the uh uh podcast was we talk about dream pools around the world, and you just said this. That is true. Um yeah, and um marketing, marketing, marketing. That was something you were going to ask.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, because I'm always amazed. I also also try a bit on LinkedIn. Sometimes I post some videos, maybe people have seen it, but um, I think you are not only a technician, uh engineer, and developing products and so on, but you're also an amazing marketing guy.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_01I I see you present all the time on LinkedIn, yeah. I see also the trainings and all the new products, and it's yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think that goes back to a what you said at the start about being a family business. Now I run the business, um, but on the marketing side, my wife helps me massively on that. We kind of do it together because she's got a background in um entertaining people through museums, so working in a big museum sector all around the world, she worked in Paris and things like that. So she brings a lot of a completely different aspect to what we do in Viewpoint, and that really, really helps. Um but again, it's going back to knowing your product. If you know your product, then you know what people want from your product. So you can present it in a way where they go, ah, that's what I want. That's triggered my mindset to go, that's what I want, you know, that's what I'm looking for. Um, but also we can add, I think, a personal feel to the marketing. Um it's all too easy to become very, dare I say, corporate, whereby there's no kind of real feel to it. Does that make sense? No. Yes, um, and that's what we feel. You feel it, yeah. Yeah, we feel it.
SPEAKER_01So when you feel it and you know your product, it's again going back to what's and then you know what do you want to how to do the marketing, right?
SPEAKER_02It's easy to sell.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because you you you you're passionate about it. Yeah. Um, you're not just trying to tick another box. It's kind of like actually, I get this product, this is what we're gonna do, you know. And I think I hope that's why um certain manufacturers have chosen us as their distributors in the UK, because they've seen that passion and that understanding and want to associate with what we can do and what we can offer to their business, you know. Right. And stand out, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Okay, and um before we move on to the philosophy where I have many questions, of course. Okay, you wanted to ask also a bit a little bit uh regarding the website where it was published, the future.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's a good question. Um, and we have that debate quite a lot internally. Um, the future for us is definitely going to be growing our existing range of products. Um, I do feel that over the past six to twelve months in particular, we've really hit a point of there's not many gaps in our arsenal that we need to fill. So the future on our product side of things is to grow, cement, and build all the brands that we offer within the UK market. You know, I would like to see us to be the go to for everyone, 100%. I never see a reason why not, because I think we're pretty good at what we do. Um, so on that side of things is to to build and build and build um within the market. So that we're at the tip of everyone's tongue for the right products. Um on our own branded stuff, however, particularly velocity, although Mike wants to cover that in a minute. Yeah. That we see a global demand that can be built with the right marketing, with the right partners, with the right approach. Um, and that is definitely over the next 12 to 24 months where there'll be some focus to build that in into the areas because as you guys know, having been in the industry for a long time, products take time to develop, time to build, and you do get teeth and issues. I'm not gonna be denying that, you do get teeth and issues. How you deal with them is a tantrum, the importance of a business. You know, do you walk away, do you ignore it, or do you deal with it, do you redevelop, do you redesign? Um, but our swimjet now is at a point where it's nigh or nearly perfect. Right. Um, and you know, we're ready now to expand that into other markets and things.
SPEAKER_01But I I mean I really like that dynamic, no, because I think and let's say uh I say UK and Europe, no, I I think really, really, really I mean I'm not a politician, but I have to say that. But we really need to be ambitious and and see what is going on in the future. No, we cannot just uh stay where we are and and and see it. So I think it's really nice to have companies like that who really work on this uh future, always an idea ahead, would as we say. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And uh on the other hand, uh expanding uh like we are also doing out of Germany, outside Europe means uh has an effect on your organization, shipping, uh export documents, unless you outsource that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, and it it is difficult, um, particularly as a small business because you have a million hats that you put on every morning. Yes. And you've got to choose which one you're gonna use. Um that's the biggest challenge. And the biggest challenge for us is going to be with the future is expanding our offer the way we work, our customer base, our business, without diluting and affecting the core ethos of the business and how we support our customers. That's my job. That's my that's the difficulty of my job, is to make sure that actually, whether we're supplying 100 pool builders or 500 pool builders, they all get the same service. Yeah, and I think that's the challenge that every business worldwide has, um, and there's transitions of that, and as you get bigger, to try and keep that feel and that approach and that service is a challenge, but it's doable. It really is doable with the right thing, you know. You look at the likes of Apple, yeah. No one complains about Apple service. Yeah, no one complains about Apple's products. Some people complain about the profits they make and all those kind of things, but you know, when you walk into an Apple store, your phone's broken, they give you a new one. You know, they they repair it, all those things happen. So it is possible to do that. I would like to think in the pool industry, some people do it really well, some people are struggling with that, and you know, our job is to do our do it well, basically.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Sounds good.
SPEAKER_03Well, and of course, uh, you know, uh, me as uh as uh part of uh of Fluvo, I'm very interested in all technologies uh concerning uh countercurrent units, and uh as we don't bite each other, it's a complete different uh system. Uh the the one with the standard centrifuel pump compared to the hydraulic uh system you have. And I'm um uh very much interested how was it born?
SPEAKER_02Okay, so it's interesting. This was so we developed the heat form panel pool system.
SPEAKER_03Um, I think yeah, sorry to interrupt you. So velocity is is it uh l like an uh a model of the heat form system?
SPEAKER_02Or so heat forms of the overarching brand that we've developed. That's kind of like your your lighthouse own label, should we say? Ah, okay, and there are some other things coming into that over the next six months. Right. So we've developed that originally. So it's originally developed for a pool panel system, right? Which is um, like I said earlier, installated with recycled plastic bottles um with a pool lining in it. Really popular in the UK, particularly in the commercial market. It can grow elsewhere, we just gotta work on that. But it's something we've designed, we manufacture, and that's our brand. So we started doing that in about 2019, kind of time, myself and John. Um, John was probably a bit the driving force on the panel pool system due to his previous experience working for other companies like Riviera pool in Germany and things like that, so we had a lot of knowledge. Um, and we've developed that into a really good little product. Um, and but what we found was people were buying Hayform and they were putting in someone else's jet. So they're buying small pools, particularly just as COVID started to hit, and everyone small pools, exercise pools, swim jets all become really popular. And it was a little bit painful for me to see it to see that happen. They'd buy the kit and say, Oh, yeah, but we're putting in so-and-so's jet, we're putting it, and we did have a jet in our in our catalogue at the time, but it was very much a um I suppose uh a family jet rather than a sport jet, should we say a proper sport jet? Big difference, yes. There is a big difference, um, and uh just by our nature, we were looking at the market, looking at what was available, and looked at certain things in the market and thought we could do this, you know, or actually we could have a look at this and see if it's possible. Um, and we looked at lots of different models and came up with some ideas which we've got patents on and things like that to to develop velocity. Um, as I think with a lot of products that are developed in the world in hindsight, if you did it again, it was a lot of pain going through, but um, you know, we're through that and we're at a really good spot. So yeah, it was it was literally through a a demand at the time, really, and a desire to and actually we'd been looking at doing a swim jet for probably three or four years before. It just seemed to be a product that captured our imaginations and thought, well, we could do something with this, it's quite exciting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and well, the the the biggest question I had with uh I have with this kind of system what made you choose for a hydraulic system rather than just with a pump, like some of your competitors.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, no, that's a really valid question, and actually that I think comes down to my personality. Right. I don't see the point in doing things if it's not gonna make a difference. Right. Okay. So I was looking at it and go, well, if we're gonna do a jet, it's gotta be the best swim experience, the most powerful, the biggest, the best, the f the fastest, should we say. Right. Because all you do if you don't do that, you're all you just blend in with the with the noise of everyone else. So you know, and and in my opinion, I think in most swimmers' opinions, the hydraulic because you can create such a large flow, yeah, you know, it's sixty centimetres by sixty centimetres block of water. Yeah, from a professional swimmer's point of view, it's the best swim experience for technique for learning techniques and things like that, having a block of flow rather than a jet or a very narrow swim flow. Um, so that's really to get the level of power and volume you need, if you wanted to do it on low voltage um electricity, yeah, 24 volts, you'd need a motor the size of the swimming pool to make that actually happen, you know, with the torque and with the flow. So the hydraulic really was the only route we could go down. Also, the engineering for low voltage electric motors is is you know very specialist, yes. Um and actually probably a little bit more cost-effective to develop a hydraulic jet as opposed to uh an electric one.
SPEAKER_01And you have two versions we have seen, we can see also here in the training center, you have one uh you know, which is um put on in the pool, which sticks out, and then the in-built version.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And that's again going back to seeing a problem and looking at a solution. So the feedback we were getting quite early days was people like buying certain jets because they're hidden away, because they can't see them in a pool. Yeah, so we said, okay, well, let's see if we can make a development that works hidden, and it actually is probably about 50% of the velocity sales are the hidden version, very popular. Um, again, that's evolved in design, so now it's very much off the shelf, very easy to build, very easy to stick and uh install in any pool. Um, and it is a very popular system um that we we do sell. And I think we know the furthest that hidden system's gone is Slovakia, and actually we had a customer from Slovakia who I think it's Slovakia or Slovenia, I'm not sure. Apologies on that one. Um actually flew over specifically to Whitney to the training center to test the jet. They've done the research, they came over and tested it, and they purchased it and put it in their pool over there. Uh I've got pictures of that, yeah. So, and they were really pleased. So it just shows that the reach of something, people are looking for something different, specialist, and that's where a swim jet is. You know, dare I say a pool pumps, a pool pumps a pool pump, a half horse power pumps, a half horse power pump, you know. Um, whereas a swimjet is very specific.
SPEAKER_03One of the other things that that uh really um uh amazes me, you do everything with single-phase pumps.
SPEAKER_02Yes, so this was a um and this is where we've actually got a patent in the UK um and is pending in America and Europe and Australia at the moment. Um essentially we looked at other things on the market, and what you find is when you get to a certain power level, you've either got to have single phase 50 amps, so very large feed, or you've got to have three phase. Right. Now in the UK, single phase is prominent. Three phase is actually quite rare in the domestic set, unlike Europe, you know. I I mean in France a lot, you can get three phase quite easily.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, so we had to make sure that single phase was the main option. And then we looked at it and thought, well, 40 amps, 50 amps to run single phase, it really restricts on plant rooms, on end of gardens, that kind of thing. So then we started looking at the inverter technology, which is always already implemented in pool pumps, and thought, well, actually, why don't we just get a single phase motor, a three-phase motor, apologies, and get a single phase to three-phase inverter. Ah, yes. And then we apply that to a swim jet, and that's where the pattern sits because it's using an inverter system to power a hydraulic swim jet. Um, and what you get there means that you can actually run on a 20 amp feed. Yes. And if the rather than changing the flow of the oil, we change the speed of the motor. Right. So your energy efficiency drops off a, you know, goes goes up really high. So your energy consumption drops off a cliff for um comparative machines in the market. So the customer.
SPEAKER_01That's a big topic.
SPEAKER_02It is a big topic, and the ethos behind the heat form brand is ecological, um, doing everything we can to help the environment at the same time providing products of a performance that's unrivaled.
SPEAKER_03It's a ma it's amazing because what you get out b because of using an inverter with relatively small motor is it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. So our output, our input to output ratio is so much higher and better. It's like a heat pump, you know, our COP, for example, yeah, of our jet is actually a lot broader than most things available. And that's where power and performance and efficiency was where our our three kind of ideas were to do our own swimjet.
SPEAKER_03Amazing, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And you are a specialist, Michael, in this now, so when you say this is amazing, it is amazing.
SPEAKER_03The the uh the uh velocity is uh so different than anything else in the market, there's nothing like it. You know, you have uh you have your standard uh let's say point, uh I call it point uh um uh countercurrent systems like we do mostly and some and most other Germans, then you have your turbines, and then you have this system which is really different than than the rest, and there are uh definitely uh m many advantages uh of this system.
SPEAKER_02I think yeah, I think going back to what Angela was saying about particularly us as as Europeans, and you know, we're still Europeans. I'm still European 100%. Um we've got to develop, we've got to look at things and go, well, actually, does it work? What's good, what's not so good on a product or in the market, and how can we make it better or more efficient, which is why we went down this route, because actually we looked at other things in the market and said, well, that works really well, but it's been the same for 30 years or 20 years, and and how can we make it better?
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, let's come to a general let's I mean I come from the contour system actually because you told us before when we talked before a little bit about what we what we talk about. You told us that actually uh this year is a good weather in the UK, you have uh you know it's all there, but you have a lot of uh retrofit pools where actually one of yours uh velocity can be used, yeah, right? Yeah, and um so yeah, what is the UK pool market? What's going on? How is it?
SPEAKER_02Um I I would say it's and this is obviously a personal opinion because obviously you see it from our side, everyone's different how they see it. I would say it's it's good because of the weather. Um it's good the economy, the the political side of the UK is a lot more stable than it was last year. So those things will play in our favour. But on the flip side, the economy is still quite suppressed. I think we are back to normal post-COVID from an industry, yeah, in the sense that actually sunshines, we get lots of business. It rains, we don't. That's just the nature of it. I think the the new pool business is still quite low and suppressed. Is that because of the economy? A little bit, yes. You know, credit's not available freely, particularly for those middle section customers, the ones who would borrow, maybe would buy a conservatory, maybe buy uh a fast car, actually, or buy a swimming pool. But there I think there's still also a little bit of a hangover from when people put new pools in in COVID. There's still that boom. Somebody who might have put a pool in has already done it, because the boom was so high. Yeah, you know, so they've kind of put the pool in, and actually they might have waited three years, which would be the year now, this business, but they did it quickly and did it then. So I don't think it's it's not dire, it's actually really quite good. The sun, the spring's been really good, next week's looking really hot. Um, but generally we are much more weather dependent now um than we were in COVID. So going back to 2018, 2016, that kind of time where it was weather-dependent, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, and and we also believe, I mean, many uh people working in the industry across Europe, that the whole situation in the world makes people kind of worried, you know. I'll I'll just keep my money for now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's another uh, you know, um it is another factor, but then on the flip side of that, if the weather gets good, people want a bit of a feel-good factor. Exactly. So if there's lots of negativity, yeah, and the weather's good, they go, Oh, do you know what let's just look after like in COVID, they people stayed at home, so they may create the holidays at home. When the world gets issues going on and whether it's wars, political, anything like that, people say, actually, we'll stay at home. So, what can we do to improve our day-to-day life as opposed to our traveling life?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's that's so true.
SPEAKER_01And I'm very happy we did talk about the weather w once we are here in the UK. So it's a must. Always have to, yeah. Always have to.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, and you see this uh across Europe. It's uh tomorrow in Holland it's going to be 30 degrees. Yeah. You know, and then all the pool builders are happy basically.
SPEAKER_02We've got that next week. I think it's 28, 29 next week in the UK. Um, it's warm today, but yeah, it's gonna be really nice and sunny.
SPEAKER_03So you know, and it it's all on the other end, always so funny. People decide to buy uh to buy a pool when the weather is nice. Once it's installed, it could be totally different, right? It's an impulsive decision almost.
SPEAKER_02It is. Um I've got uh it's funny actually, I've got a customer who they've got a really good online system for ordering, so they do all their quotes online, their end users can go online, accept the quote, pay the deposit, all remotely online. It works really, really well. They told me that actually 80% of their pools get bought after 11 o'clock at night. So people just sat with a glass of wine, relaxing. Oh, really? And they they said the the amount of deposits that are paid after 11 o'clock at night is amazing. And it's it's that dis that impulse decision process. Yeah, you know, it's kind of yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_01I'm relaxed after my glass of wine, I want a pool.
SPEAKER_02Exactly, exactly. So yeah, it's quite interesting that definitely.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, the last, probably the last question. Do you have some kind of like story UK pool story?
SPEAKER_03Well, the the uh the the thing with the uh burger fan, I thought what's true, it is a story.
SPEAKER_02Quite a story, but um Yeah, I think that's probably our our best our best story going back with the burger fan. I think the uh you've put me on the spot there, Angela. I I would say I think talking of stories, I think some of the stories are still to come. Yeah. I think that you know, going back to the future, I think you know, the story of Heatform Lighthouse, us as a business. I think you know, we are still in the early stages actually. And uh I think some of the stories that are gonna be told in the future are still to be be written by us and our customers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, good, good. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you very much uh for your time and and very interesting, interesting uh story of the the the first of all how uh how the company named Lighthouse uh uh started. I I didn't have a clue. Um and how how you know the the company grows, it's really really fascinating. And uh so Angela, what did you learn today?
SPEAKER_01I learned actually a lot. I mean, first of all, a lot of respect for this self-made man who is so capable of a lot of things. It's always very inspiring, those people, I have to say. Yeah, no, it's just really I this is something I always as yeah, also for young people. No, don't just sit just do it. And yeah, you you have developed, I learned a lot about the counter-current system, and that you need a block flow, actually, that this is the ideal thing. Uh marketing, marketing, marketing. And uh what else did I learn? I learned about the training, that you actually um you know that training is very important. And uh and also I think for other companies, even though you grow, never leave a customer behind, you still do the service in the same way as you did before. We talked about the future, which I think is a big topic, you know. As an old European Germany guy, I think we really need to focus on the future. And um, yeah, that's already a lot, isn't it?
SPEAKER_03Yes, yeah. Well, I have very little to add uh to that, but uh but I would definitely say the the concept of educating pool builders is essential in this uh nowadays. Uh it was in the past as well, but you had many older knowledgeable people, and now they're all disappearing almost like you know uh in the whole of Europe, and uh it is a massive problem for manufacturers because uh the uh manufacturers have to support this as well, definitely. And so it you need better the better you educate the easier you will have it. That's what I've learned. So um you can write us with any comments or questions at mail at swimmingpoolcast.com.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and today because we are export managers and we are very international as we travel almost around the world all the time, so we add languages actually. So I'm saying goodbye.
SPEAKER_03Danke.
SPEAKER_01Gracias. Why Tari Makasi? Come on.
SPEAKER_03I I'm quarter Indonesian, I lived in Indonesia from my seven to my eleven, so I speak the language, and Tari Makasi means thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Bye bye.