WANT YOUR OWN POOL? GET IN (THE LONG) LINE.
‘Improve our castles’
Homeowners across the country, stuck indoors and with money to spare, have been busying themselves boosting Canada’s already-robust home improvement culture, renovating kitchens and ensuites, increasing energy efficiency and beefing up landscaping. If it’s become a challenge finding available kitchen counters and cabinets — and contractors to install them — just try buying a pool. Not even a bribe will work.
Now that we aren’t spending discretionary income on vacations, restaurants and entertainment, we’re looking to “improve our castles,” says Jennifer Gannon of Bonavista Pools in Toronto, and that has caused the industry to boom at an unprecedented rate.
There’s just not enough time in a construction year
— typically 40 weeks — to install all the pools and spas that people want. From about March 2020, Gannon has seen “relentless demand” across the Greater Toronto Area to the point that her company had no winter downtime this year. Typically used for review, analysis, attending conferences and just taking a break, this winter provided no relief.
“We had no break this year,” Gannon said, “no break.”
Even though her staff is working flat out, they’re swimming against the tide, unable to make headway through the sales logjam because manufacturers can’t supply raw materials and parts fast enough. In the past, manufacturers may have re-tooled production lines to support increased demand, but didn’t do so this year, given the pandemic-delayed supply chain behind the scenes.
As with virtually every sector, factories supplying the pool industry have had to either shut down for weeks, months or entirely, or even just to slow down to allow for physical distancing.
Because each of Gannon’s products — pools, hot tubs, swim spas and the like — “are not just one thing, but an assembly of parts,” it means that even if one manufacturer is able to get material to her supplier, another may not, resulting in a unit that can’t be completed.
Gannon is just now receiving shipments for orders she placed last August and September, and suppliers are telling her they won’t be able to send more for 2021 — or even 2022. Bonavista will have to fulfil orders with what is in its warehouse now, but being restocked on a just-in-time basis leaves little scope for satisfying new customers who want a pool quickly installed.
In fact, she and Rhett Bradshaw, director of operations for Vantage Leisurescapes in British Columbia, say that some customers are so desperate they’ve even offered the companies bribes. Gannon has had customers ask, “If I give you ‘xxx,’ could you move me to the front of the line?” She and Bradshaw have both declined, not only to maintain their reputations but also because they would in any case be unable to access the materials or manpower to fulfil such pleas.
B.C. is likewise is experiencing a heated pool market: “Oh yeah, huge demand!” Bradshaw says emphatically. The Langley, B.c.-based company operates across the Lower Mainland, and has seen the number of online sales inquiries double in 2020 from 2019’s non-pandemic summer. Last year’s 1,437 leads was a 100-percent jump from the 715 the year before — and this year is already going strong.
Though demand has skyrocketed, pool industry revenues have not seen commensurate growth, thanks to the slow supply chain. Manufacturers worldwide have longer production times because of lower staff counts and the need for physical distancing. There are raw material shortages, from acrylic for liners and fibreglass for the structures themselves, and the resulting product shortages — and shipping constraints — have added to lead times.
Vantage has had to increase its order time for a truckload of hot tubs from three weeks to one year. Though Bonavista’s sales of swim spas (the smaller exercise pool with a current) have doubled, because they fit smaller urban yards and can be built faster, Gannon has had to stretch the delivery time from two to nine months. Last year was Bonavista’s best in the swim spa category, helping boost the company to a 30-per-cent year-over-year increase in sales delivered versus its expected 10-per-cent growth.
The craze for cannonballs is the same throughout the country.
The city of Ottawa last year saw an An 80-percent jump in applications for pool-enclosure permits (which by law each pool owner must erect and is therefore a close measure of the number of new pools); permit applications grew to 1,383 in 2020 from 769 in 2019.
There, Mermaid Pools weeks ago sold out of inground pools for 2021 and has been booking installations for 2022, and many pool parts are already out of stock and are back-ordered for next year.
The city of Mississauga, Ont. has already received the same number of homeowner applications for pool permits in three months this year as it issued for all of 2019.
Hamilton posted yearover-year growth of 42 per cent in pool enclosure permits. In a month-by-month comparison, June 2020 saw a 65-per-cent jump over June 2019. And 2021 seems to be on track for even higher numbers. The city has received 46 and 54 permits for January and February, respectively — compared with eight permits in January 2019 and four in January 2020.