I could be wrong, but POOLCORP's polices toward the manufacturers has been a major factor in the increases we have seen in the past few years. POOLCORP's purchasing policy (pricing) causes the manufacturers margins to drop, thus they raise their prices to cover the lower profits, which of course get past along to the dealer. It is a vicious circle in which the pool dealer/builder/service company loses!
Past four years my pool prices have not gone up $1; yet my costs have increased every year. I keep asking, "How do they increase prices in a recession?" I guess they don't care. I hope they wake up soon, or we will all be out of business, including POOLCORP. POOLCORP has raised the cost of doing business due to its very large, inefficient management and overhead.
When I started in this business, there was very little distribution. Now we have more distribution than we need, or can afford.
John Salvo, salvopoolandspa.com
