MOVING INTO A 13,000-square-foot building and switching to a new hot tub manufacturer in a matter of six months may sound stressful, but Chuck Walker, owner of Saskatoon Outdoor Living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has been in some stress-inducing spots before. Shortly after purchasing the business, then Sunset Bay Hot Tubs, in 2005, the landlord inherited in the business sale decided that a new owner meant it was time for a rent hike.
“Do we pay this increase?” Walker remembers wondering. “Are we in the right location? Should we grow? What should we do? And in my young beginnings, we moved from 3,500 square feet into 5,500 square feet.”
The new building was supposed to be ready by the end of the old lease, but the construction got behind, and Walker ended up having to move his new business into a building without walls, power or water. Seven years later as the company has again undergone a massive space increase and major branding switch — a new manufacturer meant a new name for the store — Walker says he’s excited about how the changes will improve their offerings to customers.
“In order to continue the customer service our customers deserve, we made this switch,” Walker says.
While the store is hoping that carrying Sundance Spas means fewer warranty calls, it increased the size of its service department so it can generate more revenue from nonwarranty repairs. “Now I have a hot tub bay that is 30 feet wide by 100 feet long,” Walker says. “We have four wet-test bays, so we could set the spa down on the floor and work on it, or we have two stands that put the spas up in the air. We have a fully functioning test bench as well. We’re continuing to grow to make it a state-of-the-art hot tub service department.”
He hopes to serve all of Saskatchewan. Carrying Sundance Spas allows Walker to sell the spas across the entire province; the company is currently looking for the right salesperson to take their show on the road.
“Ultimately it would be fantastic if I knew your hot tub was in trouble before you did,” he says of what he’d consider perfect service, mentioning that the technology for that is close to a reality.
Saskatoon has one of the best economies in North America. “There’s no such thing as recession in this city,” Walker says. “We’ve been so blessed in our store and in our community.” The city is doing so well and growing so quickly that companies are having a hard time finding qualified workers.
The good economy and cool climate make Saskatoon a prime spot for swim spa sales. While searching an entry-level line for the store, Walker says they discovered the opposite.
“Instead of entry level, why don’t we move up to swim spas?” Walker recalls saying to his team. They’ve tried different brands, one year doing so well they sold 14. “We were the first ones to bring in a swim spa [to the Saskatoon market] because we wanted to take a chance at it,” Walker says. “It is cold in the winter, and you still want to go outside and do some exercising.”
Walker says that with some of the largest hot tubs being the most popular models, it isn’t a huge step up to look into a swim spa. “If you want a swimming pool right now in Saskatoon, most places are booked up for 2012,” Walker says. “If you buy a swim spa from me today, I can have a ‘pool’ in your backyard in two to three weeks. I will be ready to deliver it to you before you’re ready to accept delivery for it in most cases.”
After everything, it’s no surprise that when Walker talks about what the future holds and where he’d like his store to grow, you hear an audible wince. At the moment, he’s not interested in branching out any further, but there’s always room for improvement. The best piece of advice he’s received while in the hot tub industry was from industry veteran Jeff Knight, who is now the CEO at SpaBerry. “Jeff encouraged me to look at where you can improve and make your staff members improve 1 percent,” Walker says. “Don’t worry about a 10 percent growth because if you do that 1 percent per week, that’s 52 percent. Anybody will take that kind of improvement.”