Poolstore International up for sale
Poolstore International, one of the two remaining full-line Australian manufacturers, has been put up for sale.
Owner and director John Dick is planning to retire substantially from the industry and is looking for a purchaser for the business and assets.
“I’m selling the business, the Poolstore name and everything that goes with it,” he says. “That’s all the stock, and the plant and equipment including nearly 200 injection moulding tools. There isn’t much for swimming pools that we don’t manufacture.”
Dick says the strength of the business is in the tooling which includes the famous Poolstore skimmer box, four different pumps, fittings, heaters, chlorinators, hydrostatic relief valves and hundreds of other items from their 50-page catalogue. Most of the tooling is held in Sydney, while a small amount is in China. Additionally, they have approvals for chemical products.
“It’s the end of the financial year and stock-takes are going on. I estimate the stock will be between $1.8 million and $2.6 million.”
Dick says the total price would be between $3 million and $4 million.
“We’re still showing a profit and we have no debts as such except a small amount owning on the office. All vehicle are owned, all telephones and even the accounting software is owned. We’ve sold the New Zealand business. Lou and Tracey Taylor bought it and it’s going very well. They’ve shown 15 per cent growth which is pretty good in a depressed market,” he says.
“We’ve also recently sold Condell Park, and all buildings except the head office are now on a monthly tenancy, and all staff has been reduced in these locations.”
Dick is happy to stay on for the new owners, and suggests they’d need his services for between six and 12 months. After that he will remain in the industry in some form, possibly dabbling with one or two new products.
Jane Maree will stay on to help the changeover, but would look to retire after that so she can spend more time with her family which includes eight-year old twins.
There are few people in the industry who can claim as long a history as John Dick, who was building pools in 1959, opened a pool shop in 1972 and started Poolstore in 1986 – originally to service the Newcastle area and then the whole of New South Wales. He acquired the Swimworld operation on the Gold Coast, followed by expanding into Melbourne in 1998, Brisbane in 2003 and Auckland in 2004.
Contact: John Dick 0438 547 511 or email Jane Maree.
