“It’s probably like everybody else’s family store,” says Dennis Marunde, president of Arvidsons and grandson of the founder. “The original location has been added on to three or four different times, and it’s probably about 10 times larger than it was when it started. When I joined the company, it was a good time for all those changes to start to happen and we started by opening another location. After the second store was well established and a capable team was in place, we bought another business for a third location, and it just sort of snowballed.”
Marunde never anticipated joining the family business, but after he got his business degree, he found himself helping out, taking on a bigger role than he had expected. He took three years off to get his MBA and travel and once again found himself back at Arvidsons.
“I came to realize that my dad and my uncle were really good at building a customer base, getting jobs done, selling themselves and doing things with integrity,” Marunde says. “But they didn’t necessarily excel in the areas of business administration and finance needed to lead forever a growing business.”
Marunde says he had always wanted to have a job where he could “make a difference,” but he never thought it would be in the pool and spa industry that surrounded him as a child. But as he started to see the positive impact the store had on the lives of his customers and employees, he knew he was in the right place.
“You start to realize you are making a difference right now, right where you are,” he says. “Then you stop chasing rainbows and you start realizing you are good right here at what you are doing.”
After 53 years in business, the company’s solid reputation and respect within the community has helped them in good times and bad.
“One of the things that we have identified as our strategic advantage is our PEAK program,” Marunde says. “It stands for the four key identifiers of our strategic advantages: Product, Execution, Attitude and Knowledge.”
When they hire, industry experience takes a back seat to attitude and trainability, Marunde says.
“When we begin a relationship with any employee by basing it on what kind of individual they are, and then forcing ourselves to be patient while we bring good people along as they develop their skills, eventually, those good people do a good job taking care of good customers,” Marunde says. “And so our goal is to be the friendly and reliable and trustworthy source.”
Carefully watching the numbers, leaving the company as well-capitalized as possible and taking advantage of the knowledge, training, product innovations and marketing support programs from top manufacturers has put Arvidsons in a good place, and lets Marunde sleep at night when the economy is bad.
“I think the plan is to just go along continuing to try to grow our business at a reasonable, sustainable pace every year — as long as it continues to be fun and fulfilling,” Marunde says. “You know I think we’ve been with BioGuard for probably 35 years and we’ve been with Hot Springs probably close to 20 now. Those relationships were very important in helping, in conjunction with our own family values, to feed the ability to keep growing.”
He continues, “When I look back on where we were when I started 20 plus years ago and where we are, I realize that along the way we’ve not only built a stable business with the help of great suppliers and manufacturers, but we’ve also made close friends who are bright and seasoned business people in their own right. I love the fact that we have developed friends within the industry who I can turn to when we need advice or a supportive sounding board for ideas. The same is true of my accountant, attorney and banker — those are all people who are part of my advisory circle. They are all valuable and important relationships to have and to utilize regularly.”