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Just how good is the pool market in Australia?
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ccording the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the population of Australia at the end of 2017 was an estimated 24,770,700 after an increase during that year of 388,000. It has now ticked over to 25 million. Institute of Family Studies estimates the following information as at the end of 2017: Number of households: 9,414,000 Households without children: 2,591,753 27.5 per cent Households with children: 6,822,247 72.5 per cent Couples with children: 2,880,873 30.6 per cent falling to 27.2 per cent over next 20 years Couples without children: 2,692,204 28.6 per cent rising to 30.1 per cent over next 20 years Single parent families: 1,057,344 11.2 per cent rising to 11.8 per cent over next 20 years Other: 191,826 0.02 per cent steady Of single parent families, 82 per cent of parents are female with only 18 per cent being male. I am unaware of the ratio of pool sales to the above categories but individual pool builders should have knowledge of their own sales into these categories and use them to predict future business trends or to take action to aim at a different mix of sales. Based on information from industry sources, I estimate that the total number of swimming pools in Australia at present to be between 1.25 million and 1.3 million (even though Roy Morgan recently estimated 2.3 million then revised it back to 0.9 million) and I will use the lower number. I also assume that the above ground pool market is about 15 per cent nationally.
Since we already have such an excellent market penetration, how do we improve it further going forward? The new home market will remain a prime focus because so long as an in-ground pool goes into 1-in-8 or more new homes, our market penetration will continue to increase. This doesn’t seem to me to be a big ask, and I am confident Australian pool builders can continue to leave the rest of the world in their dust. It’s not rocket science really – 86.7 per cent of Australian households do not have a swimming pool, and that is a pretty fair chunk of Australia left for our pool builders. Obviously marketing schemes extolling the enjoyment and benefit of a home swimming pools will play a considerable part. But pool builders’ attitude to their customers down the track is equally as important.
Own your pools
Pool builders and installers should retain a proprietary interest in every pool they install for at least six years. Why? Because the single most common reason for a pool owner not to get a pool in his/her next house is a bad experience with the first one. I am sure I have mentioned this before but it certainly bears repeating over and over until things improve. The first reaction to a consumer complaint by many pool builders and installers is to pass their clients off to the pool shop sector and to deny that any problem is a warranty issue. I cannot think of a cheaper or better way of generating more business than to look after your existing clients with their pool problems. The cost of this is money well spent. It’s the old adage that one happy satisfied customer will gain you three more, while one dissatisfied and unhappy customer will lose you ten or more! For these columns, Cal Stanley draws on his experience and success in pool construction, having run award-winning Neptune Pools in Western Australia for three decades, and sitting on many standards committees and industry body boards. More recently he has worked as a pool consultant and trainer and delivers hydraulics courses for the swimming pool industry. If you have a question regarding his columns or have a topic you think he should delve into, email him at neptunepools@westnet.com.au. Graph 1: Total existing pools in Australia and USA (in millions)
The USA pool market
The American pool market is by far the biggest pool market in the world. APSP (their national industry body) estimates that at the end of 2017 there were 10.4 million pools, of which a whopping 44 per cent were aboveground pools. The USA population is 326 million with 137.5 million households.
A comparison:
Australia USA Population: 5,000,000 325,700,000 Households: 9,414,000 137,420,000 Est. swimming pools 1,250,000 10,400,000 % of pools to population: 5.0 3.2 % of pools to households: 13.3 7.6 % I/G pools only per household: 11.3 4.2 Pools per household: 1:7.5 1:13.2 I/G pools per household: 1:8.9 1:23.6 On the key indicator – pools per household – Australia is doing 75 per cent better than the USA. For in-ground pools only, the Australia ratio per household is more than double that of the USA. For in-ground pools only, Australia is 265 per cent ahead of the USA. There is no doubt that by all measures, Australia installs at least twice as many pools per household than any other country in the world.
Graph 2: Existing pools per household in Australia and USA August/September 2018 SPLASH! 27