news
Passings
Rob Anderson passes away Sadly, the former general manager of Pool & Spa Poppits, Rob Anderson, has passed away. He spent nearly 50 years in the industry and had also been on the SPASA Victoria board. Waterco acquired Pool & Spa Poppits in 2012, and Anderson stepped down from his management role in early 2014 to spend more time with his wife Judy and his children and grandchildren, in addition to doing some travel, and reconnecting with his local community. Anderson had extensive experience in the chemicals industry. Prior to purchasing the Pool Poppits business in 2002, he
worked for WJ Manufacturing in Sydney for two years, spent 26 years with the Dow Chemical Company (where he worked across 16 countries in sales and marketing), and 10 years with Calman in sales and general management. Over the course of his career, he worked hard to promote healthy alternatives to chlorine in the pool and spa industry, was passionate about protecting people from things that can harm their health, and was particularly concerned about addressing issues around asthma and allergies. SPLASH! offers sincere condolences to friends and family.
Safety
Barrier checks more important than ever
With Australians spending more time in and around the home, it has become increasingly important to check for and remove potential safety hazards. To help protect families, leading Australian gate hardware supplier Safetech Hardware has furthered their mutual commitment with Kidsafe to promote child safety, particularly around swimming pools and water. “We have been working with Kidsafe for several years with water safety education campaigns such as the Safe Barriers Save Lives and the Safety Ninja to remind everyone to check their pool barrier regularly and to ensure children are always supervised when they are around water,” says general manager Debbie Brennan. “It is critically important that we all do everything we can to ensure the safety of our children in and around water, and part of this is regularly checking the pool or spa barrier to ensure it is operating correctly.” Resources including videos and safety checklists can be found at the Safetech 22
SPLASH!
October/November 2020
Safetech have been working with Kidsafe for several years on a variety of child safety campaigns
website, even including a service to send a reminder when it’s time to check your pool barrier. “This is a small way we can assist the community and a friendly reminder is always a bonus,” says Brennan. The service is open to all pool and spa owners.
Australian research and development
Rob Anderson with wife Judy
Safetech Hardware’s Melbourne-based research and development department has drawn on skilled local and overseas talent to provide creative product solutions to some of the pool and spa industry’s most complex challenges. “We manage all aspects of the design, manufacture and distribution of our awardwinning pool and garden gate hardware range,” says Brennan. “Our research and development team comes with decades of custom hardware manufacturing experience, and this goes a long way in ensuring our products are
safe, simple to use, and will stand up to our diverse Australian climate. We are so confident of this that we provide a limited lifetime warranty.” She says their award-winning TriLatch is a perfect example of how the Safetech team has gone the extra mile with a unique push-hold-lift safety button, providing an affordable childsafety solution. “Let’s face it, kids are clever. If they can find a rake or broom and use it to push up the top-pull release they will, but the push-hold-lift safety release button will eliminate this problem. It’s the simple solutions that are often the best.” Brennan says maintaining their high standards is paramount to the Safetech Hardware team. “We implement several distinct testing procedures to maintain the quality and identify any improvements we can make,” she says. These procedures include: • D uring the production phase, samples from every batch are subjected to rigorous testing. The process is then repeated in the warehouse/distribution hub. •E ngaging several independent NATAaccredited laboratories to undertake external testing to ensure the products exceed Australian Standards for durability, strength and rigidity, as well as salt spray testing to ensure they will withstand the test of time, and load testing of the hinges. • Additionally, their own internal testing facilities allow continuous cycle-testing to Australian Standards, and to test prototypes in development. Contact: www.saetechhardware.com.au; www.kidsafe.com.au