Thanks For a Great Year In 2015
What a wonderful year you gave us last year: our best in our 36 years in business. We seem to have out-performed each of our industries; and it wasn’t just a matter of good weather! It was you honoring us with your business, and our great team members working very hard.
We have shared our profits with our coworkers for around 30 years, and this year is no exception: I’m putting over $100,000 into their retirement plans. We don’t do a 401K, because those tend to reward the higher-paid employees more than the lower-paid. We use a SEP-IRA (ask an accountant) so that I get the exact same percentage of my pay, as everyone else.
We had a busy winter for travel, too. Anne-Marie and her husband Phil went to Aruba for the Jonas Chemicals trip. They make all of the powdered and tablet Target™ Pool Supply chemicals. Stephanie and Mike represented us at the Baquacil® dealer meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I attended the Target Buying Group dealer meeting in Cancun, Mexico. While there, I accepted their award as Store of The Year. Mia went to the Marquis Hot Tubs meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Trips that were not so warm; were Patrick’s trip to the Atlantic City Pool Show, Ann and Mia’s two trips to Chicago furniture shows, Sarah, Stephanie, and Kristine’s trip to New Jersey for Aquabot training, and my trip to Mohegan Sun for a pool distributor show.
We have a couple of major anniversaries this year. We’re celebrating fifteen years with Anne-Marie in October, and five years with Kristine in April. We’ll have cake and gifts at the time.
I am very grateful for all our team members, especially for how long the good ones have stayed with us.
We did have our tragedy last year when Jeanne died. I still feel the PTSD from that experience. I am working, though not as much as in the past. I resigned as Chairman of the Board of the New Hampshire Retail Association. We have revamped jobs here in order to allow people to grow, and to operate without Jeanne and with me only on a 40 hour week.
As I mentioned last August, Mia is now assisting Ann with furniture buying and display. They have dramatically changed our Patio Department. Mia and Stephanie are still Assistant Managers, but they’ve re-arranged and expanded their jobs.
- Mia is becoming Sales Manager, and will be based mostly out of the Design Center. She is also controlling much of our floor arrangement outside of the Pool Department, and is now Assistant Buyer for hot tubs.
- Stephanie will be spending more time in the Pool Department; becoming Water Lab Manager, Training Coordinator, and Pool School Coordinator. Plus she is taking on some of Patrick’s office work.
- Patrick will be spending much more time in the Pool Department.
- Kristine has given up Tod’s Pool Service, so that she can spend more time in the pool store when it is the most busy.
Our intention is to maintain our quality in the pool store, while upgrading our abilities in Patio/Hot Tubs/Billiards/ Grills and other non-pool items.