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Swimart dives into mobile market

Sarah Stowe

Inside Franchise Business: mobile franchise another option at SwimartAre you ready to go into business for yourself as a pool mobile service franchisee? One of Australia’s franchised pool and spa specialists is targeting regional and metro areas for its new convenient sales and service model.

Swimart has launched its first two mobile franchisees: one in Byron Bay on the NSW North Coast and the other in the Queensland city of Mackay.

The mobile franchises service both residential and commercial pools providing a wide range of care and maintenance services.

Franchisees will offer customers a suite of 21 set service offerings.

Chris Fitzmaurice, Australasian manager of Swimart, says “Naturally our service packages include our most popular home and commercial pool services including the Lifestyle Service, the Care Service and the Home Pool Health Check.”

The new mobile arm boosts the network of 73 franchise outlets which operate more than 250 service vans across Australia and New Zealand.

Fitzmaurice is excited about the recent growth.

“Although we are firmly committed to the bricks and mortar business model, we believe there is a market for mobile franchisees as well,” says Fitzmaurice.

The business model was created in 2013 but launched prematurely, he says, and the concept was not heavily promoted.

Today’s option provides an affordable alternative to opening a retail business, and offers a personalised service to consumers.

“Our service sector is growing. More and more customers want other people to look after their pool. We are becoming a more service-based society, we like to spend our free time doing things we like.”

While designed to cater for regional areas where a retail outlet is not viable, the mobile option has attracted a keen response from metro-based franchise buyers.

“We decided to offer metro areas, particularly Melbourne and Sydney, where our footprint doesn’t cover,” says Fitzmaurice.

Before assigning a territory, Swimart does a SWOT analysis of the area and researches elements such as the number of pools in the vicinity, in addition to any existing competition to ensure it will be a viable and profitable business. The franchisee is then given exclusive marketing rights over that particular area to maximise his/her business returns.

“We are not interested in growing the Swimart network just for the sake of it,” Fitzmaurice says. “We base our business growth strategy around the financial viability of each territory. We want strong businesses and we are proud that so many of our franchisees have been with us for so long – a testament, we believe, to getting the mix right. Our franchisees enjoy a good balance between profits and lifestyle, which we know holds a big appeal.”

Although Swimart offers a digital solution and e-commerce on its website, the need for specialist product knowledge and expertise means customers are directed to their local store for more technical items such as pumps, filters and pool heaters.

“This means we can compete with purely online competitors as we provide a premium service thanks to our ongoing face to face and online staff training programs,” points out Fitzmaurice. “Not all online providers have the specialised knowledge base to offer the right advice that we can and we often get enquiries to help ‘fix’ the mess customers have got into due to ill-informed online purchases. We like to think of ourselves as a face-to-face Dr Google for anything and everything you need to know about pools and spas.”

Swimart franchisor is public company Waterco Ltd, established in 1981 and listed on the ASX in 1989. Waterco manufactures and distributes a diverse range of products for the international swimming pool and water treatment markets.

“We only sell high quality, well known products, many of which are sourced from Waterco,” said Fitzmaurice.

“We also have a range of other premium suppliers we regularly deal with that we have great relationships with. Any successful business is ultimately about people and relationships and we understand that businesses and individuals like to deal with people they like and trust, so we are careful about who we employ, to ensure they reflect this important business tenet.”