SWIMMINGPOOL INTERNATIONAL
The podcast from pool experts for everyone
SWIMMINGPOOL INTERNATIONAL
#3: BLACKLINE
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Swimming pool international, the swimming pool podcast.
SPEAKER_01A 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_02And in front of me sits Michael, Michael Fisher, export manager at Fluovo Schmalenberger from Tubing in Germany as well.
SPEAKER_01Hi Angela, how are you today?
SPEAKER_02Not too bad. I'm a bit tired. It's already the third day, you know, of Aquanala of our very big fair here in Germany. Actually, it's a very big fair worldwide for swimming pool equipment and wellness. And yes, I can feel it a little bit, I have to say. How about you?
SPEAKER_01Well, for me, um I uh I only arrived Tuesday morning, uh and I came by car. Um it's just it's quite close to where I thought you go by bike because you live very close. Yeah, well, I thought about it, but it would ruin my suit, so uh so I decided to go uh uh by car. And um yeah, so for me in that sense, traveling it's not that exhausting. But it's I'm really happy to be here again after uh two years.
SPEAKER_02That is very true. Um, I like it as well. Always to come to Cologne because normally I don't go too much in this region, and yes, it became after the years a very international fair as well. Um, we have many customers uh from Europe and upon also from uh other continents, really. And yes, of course, we also like it for the Aqua night. That's a very special night here um where people really come together and have a big party of all the season, what has been, you know, this year very hardworking in our industry, and to have a college. That's the small beer, special beer here from the region of Cologne.
SPEAKER_01Yes, a very tiny beer. You you don't see that anywhere in the world. So the interesting part, uh what I think about uh is are these differences in the exhibitions that you see in Europe, in fact, worldwide, but let's talk about Europe. You have Barcelona, you have Lyon, and you have Aquanale, and the difference in cultures and the different types of visitors, obviously down in in Lyon you see more people from the south, and in the Aquanale you see more people from the north, and this leads to very, very interesting uh discussions which are different, uh completely differ from each other.
SPEAKER_02That is true, and you need uh different languages as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes, well, for me it's the same. I have to speak uh English or German or Dutch everywhere. I don't speak so many languages as you do, so there you have a big advantage, I must say.
SPEAKER_02Well, I noticed uh we saw a lot of interesting things here at Aquanala uh this year. It was uh um yeah, good visitor number and uh a lot of new products. I think that one for me really sticked out. And uh do you like the color black?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, I do. Uh yeah, it has some it is quite stylish uh in a way. Uh my wife doesn't like it though, but why? Why do you ask?
SPEAKER_02I like to wear black. No, I'm just uh that's not that's true, in fact, but that's not what I really mean. Actually, while I was walking um through Aquanale, one product really caught my eye, a different booth actually. And we have I saw inbuilt parts made in black. And actually, the first time I thought it looks a bit like velvet inbuilt parts, you know, in black, and it really sticks out. I imagine in a pool it looks super good, and I think maybe it's adapted from Italy, where at the moment there's a big trend that all the in the bathroom that the parts of the toiletry and so on, you hang up your towels and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01You mean?
SPEAKER_02Yes, exactly. And what's the called the the handles and all the things are made in black again? It's a trend.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02You know, before I think we had stainless, well, the stainless steel color, and now it's uh really in to do it in black.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So it was stolen the idea.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we adapt, you know. We are very innovative industry, I would say. And what looks nice in a bathroom, because it's actually not too far when you think of a bathtub and a pool, of course, that's much better, but at least water we have inside. And yeah, there are manufacturers, actually, we did, and your Fluvo did, and we adopted and have black inbuilt parts.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, tell us a bit more about it then.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, actually, I want to start a little bit from the beginning because I remember where the first time I've seen it in the in our factory. I was wandering through the factory and I thought, what is this? And there I really saw, oh, we have a new product in black. That's different. This is how it really, this is really the first time I saw it, and now we are here presenting it on our booth, and even we have one producer who already put it in their pool, and it looks super neat. And yeah, we have skimmers, we have uh inlets, lights, uh bottom drains in black.
SPEAKER_01Okay, and um is it um what I was uh I don't know about your uh products. I guess it's the same as with ours, suitable for all pool types, right? So you can build it in stainless steel, prefabricated pools, uh, even wooden panel pools, liner pools. And um I heard this cool story about using a special kind of liner where this uh black line fits in like really well. It had something to do with stone, like a stone finish. Uh I forgot the name uh the of the brand.
SPEAKER_02That is correct. First, it is correct that we can really adapt all our inbuilt parts to different types of pools. Right. And I think you mean um, because we have a very nice liner now in the program, it's called Aqua Sense, or this kind of stone is called Aqua Sense. Okay, it's like a 3D printing, it really looks like real stones. You have the impression it's not a liner. You're thinking, oh, this pool is made of stones. Looks very nice. And if you put a black inbuilt part, you have a very, very nice product. A dream pool. Let's say it's a dream pool.
SPEAKER_01Yes, very, very interesting. Uh, this uh this black line. How do you actually manufacture it?
SPEAKER_02We are using stainless steel, the stainless steel which we are using normally also for our inbuilt parts, and this is pulver coated with black color, and every little part is pulver coated. We are also uh talking about the screws uh for the inlet nouses. If we have a little uh turning inside, it the whole part will be black, and it's made from stainless steel, pulver uh coated. So, yeah, this is how we manufacture it.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02How how do you you do the same way?
SPEAKER_01Well, the end result is the same, but uh the way of uh of making it is different. Uh we actually do uh a heat treatment of the stainless steel, and it creates uh a very thin layer over the stainless steel. Uh and the reason why we have to do this, since we have to stick to safety norms, uh safety standards, I should say, you have uh little holes in suctions, and these holes have to stay the same same diameter in order to uh guarantee safety. So we couldn't uh do put up apply any coating because then the hole would be smaller. But the end result, how it looks, is exactly the same as powder coating.
SPEAKER_02It actually looks amazing, I have to say. It is super beautiful, it's a very nice product, it's stylish, it's up to date, it's what people really like. I know that we actually sold already some of those pieces, and yeah, it's an outstanding product. And just one more thing, I think uh forget about plastic, because plastic will bleach anyway in the sun with the with black, you will have a super nice gray. And so, yeah, it's a it's a very nice product. Um, I can recommend it, it looks very good in a lot of colors of pools. I have heard people who said, I like it in a white pool. You know, if you want to have a super contrast of black and white, you know, like a Dalmatina approach, or you have it in a more dark pool or stainless steel, super outstanding. I mean, there are projects in the world, I'm sure, who where it fits perfectly.
SPEAKER_01You can go in any direction, and with us, uh in all shapes, whether round or Q-line. Is that the same for you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's the same. Because we actually had uh, I know that uh very famous uh designer, she had it in her pool um in square version. You know, the first one we had a slim skimmer. Yes. She put a slim skimmer when we started with those kind of models, and yes, we have it nowadays because it's in fashion to have a lot of square things for when you have like a square house, let's say you want to have a square inbuilt part, you have a square pool, we have it in square, we have it in a round.
SPEAKER_01So you choose exciting, exciting uh uh future next season when this uh really comes to market. Yes, besides uh um checking out the products on our booth and on the banker booth, we also have a third partner uh in let's say the Black Line uh group, uh which is uh a prefabricated pool um um manufacturer, Nova Comate, and they exhibit a pool from the black line range which has all our parts built in. And uh so if you're interested to see how it looks in a black line pool, please uh visit uh Nova Comate.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and and they also have a black line pool. Yes, very good idea. Hurry up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it's only two days left for the show. Only two days left.
SPEAKER_02If not, of course, you can always look in our catalog or in yours, and you will find um yeah, all of the products. We will inform you about it. We have a lot of information already, and we are very happy. If you also have a question about it, of course, you can always contact us.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, yeah, you can write either a mail at uh mail at swimmingpool minus podcast.com, you can look online on the website www.swimmingpool minus podcast.com. And uh well, Angela, it was as always good talking to you again, and I'm looking forward to the next podcast.
SPEAKER_02Me too.
SPEAKER_01Danke, thank you.
SPEAKER_02Gracias.
SPEAKER_01Okay, bye-bye.
SPEAKER_02Bye bye.