After 17 years serving as the face of Tara Manufacturing, Ron Shults, the company's vice president of sales, is leaving the company to retire. Chastity Erby has been promoted to lead the sales department for Tara as national sales director.
Shults' lengthy tenure at Tara began in 2002 when he came on board to oversee the sales department for liners as well as the company’s printing division, which produced graphics for billboards. He led the sales department for both divisions until the graphics division was split off as its own separate company. He would later be promoted to vice president of sales, a role he has held for the past six years.
In his time at Tara, Shults helped build the company into one of the largest fabricators of vinyl liners in the United States. Under his leadership, Tara became a VIP vendor for PoolCorp and was awarded the prestigious Vendor of the Year award in 2016. In 2012, Tara launched a line of safety covers to complement their vinyl liner sales. Shults’ knowledge, experience and industry contacts were crucial to the successful product launch and growth in sales. He expanded the sales force and added four full time regional sales managers, also also strengthened the company's relationship with manufacturers rep firms. These initiatives drove sales and profits, culminating last year when the company experienced its most profitable year in its history.
Shults came to Tara with a robust background in both residential and commercial pool construction. He began his career in pool construction with Gatlinburg Construction where he built pools for universities including the University of South Carolina, University of North Carolina and Clemson University. He also built one of the first wave pools in the country in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. He would go on to become the head of package pools for Poolquip McNeme in Fort Worth, Texas. Shults’ honesty, integrity, knowledge and talents made him one of the leading sales managers for the company. When the company was acquired by Biolab, he became an expert in the chemical category, going on to serve as the head of chemicals for SCP throughout the 1990s. Shults eventually left to start his own pool company, Outback Pool and Spas; he sold the company in 2002 to join Tara.
Chastity Erby has been promoted to the position of National Sales Director following Ron’s retirement. Erby has been with Tara since 2004, starting as a customer service representative and later heading the warranty department.