#15: Aquadeck poolcovers. Close…to be perfect.

Today we are joined by Roy Peeters, General Manager of Aquadeck, a company known for its high-quality automatic pool slatted covers. Pool covers have evolved far beyond a simple accessory. Today they play a crucial role in energy efficiency, safety and pool design. But how exactly do they work, what materials make the biggest difference, and how much energy can they actually save? Did you know that hail has such a big impact? In this episode, Roy will share the story behind Aquadeck, explain the technology behind automatic slat covers, discuss innovations in materials such as PVC and polycarbonate, and give insights into market trends, installation challenges and what pool owners should know before choosing a cover. 

More about Aquadeck: https://www.aquadeck.nl/poolcovers/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Swimming Pool International, the Swimming Pool Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

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

SPEAKER_01 0:31

And in front of me sits Michael, Michael Fizer, Export Manager at Fluurg Schmalenberger from Tüming in Germany. Hi Michael.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Hi Angela. It has been a while since I've met you and I hope everything goes well.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Everything is good. Sun is coming, spring is coming. I'm I'm a Netherlands. We are actually in the Netherlands today, and as it is my perfect little country, I saw a lot of flowers already. So spring is here around the corner. And if you believe it or not, in Spain is bad weather, so you have much better weather, much better weather here than than we do actually. So I'm not here to we are not here to talk about the weather really, um, because we would like to talk about pool covers.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Yes, and today we are here with Roy, Roy Peters, General Manager of Aquatec pool covers in Budel in Brabant in the Netherlands. And hi Roy, nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Hi.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Nice to meet you. Thank you. Um it's a pleasure to uh to uh have this topic. We haven't uh discussed this before, and it uh Roy already showed us uh the the factory and it's it's it opened the world, opened up a world for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

So um it really did, and I have to say, you know, as it always is, if you dive into a topic and you you know and you really learn about it, then it becomes interesting, no? And uh and I think this visit was actually an eye-open now for what is possible today, also in automation and all these things, and yeah, very, very nice company, we have to say. And uh yeah, it leads me to the first question. We don't start with the where we are now, where we are very modern at the moment, but where did it all start? How did it start and the idea of pool covers?

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Yes. Um well Akodac was uh founded in 1999, so you just missed our 25th anniversary. No, uh 27 years ago, uh Mr. Gerard Felings, who used to work for Starline pool covers, uh uh decided to begin his own company in pool covers. In the beginning, that was from the garage to help out some customers he knew, but uh quite soon it grew and it became uh like a really good business for him. And in the 15 years that followed, uh Aquadac grew until uh I would say more or less 1,000 covers production per year. Um interesting side effect is in this 15 years that uh Aquedac was also the first company who used a tubular motor, where in the past it always was equipped with external motors. So the tubular motor, which is really really common now, I would say in 90% of all the pool covers, has been founded or at least used by Aquadac for the first time. Um then 15 years later in 2016, Aquadac was acquired by the Pollock Pool Group, and uh a big difference then was that Aquadac used to sell directly to pool builders, but after the acquisition of the Pollock Pool Group, they decided to stop that and to work exclusively exclusively for distribution uh distribution companies. Um a few of them were already part of the Pollock Pool Group, so you could say AquaDec started to sell to sister companies, but also direct customers in Europe was also a big part of the business. Um, but it also meant that being part of the group, automatically big customers came more or less for free to AquaDeck, and that means that the growth was quite significantly between 2016 and 2021. Because uh a bit later in 2019, also POMAS for the Netherlands came in, and in that that means that two of the biggest distribution companies in the Benelux were customers of Aquadac being part of the Politpool Group. The result was that in 21 until now, uh the volume we do here in the factory is more than 4,000 pool covers per year. And that was also a big challenge because uh then we saw that a lot of things got complicated. We didn't have enough production capacity, we didn't have enough space for production, also not for the warehouse, and also maybe the culture of Aqueduct was not professional enough to deal with this growth. Um in 2021, when I started to work for Aquedac, my first job was more or less to solve these operational problems. Uh, and um the few results we did in the last few years, we first bought a company or a building new building for new production capacity. We did some rebuilding, connected a few buildings, and then we bought a few, I would say, high-tech machines to be able to do automatic production. And on top of that, last year we migrated to a new software system and a new tailor-made product configurator. And this has all been done now, and it means we are now completely ready for uh growth for expansion and sales, and we want and we will grow on a local market but also in all countries in Europe. We can deal with this growth now because we are the most modern automatic pool cover manufacturer, and therefore we produce and deliver extremely fast. You have seen the factory, I told you a few times, uh, after the confirmation of the pool builder saying this is the product I would like to have. Uh actually, sometimes in 10 minutes later, we can already start producing, and in 12 minutes, most of the cars are are ready. Um, however, our our target is not to immediately to grow or to be the biggest. Uh I always say we want to be the best, and when we are the best, I think that growth will be a logical result. Um and another aspect which is important to say is that due to the high level of automation, uh the the complete process between order and invoice is very efficient, and we also take out human failures, as you can see in our product configurator, but also in our machines, we have a lot of cameras and and and uh vision systems to check every single detail to make sure that when the production is finished, uh the product is right and with the highest quality. Um to make sure that everything goes well, we also have that also all the data like the cutting sizes are automatically transferred from the auditor to the machines. Um, and I think that's important for our customers because what they want is when they have the pool cover in 10 days or two weeks, somewhere in Europe, and they send out their installation team to do the installation. You don't want to arrive in a situation that something's not correct and that they have to stop or they need to take back the installation team with a lot of cost and time loss. Since we are a seasonal business, we don't want to lose time. So we are really focused on doing everything uh perfectly. Well, and that's where we are today. So that's uh in in five minutes the history of Aquedec.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah, it was a very, very uh nice overview, and I um I would like to come back uh to 1999 again to the garage. I I um because uh you said okay, you're really a company who started from the from the scratch in the garage. So what was uh 20 as you said uh now it's 20 uh 27 years ago, um the the idea, okay. We have pools. What was his idea? Okay, now I need a cover.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

No, the the because uh Gerhard Felings and also his son Dennis, who is still working here, uh had experience with pool covers. But they first said, okay, let's keep this business but also do something else. But then uh after leaving uh Starline and and uh starting Aquedac, they found out that immediately uh they got quite a few customers, and then after one month of thinking about how the future should look like, they decided let's let's do it and and just try to make a company and and and not work for a different company anymore. So that was the beginning. But in the in the garage with two people, you know, you can you can with with 25 pool covers per year or maybe 50, you can already be uh you know uh profitable. Uh but then the growth the growth uh uh was much uh quicker than they expected, and then they needed to go to a second uh uh how do you say uh spot somewhere in a different village, and then a few years later they started to build the building where we are today.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Well, and that uh for our listeners uh maybe perhaps you can explain why people need pool covers anyway.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Good question. Um and uh there's a very logical uh answer because when you want to keep heat in water or another another liquid, uh you want to avoid evaporation, and that that's what you do with putting a cover in it, and that saves about 70%, so 7-0% of the evaporation, because evaporation takes out the heat, so that's what you want to avoid. Um so when you add a pool cover on your pool, you immediately save a lot of energy, but also, of course, water loss because evaporation also consumes water. Um, and a third reason for slatted covers as we make, we only we do not make foam covers, we only do slat covers, right? Is that you can have a solar function within the sled, and that also has a third then functionality because then you have free heating of your pool because the heat uh is being transferred from the sled into the water. So I would say heat loss, but also winning extra heat by using solar uh sleds.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah, and this actually also uh sort of answers the question can you explain how an uh an automatic pool slat cover works uh in the sense of uh heating uh but uh how does the system work?

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Okay. Yeah, uh because we just already talked, you need something to put on the water, so you need to have something which floats.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

And we all know that air is a has a very high insulation value. Yeah. So then you come already to what products float where you can put air, like uh locked, and therefore plastic profiles already are part of a of a of a cover for twenty-five years more or less.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Uh so this is what we do, and the material we use is uh PVC or polycarbonate, as we call PC. So PvC and PC. Right. These are the two plastics we use all over Europe and all over the world actually, to put this cover on a pool because they float, and then you can make them in in profiles, so therefore you can also roll them up or off. Yeah. Um then of course you need to move the cover because then you have the plastic uh profiles on your pool floating, but you need to open and close uh the pool cover, so therefore, uh you need to find a system which uh makes that happen, and therefore, we use all a tube uh stainless steel or aluminum. We only use stainless steel 316, the highest quality uh stainless steel. These are also made exactly tailor-made for the pool where also the slats uh go onto, of course. Uh, and then you have something to roll up or roll down the slats on this tube. But of course, to do that in a in a uh automatically way, you need to have a motor or you would need to have a a drive to make that movement of the tube. And therefore, we used to uh uh use external motors, but in the last 20 years, all the markets have stepped over to tubular motors. So we build in a tubular motor and a stainless steel tube, and that makes it already possible to motorize it. And then the last part is of course to control it, and then you can do that with a control box, with a remote control, or an app on your phone, or a key switch to say open or close or stop in between. So that's more or less how this all works, and the last part is that we want to hide then mostly the tube or or and the roll of the cover. So then we make constructions to make, for example, a corner cover or a protective plate, as we call it, or a lounger, or a niche behind the pool, so the the pool user, pool owner can decide what they prefer under the floor, uh on top of the terrace, behind the pool, all these things are possible, and we make tailor-made uh prefabricated packages for that.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

And the last uh technical question in the in this uh in that sense. Uh you were talking about uh PVC and PC. What is the main difference or its application?

SPEAKER_03 14:34

There's a big uh difference in uh the quality of the material. Uh polycarbonate is much stronger and it has uh and it is less sensitive, for example, for hail. So in countries where you have mountains you have more uh hail storms. Uh so this is very uh important because when you have a PVC cover, the hill stones go immediately through the PVC sleds with polycarbonate not. So with PC slats, the hill resistant is much higher, and we also have normation for that. So we use hill norms to be able to sell uh slats in in those countries like Switzerland, Austria, and part of Germany, because then the insurance also covers that uh you can get a new cover when it's uh affected by a hill storm. Uh a second uh big difference is the the limit of the burning degree. So PVC easily burns, so where the where the sun is very strong, south of Europe, PVC is very sensitive. Um and PC polycarbonate has a burning degree of more than 100 degrees. So when you put it in the sun on top of the roof, even when there's no cooling from the water surface, there's no explanation. Therefore, the lifetime, the lifespan of polycarbonate is 10 years and longer, and PVC is much shorter. So in the end, a polycarbonate, although the price is much higher, higher you save money.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Yeah, I was going to say that you know uh there's actually no reason to choose PVC other than price.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Uh in those markets where PVC is still popular, which is mainly in France, uh, is just a price-driven uh thing for the investment. But on long term, you're completely right, PC will always be better.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

How long does it last then?

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Well, for example, Aquadec, and we are a bit unique, we give five years of warranty on the complete cover, so the stainless steel part, but also the motor and also the slats. But for polycarbonate, you know, this material is more or less 10 to 15 years on the market, and the lifespan or life expectation is more than 10 years or more than 15 years. But it's always also a matter, you know, how good does the pool owner maintain the pool? How good is the water quality? Because it can heap uh can happen that the slats still work but do not look that nice anymore, especially with PBC, but it's also a matter of maintaining the pool, and then sometimes people say it's still wet nice, but I still prefer new slats after ten or twelve or fifteen years.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Right. Interesting, really. Yeah. And it being so long in the pool business, I didn't know all these details about the hail is so important, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

I I've haven't seen hail for years.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

Um it's always a little joke that when we see on the weather forecast that there's a hail storm coming up that we would like to inform all pool owners, close your cover because we are always happy with hail storms, as you can imagine, and especially also the pool builder, but uh you know that's uh off the record.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Yeah, well, I mean I do remember um the last big hail storm I I lived in America, and this was really got more than golf bolts. No, they were really big.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

But you can imagine uh uh that sometimes when there's a local hailstorm and it's a specific spot in a in a village or a few villages, sometimes that's like 100 orders for a pool builder. They have to replace one order 100 pool covers, like additional business for them. So uh so yeah, replacement of covers which are affected by a hail storm is is good for for the business. Uh and uh well the insurance uh normally uh takes care of that. Uh but this is in time there's more and more limitations, for example, in those countries where it hails a bit more, and therefore you get this uh requested hail normation of the slats, which we have to comply to.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

I I have to ask now, since we do talk about weather, because we had a very severe, I mean it's really severe uh storm, you know. So how does wind I mean, I I'm not talking about the normal wind, I'm talking about real, real. How does it affect covers? Does it affect covers as well?

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Yes, uh it can. Normally, uh when you have a skimmer pool, of course, the the water level is under the terrace surface, and then it's more or less protected, but still, but still the wind can go under it. With an overflow pool, it's even more important, and therefore we have as we call them uh overflow pendle set, which means a stainless steel uh little little yeah, it's it's it's a stainless steel little part which makes sure that, for example, the the pool cover does not flow off in the direction of the overflow channel. However, there's also possibilities that people say, according to the weather forecast or the wind, that automatically the pool cover, for example, opens. That's also possible. There's a few systems who work with that. But under normal conditions, it could happen, but it's very, very rare. But with big storms, I think you also need to take care about your parasol, and then people might also think, oh let's also protect the pool cover a bit and open it. But it's very rare.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah, but weather now changes, no? So um I come um to uh to a next question about um a little bit about design. You know, people have nowadays since let's say almost everything is possible, no, in design world, you know, how does it um yeah influence your you know the the pool covers and the material you take, the slats?

SPEAKER_03 20:34

Well that's uh a challenge for us because you have uh just uh walked in the factory and you saw also the the stock of all the different designs and colours we have when it look when it when it is about the sled. Because for the pool owner, the slats is the only thing he sees, the rest is more or less hidden. So the only thing that for the pool owner which is important is how does my pool look like when the pool cover is closed? And in the past there was grey and white, and light blue, and PVC, but when you look at what we have today, and it's also because a man many pool owners uh work together with an architect or with a with a garden company, and they specifically look at each detail, and when it's a pool within a grass field, then then you have other choices than when it's like in a grey concrete look and and everything that is between. So we look at what the market requires, and the second thing we look is is it economically for us interesting? Because you know you cannot buy uh profiles or slats to make a one cover pier for a specific color. So we also need to look at trends, and we think this is a good color for us. And we now have 10 different colors, and but when you look at how it looks like uh I would say for every pool today if your uh terrace is wood or concrete or terracotta or you have uh what I said a grass field we have solutions for everything so I think now every pool owner will uh find something he really likes and his specific garden. You you said trends so what is like yeah what is what is going on in the in the cover in the cover business innovations so what is um yes um well the the slats is this the first one uh what we just uh discussed um and that makes sense uh but we also see a bit trend of moving from PVC to PC uh in each country so people are more willing to invest in a more expensive uh slatted cover because of the durability but also because the choices of colors and design are are are better with uh are bigger with the polycarbonate and other trends we see is uh mainly about controlling so operating opening and closing the the the pool in the past it used to be a simple control box or a simple control box which was connected to uh a pool management system nowadays people want uh at least to have an app not only to um to control the the opening and closing of the pool but for example also to enter to program the beginning and the end position of the of the pool we have a control box for that and an app that the pool installer can use this app to do the programmation but also for example to change the turning of the motor to both directions in the past you need it then to change the cables now we have uh a device that you can just change that with your app and also to have more protection uh our controller measures the amperage the pool cover needs when it opens and closes and therefore you can set your own limits for example when it's five ampere you can put your limit on seven and you know when there's something in your pool like a toy then immediately it measures more ampera and it says stop before things break down so it's more like intelligence thing which is uh which is uh a thing and for the pool owner also you know to combine it with your house automation and also your level control because you want to avoid when your water level is too low you you you you don't want to open or close your pool cover it can really uh damage your pool so also a combination with water level sensor and the possibility of opening or closing the the pool cover is something which we have today and which is more and more popular. Yes like we see all over the pool business everything gets automated whether it's countercurrents whether it's pool covers lights water treatment it all goes into that that direction yeah exactly and you you you said safety no I think that is also a very big um yeah a very big issue with a pool cover actually um one thing uh we discussed earlier about uh the energy savings um uh energy savings being uh uh in general in life uh at the moment a very big topic and and is this really uh yeah how should I say this in the real world is either working with or without a pool cover is there any uh data that says well if you have uh a pool cover you save uh an X amount of money per year or so or is that is that not the way it's done well it it is but uh it has many many many um factors which are uh which which uh uh how do you say uh which have impact on your consumption of uh energy uh like I told you the first thing is that when you have put your pool cover you have about 70% of energy saving so you can say 70% uh uh cost saving on heating however when you have 70% 70% okay but when you have solar panels on your roof and you use a heat pump which is of course then electric electronically you get the energy from your solar panels right you can say okay but my energy saving you know I have free heating because I have solar panels on the roof so in that case your money saving in real life is not that big however everybody knows that when you put heat in your pool you don't want to lose it again because then the next day you have to do it all over again. Exactly so therefore we we stick to the rule that you save around 70% on energy cost heating cost but in some countries it's still gas heating in other countries it's uh it's a heat pump so it depends on the circumstance and it also depends on you know the direction of the wind so the your your direct environment in your garden but what we tested uh it's maybe nice to say also is that the efficiency of the solar slats we tested last year in real life because all our PC sleds have uh solar functionality however the it's not the same uh so we put all our different solar sleds in a real pool for four months and and and measured every day to see what heat came in and and next morning how much uh got out. And then you see uh how quick does it bring in heat because the weather conditions are exactly the same only the slat is different and then you can see a difference. And in our new leaflet we also communicate this so you can see within all our uh within all the range of our solar slats how solar efficient they are and the main rule is the more transparent they are on the top yeah the better the sunlight goes through the slat to arrive on the bottom black part and the bottom black part gets hotter and transfers the heat to the pool water. So the the rule is of course to to arrive on that but people want different colours and you have to have color and then it makes it less transparent and then it's less efficient but still it has a solar function. You still have free heat. So the transparent in this case is actually the best transparent is the solar one for the solar one but transparent also has a another side effect because transparent is very sensitive and after a few years it gets less transparent and then the efficiency goes down. So transparent slats you mostly use for indoor pulls and for outer pools you you use a kind of a color which is still transparent but that's uh that's uh the choice slightly well they are quite um have that color you know yeah yeah yeah exactly we saw some samples before and uh I can imagine that uh automatic pull covers uh also adds to certain safety with kids and so on uh is there like a limit of uh how many kilograms it can hold uh before somebody actually falls through uh yes uh first uh it is very important always when it uh when the subject is uh safety which is of course uh very important for all of us yeah is that we never talk with an automatic slat cover never that it's a safety cover because it's not no but it's it's uh it uh it increases it adds safety uh that's for sure because the the maximum carrying weight yeah uh is one hundred kilograms per square meter okay yeah so that means uh when you lay down uh you can easily float when you step over most of the people will also survive I just want to say 100 should be enough normally should be enough normally um uh so it it we have already we also have videos that for example four children play soccer uh on the pool cover that's just possible because you you go a bit a little bit down so the water goes uh goes up yeah but you will not sink however there are always circumstances that something can happen for example a dog or a little baby could fall into the uh on top of the cover and would uh slide down on at the side and that and then you cannot get out so therefore that should not happen and you can add safety for example by mounting stainless steel grab rails on the on the long side of the pool yeah then also the sides are protected to sink to go down and then it's even safer but we always say um you know what is very important even though a slattered cover uh increases the safetyness you should always have a visible um uh visibility on your pool when opening and closing that's very important yeah when you have small children we always say you know use on top of the slattered cover maybe a safety cover or make a fence for the for a few years because safety in in in every family of course is is is very very important. Right. Yeah but like you said it's not a safety cover but it definitely adds security because most of the times when you would fall in you just float and you can uh you can get out of the pool again.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Um yeah um mistakes here we talk no about uh what could happen um i I would like to know um when you when you want to have a cover what are typical mistakes installers and and owners of the pool are are doing um the the the mistake we see still um well not often but uh I would say in a percentage maybe a few percent of mistakes we see is still that the wrong measurement is taken by the pool builder and this is also critical because of course when you want to cover the pool you don't want to take 10 centimeters at all the sides to be sure that it fits so we always choose 30 millimeters on on both sides as a as a maximum gap.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

But sometimes there's also a skimmer at the side so we have the flinch and sometimes just people for forget that the the the thickness of the flinch maybe on both sides is also the size they should measure or they use the wrong equipment or they route down something unreadable and then the wrong size is put into our product configurator and that could lead to to a mistake. So that's the most common mistake still the pool builder or pool installer makes another mistake which we see sometimes is that the cable of the tubular motor is very delicate and very important. It should never be damaged it's uh and when the the cable is 10 or 15 or 20 meters long which we offer and they pull the cable with a lot of force between you know angles and hooks and stainless steel parts sometimes this cable is damaged and when the cable is damaged there comes water inside of the cable and sometimes after one or two years it arrives into the motor and the motor breaks down. But we can check it easily and then we see it's a it's a damaged cable and that should not happen but that's also then a mistake with installing we see once in a while.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

And the pool owner what would they what would they think of um when they have a pool cover?

SPEAKER_03 33:52

What is important uh cleaning maybe or you know yes maintenance what is very good because uh also in my uh past I used to work for for another company and we always had this issue that pool owners who maybe spent 100,000 euro on the pool they think that everything goes automatically and they never have to do anything. Sometimes the pool builder sells it like that. I have an automatic dosing system you never have to check your water quality anymore and that's a big mistake. So maintenance of stainless steel maintenance of of course the water treatment but but also the pool cover is important and the better you do that the easier it is so I would say once in a while once per year maybe a bit more just clean clean your pool cover and that makes it a nicer product on long term we have however a unique system as we call the anti-algae system in our pool slats which are small holes every 20 centimeters and these holes are made in the connecting chamber where you connect one slat to the other slat and exactly in this connecting chamber we have little slots or little holes which means that every time the pool owner opens or closes the cover the chlorinated water from the pool streams in this chamber and flushes out beginning of algae or little dirt. So it's a kind of self-cleaning system which is quite unique which really really helps to avoid building of algae in our slatted cover because the algae you really see after a while but on top of that good water quality and a good flow or circulation of your filtration pump is always still very important. You cannot expect that you do not anything leave the cover even when it's 30 degrees go on holidays for for three months or three weeks and then come back and you see hey now my pool does not like look nice anymore it always comes back to basic basic maintenance. Yeah I think this algae thing is a is a very that you have such an advanced product there is a is a big advantage no also I think so yeah and um yeah why should a a pool owner or a pool builder choose aqua deck um our strategy or vision is always to work together with pool builders because we consider them not as customers but as partners we make a high-end product and we realize that the pool cover is maybe yeah is a big part of the in in investment of the pool owner so it should always be perfect. And you can only do that when the perfect when the product is perfect but also the installation is perfect. So you need to work you need to cooperate with people who know your product and need uh to work with people who know how to install the product this is key for us therefore we do a lot of trainings to make sure that it arrives in good quality at the pool and also be installed at the right way so that you have maximum pleasure and and and and long-term functionality of your of your pool cover. For the rest we have some different things like fast delivery times which is really good for the pool builder but for the pool owner also the like we just discussed this anti-algae concept which helps to look to make sure that the the cover looks nicer and we give a lot of trainings we educate our customers to make sure that also new products new technologies arrive at the right spot because our our ambition is is like I told you to be to be the best also our slogan close to be perfect is based on that because it means it's never done we are we are we are always quite in the good direction but it's never done you can always improve things by making it nicer easier cheaper and that's what we try to do and and the second explanation is of course when you close the pool cover it is perfect because we think that our products add a value also in the in the evening when you do your barbecue next to the pool site and the cover is on it's still a very nice nice picture and most of our slats have for example transparent end caps which means when you pull light is on you see a nice rectangular of pool light coming through and this is for us the perfect situation so therefore we say close the pool cover to be perfect. Yeah I saw it in the video um you have online it looks very nice when you have barbecue yeah that's based on on that feeling yeah exactly yeah and since you do uh a lot of uh export which is uh I assume predominantly EU and some uh UK so uh there are there I guess not but are there many differences uh when it comes to uh the technical requirements in the in the EU with countries uh or is it is it basically one safety rule that you or a safety rule the s one set of regulations that works for all these countries no uh that's not the case because in in Europe and I think even in the world only uh France is the only uh country where you have uh a law which means that all of each residential pool needs to be safe and that means you need to have a safety cover or an alarm system or a fence that's by law the only country where you have this kind of regulation that means of course there's also a French norm where pool covers need to comply with for example or you choose to have a different cover but still put the fence to make sure that at least the pool environment is safe. But that's only in France we know now that Italy is also going into that direction they will just copy paste the law as it is in France. For the rest there is no law but it means of course that the the requirements in France are a bit different than in most of other countries that's interesting no since we are like let's say even in as a German no that we are so also based on on safety you know and there I mean there were accidents before many actually you know with uh with pools that only France has a law about it right i it is on the other hand uh I also uh jumped into this subject and most of the people now uh from like for example in the Netherlands who drown uh are in a river or a small channel or in the sea and in the in the uh drowning people in your own garden is just not that often the case because when you have children or or grandchildren as a pool owner you make sure that there's always someone with or you have a fence or whatever solution you have in it and it's not that you would say as a human being well nothing will happen you can just uh put your children in the garden so I think everybody is very cautious but of course to to have a law on on that I would never say that it's wrong but even with um with products which should make it safer you can always make it you can you know you can have a fence without it's locked or you can have the pool cover which is not closed or you know so it's never hundred percent safe that's true even when you would have the kids 15 year old kids they can still have the party and be drunk and exactly yeah make a mistake not the children yes the parents of course not no they wouldn't do that they okay yeah uh and coming a little bit to the end um do you have like a pool uh some kind of a cool pool cover story like a big project or something yes yes we we do uh and uh this uh we haven't talked about it yet but for us a big project it's not a funny story but for us uh for us a big project because of this different requirements in markets we will launch in the next uh four weeks uh a new product line which we call Discover um and that is uh based on still high end but I would say just a little bit less but with a more attractive price and with a limited range of product and also limited in size and therefore we can produce this very efficient like in-between uh and therefore we can push this product to southern countries where the market prices are much lower but I still think we have then the best quality on that market with a lower price and that's what we will bring out in the next few weeks and we are very excited to do that and see what comes out of it so let's see.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Sounds very good and you do have a very short delivery time no?

SPEAKER_03 43:22

Yes yes we have uh we have a very short delivery time normally also in in in Europe depending on you know how how fast the transportation goes uh we produce normally within ten days or or two weeks as a maximum uh so it could be everywhere in Europe uh within two uh two weeks well I see that as a real advantage because the homeowner can make a last minute decision uh before he didn't want to have a pool cover because of the money and then if the last minute he decides oh and let's have a pool cover then it it goes relatively fast. It's exactly Exactly true, but it has even more impact because when your pool is ready and you have uh weather where you can swim, the last thing you want is when you heat the pool and that all your heat is done. So when people the pool when the pool is ready, they also want the cover to be able to reach you know swimming nice uh water temperature. And for the pool builder, the advantages is mostly the last part of the of the building and also the last part of the money they get from the pool owner. So the sooner they have the cover, the sooner they completely deliver or end the project and get the last part of the money.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Okay. Well, it has been uh a fascinating uh journey to the world of pool covers, uh I would say. And uh so thank you very much, uh Roy for having us. Uh I think it's a very interesting uh topic.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

Yeah. And I asked you today, what have you learned?

SPEAKER_02 44:56

What have I learned? Well, first of all, uh more about energy saving than I ever thought it was, and the move from uh external motors to tube motors. I didn't realize it was that uh integrated already, which is it is is an amazing technologically, as you if you as you know I'm a so that fascinated me the most. And uh how much you can automate in a production process really well done, I must say. Uh that that is uh uh the number of covers produced with uh so uh relatively speaking so few people amazes me.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Uh compared to uh making countercurrents where we need a lot of people in comparison.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

Yeah, it was a pleasure to give you this information and uh to to do a little bit of uh game on words. I think we covered everything now as a podcast.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Yes, we did, and uh yeah, great stuff.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yes. Thank you, Roy, to having us here. And thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

You can write us with any comments or questions at mail at swimmingpool minus podcast.com.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

Goodbye. Duncan Gracias Mercywel Spassiva.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

Swimming Pool International, the Swimming Pool Podcast.