#11: Chalets Hidden Wellness – Champions of High-End Luxury

Welcome to another inspiring episode of our International Swimming Pool Podcast. Today, we step into a world where luxury, nature, and wellness merge into something almost too extraordinary to imagine. Our special guest, Allan from Aqua Dream, is a true creator of hidden wellness retreats, crafting exclusive, high-end wellness locations in breathtaking mountain sites - think of chalets escapes near Mont Blanc, where behind rustic doors lie world-class swimming pools, Jacuzzis, hammams, steam baths, snow and emotional showers, and more. Open that door and listen!

www.swimmingpool-podcast-com
https://www.behncke.com
https://www.schmalenberger.de
https://fluvo.de/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Swimming pool international, the swimming pool podcast.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

A warm welcome to our international swimming pool podcast. In front of me sits Angela. Angela Hermann, International Sales Manager at Banker Manufacturing in Germany.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

And in front of me sits Michael, Michael Fizer, Export Manager at Fluovo Schmalenberger from Tübing in Germany.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

How are you today?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Uh well, I'm very well. I I I'm two things. I have a cold, as probably all can hear, so I'm I'm a little bit uh unwell, but at the same time I'm so well because I woke up this morning and I was seriously watching uh the Mont Blanc.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

And it was and I couldn't even take my eyes off. So even it's really true. Even every time I go to the bathroom, I was like, okay, quick, quick, quick, I want to go back to the other window and watch at the Mont Blanc. And I took a photo and I sent it to my family. Right, yes, because it's an amazing sight where we are at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

It's uh one of the most beautiful areas I've been in my life. So um, very, very nice. And today we are sitting with Alain, Alain from Aqua Dream, uh talking about real dream projects next to the Mont Blanc. We know you do wonderful projects, uh, Haman, Stainless Steel, tile pools, wellness area, Sona, Yakuzis, Five Star Hotels. Amazing high-end project. So um, very well uh welcome uh Alain. It's really nice to uh have met you and uh to meet you and uh have a chance that you uh do this podcast with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Thanks for you to ask me.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Uh bonjour, yeah, bonjour uh in French and English as you want. Or Goodemorgen in Dutch. Oh no, sorry, I will not follow that. Sorry. And um yeah, if I can start Angela, I would like to ask Alan the the his the first question and ask him uh yeah, please um say something about uh the company and how it was started and the whole background, please.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Okay, so we are a small company, not very old. We start five years old. Uh family business. Uh we have built that with my parents and my sisters in 2020, just through the COVID, in fact. And we are not coming at all from the pool business, we were working on an industrial background. Uh my fathers and mothers have a company that made spare part for military aircraft and public aircraft. And on my side, I was working at Airbus as apprentice to finishing my study in 2020. And the the life act may bring us there to build that project because my fathers have some ideas. I've sold this whole company, I was not being hired with Airbus due to the COVID situation.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

So something happens and we say, okay, we need to do something because in our place we have the the chance to work in a very nice place, as you have seen yesterday, yeah, with very nice customers. There's queries for our project. We can do something, we can bring the serious and the service we have in all previous jobs, which is not the case that we found with the other company that made the same job than us. So we need to push that and to try to do something different. And I think we have quite success that uh because when we started free, my sister was still in study in 2020. Now we are 11th after five less than five years. So that's quite a nice story.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yes, and uh sorry and uh to interrupt you, uh Angela. Um why swimming pools?

SPEAKER_01 4:00

So the first beginning project was to working on hot tubs business because uh my parents had hot tubs at home that's always not working, no one for the service. That was the first original idea. When we started the business, we quickly understand that the hot tubs business is not the main one, and if you want to work with that customers, you need to manage all the wellness the hot tubs, the sauna, the steam room, the pool, the snow showers, and all I can imagine and that you see yesterday. Um so very quickly we understand that making a pool was necessary. We train ourselves, look after people, but it didn't come from the pool business at all. They all come for other worlds. We have trained them with our partners and with what we have actually already achieved here. And after two years we went into the the pool business very quickly. Now it's 50% of our business activity. The other 50% are the wellness, so nasty room, etc. Uh, which is also a very big part on our business. And um for the very small stories at the real beginning, 10 years ago, my father wanted to make stainless steel at home for his own use because he's in love with stainless steel, um, and make him one of our competitors. So it was not a competitor at that time, but one of the only companies that offers stainless steel pool 10 years ago in France. And the price wide, very, very high, higher than what we expected in what we can do now. So he has developed with an old friend from his old business a concept of freestanding stainless steel pool, sorry, in Chambéry, so made in France. Yeah. Um, the fact is very quickly we have find and understand that making stainless steel pool in France is very difficult to win money on that because you need to make a lot of pools, and other countries are more competitive than us. Austria have a very good industry for that. Uh, Czech Republic, I think Germany also. France has a cost of people, which is too high, you need to make a lot of pools to be successful in that business, too. So the very beginning is there.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

I really believe uh, as you said, you come from the air uh airplane, air bus industry, and you told us yesterday you were manufacturing parts which really were essential for the airplane. Yeah. So if not, it really that's it. Uh and uh because we we know doing pools is very difficult, no? But I think when you are responsible a little part of it to uh make an aircraft, uh a pool is easiest. Let's say easy. But uh the projects you are doing, uh we have seen it yesterday. We went to a couple of projects, are they can't be easy because they are so outstanding.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

So the the the airplane's life was very different, it was a lot of pressure. Also, the pressure is not the same. Um, because for my favorites, we have like 300 references on the Rafael aircraft, same thing on the private jet of Dassault, and a lot of them was safety elements. So if one of them failed, you just crash the company and your reputation in a minute, you have life in your hands. So it's very different from the pool business. However, as you can see yesterday, all our projects are different. Yeah, no one are the same, so there's a lot of anticipation works to do not make any mistake on site. And high end, high end, and very high end, yeah. Um with outs very nice outside pool to the very nice inside pools, every dimension. Custom-made hot tubs, tiled, stainless steel, armed PVC. We we have the chance to have people that can work on all kinds of pools, which is also a necessity for our business, because from one project to another, the queries are never the same. We work with contour current systems, Fluore1, Binders, and EVA1, uh depending on the customer queries, massaging the pools, uh always it, sometimes outside in Chamonix or Megev, which is high in altitudes, but it at 32 degrees, it's also its own contrained. Um with always automatic treatment, this is not pools which are used always, the house are often empty, so we need to be there and to automatize as much as possible. So there's a lot of difficulties on every project, and the thing is that no one is the same, never. We never do twice the same pool, or maybe one time.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Yeah. Can you tell us your um what type of customers we have? You have, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

So we have, I will say three way of winning customer. We have some private that come directly to us, which just go in front of the showroom and saw us because we have the chance to be on the main axis between Geneva and Megev. So every people that came in Megev for visiting or have go to his chalais, just go in front of our showroom at the moment. The second biggest point is that we work with architect and house builders, which are the main focal point from the customer that just came a few weeks in the year. They arrived, they have one people that okay. I work with that company, you can trust them, go see them, ask them, or the architect just sends us the project and we make offer. And one of the third ones, which is not the useful and normal one, we work with only partners on our business with the wellness equipment. As I mean, we have only one provider by each kind of product. We work with one company for the Sona Industriam Room, we work with one company for the emotional showers or the snow sky, and we work with them since five years, so it's very big partnership, it's more than partnerships, it's more friends than partnership at that moment. And beginning of the year, we received a very nice query for a project somewhere in France, but I cannot tell you for now, um, for famous actors from US, and we will be able to provide for him uh custom-made hot tubs, custom-made cold bath, sauna and steam room, both pools will be tiled in marble. It's like a very private, very high-end customers, even more than one we saw yesterday. So we just go in a world which is quite different from what we do useful usually. But the discussion we have with the architect of that project is that if we do a good job, other projects like this will come after. So it's so the customers are private, some public, and very high-end famous people sometimes, but not often.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

And you mentioned yesterday that you are also now uh in the uh business of hotels.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, we have made last year, yeah, last year, um stainless steel pool for 5000 Talin Majev, which is outside 10 by 3.5 meters, arrived in one piece. So it was also a different difficulty than the one you saw yesterday because the hotel spot where the pool goes was 50 meters from the road. So we just take the pools, make 10 meters, put it down, move the trucks, take again the pools. It was like one morning of manitations to install the pool. Um and it was the first project. So we make that pool. The main ask from the customer was we want a pool which works all years outside at 100,500 meters, so with a lot of snow. Um and we say, okay, we can do that, even if it's maybe not the best options in terms of ecological point of view. But if we do that, we will not plug the pool with the gas systems of your shell of the hotel. Sorry, we will put a specific heat pump that can resist at minus 25, that can hit the hot the pools. And the first winter was this one, and everything works well. To also keep well the heat in the pool, we didn't put the covers inside, like TA system or other brands. We use a movable terrace which closes the pool and really keep the heat inside, well insulated, to really be enable to reduce as much as possible the the heat leave from the pool. So it was a nice project. And now we're answering also, we have two other projects in the kitchen with an hotel in Meribel with inside overflow pool, big sauna, big steam room, because that kind of hotels also give it's like a new building. So we have a big wellness area, and we were also uh answering to a project in south of France with uh three pools and four steam room, four sauna, five stars hotel, very high-end, also. So we're moving in the hotel business more and more.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

So you just mentioned uh the challenges of the of the temperature here. I mean, we're in of uh in the Alps next to the Mont Blanc. I just have to stretch out this again. So, what other challenges you have in terms of weather conditions and and and well the nature, you know, and um several points.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

First, the season is very short for the outside pool. Um for the last two years we faced a lot of difficulties for starting the seasons, opening the pools because the weather was terrible from April to June, a lot of rain, very cold. So you we have a big service and mana contract management in the company. As the customers didn't live there, we just come, open the pools, and do all the necessary jobs for them to just arrive and use the pool. They don't do anything, it's fully clean and ready to use. But if it's too cold, it's raining a lot, we have like 35 or 40 pools outside pool we must put in around. Last two years was very difficult to manage with the weather condition we have because it was very cold, a lot of rain, and the season starts very late, so the customers don't want to open too early to not pay too much electricity for eight the pools. So it was one of the difficulties. Then for the building construction site, it's even worse because if it's rained a lot, everything is postponed. So they take lights, and then when take lights, they put you much pressure because you need to follow the lights and to reduce it. Right. Reduce the weathers, what what the the weathers put us late. And that was the main thing. And as I discussed yesterday, uh we are in the halves, which is a very big seismic area with Italian just in front. The Mont Blanc is just a junction, so it's always moving, not very big things, but often small ones. And the high-hand luxury customers love tile pool. The fact is the tile pool is not very smooth when it's moving a lot, so when it cracks, it cracks. So we work and discuss with the masonry company, with the architect to find solutions to reduce the risk of flicks because we have sewed on some projects sometimes, not specifically we don't, but some pool that have six, seven, eight years old, cracks from the bottom of the pool until the top of the wall uh of one or two millimeters. So but it's not due to the pool company guy, it's due to the contraint. The movement of the field. Little earthquakes. Yeah. Um, maybe two to three on the Richter um measurement. Yeah, thank you. Um but it's enough to put in trouble. Yeah. So that's why also we need to not not only to make tile pool, but we have also other solutions. To be honest, we trust a lot and are very lark love the stainless steel pool because they avoid that kind of risk and they are very high-end. Then you have also the personal opinion of the customer that don't all not all people don't like stainless steel pool because the design is not the same, it could be cold.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Yeah, so so you face this this cracking basically only with uh with uh tile pools, but not with uh stainless steel or or uh polypropylene or okay, so tile tile pools is the biggest challenge.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Tile pool is the biggest challenge when they make the masonry study, because we have office that take care of what kind of concrete they must use, what size must be the wall, if they must be the same wall than the chalet one, or been separated, they study the risk of um cracks. Yeah, they take in consideration that, and sometimes it happens still, because also the fields are full of water, so the house is moving a bit. There's a lot of difficulties in the mountains area, in fact.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Yes, yes. Well well, when you think about it compared to like uh building a pool in Holland, which is very flat. The only problem we have there's a lot of water in the uh, so we have to make the pools in such a way that especially polypropylene that they don't start to float. Yeah, so that's uh but that's uh always the same, so people know about it, and so it this is a really uh very big challenge building pools in the mountain.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

That's a lot of discussion with every company that is involved because we don't take care of masonry, we don't don't take care of the tilings, the waterproofing also is specific companies that do each job. So we are like five companies work on a pool. We made the technical elements, the masonry guys make the concrete, the waterproofing company make the waterproof, the tilers, so like four companies, sorry. And everyone must work together to find the best options, the best solutions, and to avoid any risk on a long-term vision. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

And you also said uh with the the cover, no, you have to consider also the snow.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Yeah, because so we are in a situation here where the pool is in France, I don't know if it is in other countries, but the pool business is a bit uh put it as the responsible of water uh issue. I think it's not only France, and also the consumption in general, but we already have one tons. The fact that the when you have your hotels, the city you sleep in, have uh forbidden all pools. We cannot build pools in that city because we have issue with water. And I can understand that point of view, but I'm not agree with that because there's a lot of ways to watch that and to make pools smart and in ecological minds. Exactly. So we push the best options, which sometimes are not the cheapest one, because when you make a covers with uh polycarbonate slate, it's more expensive. When you put a heat pump, it's more expensive than putting an electrical heater. But at the end, we explain to our customer which is the best choice first on the budget matters because to use a heat pump at a long-term vision is less expensive. And also on an ecological point of view, we cannot hit a pool with fuel or gasoline. That's not works. But we have steel house like this. Um for example, we have worked for a customer which have an inside and outside pool. They came one time a week, one time a year, sorry, one week. But in case they decide to come, the pool is always hit at 32 degrees, but she's plugged on the fuel systems of the house. So that's not working. So we push more and more the heat pump options. Uh, we work with BWT and uh Polytropics on that subject because they know how to build a heat pump. That can work in minus 25 because this is the the issue we can have. Not all brands can do that, but with the last uh gas system they have found uh we can do that, and we push that a lot.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

But you also mentioned the weight of the snow. No, you had like nine tons you have to consider.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

For the for the hotels project, yes, because as it's very high in the mountains and it's like a public area, they must take in consideration with the snow plus the hotel gas that go in the terrace, it must resist to nine tons of weight. To be honest, it's more a safety thing than a reality, because the snow is not so much, and if it's full of snow, people will not go in the terrace.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Yeah, you probably don't go under the pool anyway.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

But no, but it's a but the the snow is not easy to manage.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:19

One other thing uh that just comes to mind, which uh we didn't talk about uh yesterday, talking about this ecological thing and saving water and so on. I uh is it a topic here to get into pools with solar panels heating and so on? I've not seen it. No, it's not made. Ah, and is there a reason for it?

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I don't to be honest, um the companies that build that solution didn't visit us and visit our competitors, so it's not a solution which is push. Um mainly the sh the chalet are built with solar panels for electricity consumption, yeah, more and more. Um but it's not as may as much made as you can maybe have it in Germany, I guess, because it's used a lot.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Yeah, in Holland is the most populated with solar panels in Europe.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

No, the the what we what we saw on the pools we made or the query we received, they that's not the best way to build that, but they ask to plug on the heating systems of the house, which is often gas because it's very big chalet. Yeah, 400 square meters to 1000, it's difficult to hit with only heat pump. So they use a lot of gas. We try to push different ways. We discuss with the architect, we discuss with the customer to say no, we we cannot put that on the gas system because it's not uh a smart way to do that. We can do heat pump what can resist in conditions which are difficult. And if you want to be safe, we can also use the gas as secondary heating system in case the heat pump has an issue, but it must not be the first uh heating element.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

I I just want to say uh I mean we yesterday we actually visit you showed us four projects and uh I just want to say this. I I don't know if I can make it as a picture so well. But uh I mean we have seen chalets which are from the outside, you think, well, could be normal, but when you walk in and open the you open the door, we already had like oh my god, you go into a different world. You you see the house from the outside, it looks like let's say like a normal mountain house, but when you walk in, you see there's something else behind. And it's I was I'm this morning, I was still deeply impressed how beautiful it is. And and this chalet is actually little, yeah, it's it's like little cast little tiny tar castles inside. Uh these owners are are people who said to sometimes come who probably have uh you know more houses somewhere else. And you are really building these kind of pools where we took photos, which actually people then also can could see on our website, because they're truly amazing projects. And I just wanted to say that because uh I don't know I it's hard to say in a podcast how I couldn't I was I could not believe we are in a such a high-level world at the moment. And if you want to rent one, you better have a bit money at sight because and buying is a different topic. No, you talked about the prices of the land here, and you said actually because it's so expensive that a lot of uh chalets are rebuilt. Rebuilt or completely disdemanded and and rebuilt because the land is already so expensive.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah. I have an example in mind. We received a project uh one month ago for a chalet in Megev, which is an existing chalet, ten years old, not some not so old, I would say. They keep the shell of the chalet, they destroy everything inside, make a small extension, and rebuild everything inside. They just keep the four walls and the roof, and they destroy all and rebuild it because we have a project for a wellness place with hot tubs, etc. Not pool for that specific project, but yeah, the pricing here are very expensive. I think Megev is known as a very high-end ski station all around the world, but not maybe so much as Courchevel, which is maybe more high-end than Megev, but it's different customer. Courchevel is more on the jet set side. Megev is more high as you can see. Do you see the chalet? It looks normal, but all is high below. He didn't see anything, all is hidden. Uh, of course, you can see some customer with nice car, and you see that you have money in the area, but it's quite but they try to keep a low profile and uh because it's more like um family town, um family village than Courchevel, which is more known for the partying, etc. Megev is more a family business after because as I mentioned yesterday yesterday, Meghev has been built by the Rothschild family 100 years ago. Yeah, they have built the ski station and they have invited their friends that came with family, and that all families that came 100 years ago still came. Right. And it's like a tradition more than just so more than just the ski things. They came here because historically their family came and that keeping. Of course, you have new customers because it's developing, but you have also that very old customer basis that came often, which is still there. And will also still be in 100 years, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

And we um you sa you built your company fi uh you started five years ago. Yeah. And this is something you were also so amazed, Michael.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

For me, it's it's beyond imagination that you uh um started five years ago and within five years you built Dream Pools. Yeah, that's the name of the company, uh, which you don't see anywhere else in Europe. I I I don't think I've met in in my 15 years in the business one company that is so fast from zero to five years and building this high-end project with amazing quality. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Yeah, and uh this is a really, really uh and yesterday you had an example of making a silent pool. Yeah, and it's truly I did not hear anything.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

No, see that project was difficult. So to explain to the listener, we have built a tile pool, um, overflow inside mirror pool on two sides to be very precise. And we were two companies talking with the architects, because it's like um Apple Dorf in French, we say uh they send some queries to two, three companies that give an answer to the very specific questions and project questions, but they never mentioned that the end customers want a mirror pool with no sound, because overflow and mirror pools are always making sound because water is moving. So we spent six months to find options and solutions, and at the end we find a solution as you have seen it. Yeah, I will not tell it to another companies because we spend so many times and money on that to find the options, but finally we succeed to make an overflow mirror pool without any sound, and the customer is happy, so that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Yeah, there was no sound, I can I can really assure this.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

It was very difficult to find the best way, but after a lot of things, tests and times we find the perfect. Because they so the as we work in high-end customers, we put high-hand quality models, so the pool are not the cheapest one. But if we make that kind of pool, we need to fully fight the query of the customers and to make them happy. They spend a lot of money in the house and the pools. The one we visited yesterday maybe cost six to seven million euros, so it's a lot of money that must be working as they want, and that because they spend a lot of money in that.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Right. And uh I would assume that you know you said you get customers because they pass by, but if they pass by it doesn't automatically show that what you can do. Yeah, so I'm assume in uh in this uh wealthy people world there's a lot of mouth of mouth. Yeah, mouth of mouth.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Uh people know each other, and it's a very small world. Right. Everyone knows each other's, they talk. So yeah, it's we don't we don't make any advertising. Uh-huh. Um we make only one event in the year, which is the jumping in Mogev, which is like a horse race, you know, they jump the things. It's international show, which is last 10 days in Mogev in July. It's the only advertisement we made. We go there, we have a booth, we show what we can do, discuss with customers, but it's the only things we do. Then all is regarding architect talk with other architects, customers talk with other customers that have projects, and it's make his own advertising because we have a good reputation. Right. And but at the very beginning, uh it was two so three, four years ago. We need to find the jobs to explain who we are, where we want to go, but we have nothing to show. Just nice speak, I would say. And so I take my computers and my samples, my catalogs, and go visit all the architects we have here. And what we are feeling very quickly, they need someone, someone else, because you know, AREA only two companies that can work in that kind of high-end project, maybe three, but very two in the area, one coming from far away. Right. And they need competition first to push and help push us to go better to become better and better, sorry. Yeah, and very quickly we have been able to have our chance, show what we can do, and it was much easier.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

And we also do the service.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

And the fact is the service is uh was at the beginning the most important part of the company. We have like 60 or 70 pool under contract, pool and hot tubs. Um the issue we have now, we're making 15 pools a year. So we have to add 15 contracts a year, but to find the people is also an issue because we have Geneva and Switzerland 45 minutes from here, where the people can win three or four times more than they can win in France in terms of money. So we have difficulties to find people if we want to extend that part. So we have a bit change our mind. Uh to automatize as much as possible the pool. It's well made in Switzerland, I think maybe in Germany and Holland, but it's not very famous in France. Just for example, the Bezgo valve. Yes, it's I have seen two Besgo in the same chalet in all the area made by Swiss customs. Automatic valve exactly to clean the filters because as the guests and the owners are never aware. If we didn't come, the chalet, the pulsory filters is not clean. Um and we we have visited Dragon Aqua two months ago to discuss with them about the last system they made, the space and pool cup that allow you to control all the pool from a remote way. And with that, we want to reduce uh the contract uh times we spend on it because it's one visit a month for every customer. So it's a lot of times. With that systems, we have visits discuss with the teams there because we one year we talk with them and just want to see what we can do. We can reduce that to one visit every trimester, so with three to four months, and with that we can extend the contract without fine people. We try to reduce as much as possible the end work on site and to automatize as much as possible. And with a screen we will put there, just in front of you, we will be able to watch all the pools we have and to follow what happens.

SPEAKER_03 32:20

So you work with uh telemetry, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Uh huh. To watch the if what water level is fine, if the pressure is correct, if the the um pH level or AP level is fine, and just to watch the pools from a remote way, go there if it's needed, and then make a chairmaster visit to just be sure that everything is fine. But it's also reduced the cost of the contract for the customer. Yes. So it's win-win.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Yeah, and you're one step uh ahead because you can already inform the customer and see oh, something is not okay, and you can go there. So I think this is something we do in Europe. I mean, this is something our our strengths uh that we really, you know, when I see other countries as we both travel, know that we are already in the automatization of the pool. We are let's say a step forward than in some.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

Yes, but uh but the this innovation uh before uh swimming pools. I came from wastewater. Okay, and there it was for the communities, uh municipalities in Holland at least very normal that uh uh the main house uh townhouse had the possibility to monitor all the the the uh sewage pump stations. Yeah, but in pools, this is the first time I hear this. In fact, the pool is very late on automatisation. Yes, and uh compared to other businesses. So, this is very, very innovative and very very smart. Because in Germany and in Holland, it's not so much necessary as here because there's so many pool builders. Uh in very in uh in uh 50 square kilometers, you have maybe ten pool builders. Yeah. So that it's easier to just drive there, and here you have other challenges.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

Oh no, we use it in Germany now a lot, actually.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Yeah, no, okay, in Holland we don't. In France too. In fact, the system I think is four or five years old, if I guess the space firm. Yeah, exactly. It's not very old, but not so young too.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

We are working with it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

Okay, so then uh okay, but but it's not so common that uh pool world, does it?

SPEAKER_02 34:26

No, in the whole pool world, that's what I mean. We are in as say in the in in Europe or in the center of Europe, we are really forward with this system than we are in in other countries because this is uh because the problem of workers and finding workers is a common problem almost everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Yeah, and but anyway. In France we have we were very late on that specific point. A lot of companies didn't believe in that, to be honest. We are tense companies in all France talking with them to take the systems and work with them. That's what I mean. Yeah, but and I don't think all understand the what it can offer, but maybe it's dedicated to people like us that work a lot with very high-end customers that need a lot of service. Because if you go with the normal people, I will say, they don't need the system which allows someone to follow every time it's because they don't rent their house, they are their often, so they have times and they can take care of their pool. Right. But the high-hand customers which just have like five, six house, which is the case of some customers, they have like six houses in all the worlds, yeah, they need someone and they just don't want to hear about the pools, it must work as normal. And if you have an issue, to being able to call the customers before they called you change a lot the relationship with them.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Yeah. Well, uh let's uh since we are in this beautiful side of the mountains, um is there anything like uh is there anything mountain specific trends in pool business?

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Yeah, so you you see a common trend, or is really every pool unique?

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Every pool is unique. I think the main train trends, sorry, the main trends, um in fact automatization become a subject because they automatize all in the chalet. They can control all from remote smart home a lot, that's push a lot. So and the pool was so late on that, but we bring something quite new and that interests them a lot. Uh we for example now we we work on a project in Meribel in Savoie with uh house builders that made a chalet showroom. They want to use it as an expo to show what they can do to their new customer. So we build a chalet with a full wellness area, you have the pools, so one big pool, a hot tubs, a cold bath, steam room, sauna, snow showers, uh, air channel showers, so with the shower with effects. And in the pool they want also a cascade. Right. I think you remember that one. Um so when you put on the cascade, you need to use the piazzo button in the pool. Right. So the first questions the uh owners ask me say, okay, but can we do it on another way with like a switch button or something else? I said, No, we can. We will put an automatization system, the space systems, in the pool, put an iPad at the entry of the room, and you can switch off the lights, put the cascade on, make the counter-current system works, and you can manage all the pools from that specific point. They also will be able to manage the cold bath and the hot tubs from that same screen. And they like it a lot because it's simplify a lot the way that use the pool and the overwhelm equipment. Yeah. Yes. So I think that's the main trend we have now.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

Yeah. So next time I go in the mountains and I look at this, I th uh in my old mind, it was like in this old mountain houses. I know behind it's only the shell, and behind is a smart home with amazing features, pools, and as you offer uh steam bars and cold showers, and all the wellness you can imagine. Yeah, we have the chance.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

We have the chance to be involved in very nice projects. Uh, not working only in Megève and Chamonix, which are the main ski station close to us, but we also work in Savoie, in Maribel. We have projects for some customers in south of France, so we have like a big way and big area to work on because the high-end market is quite close, and when you enter in it and you're in you're in. You have one customer that talks about you with another one, and then it's a very small world with only a few companies that can insert the queries they give. So that's why we have the chance to work far away.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

Well, it it's uh really, really interesting uh to learn about building pools in the mountains. I I it it goes beyond my imagination, and uh it's it's it's thank you for uh having us here and showing us uh all these interesting uh projects and thank you for your time. Thanks for you for visiting us coming far away. So, Angela, tell me what have we learned today?

SPEAKER_02 39:08

I actually learned a lot this I mean I learned every day, but of course, this time I really learned a lot, and I I mean the most amazing thing for me is as I've mentioned in the podcast before, is like that I look at this mountain. I actually do at the moment, I look at this beautiful tiny little houses, and I know behind some of them is just a shell, and it's an amazing world behind this these houses. And I also learned that you have a lot of challenges with the mountains, and there is uh these earthquakes all the time. You know, you think you're sitting still, but at the end there's something moving all the time. So, and you have to face these challenges, of course, with the building of the pools.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Michael, for uh more or less uh uh to uh take that a step uh further, that looking at the outside doesn't mean anything.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 40:02

It inside what counts. Okay. Thank you. Okay, thank you. So you can write us with any uh comments or questions at mail at swimmingpoolcast.com. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Adios Danke Merci Gracias the swimming pool podcast.