Less Is More For Jacuzzi UK As Sales Figures Soar

After several false dawns; the sun appears to be perpetually shining
on the UK Jacuzzi hot tub division, writes Christina Connor.
With total sales, last financial year, of around 850 hot tubs;
figures for the first six months of their latest financial year, show
Jacuzzi UK sustaining a 46% sales growth.
Interestingly, it has been a case of less is more as the Jacuzzi
UK team slices itself a bigger portion of a national hot tub
sales cake that has struggled to even maintain proportions in a
suppressed economic climate.
The tide began to turn for Jacuzzi UK, Pool & Spa Scene
magazine’s UK team of the year, three years ago with a
realignment of the UK business model that separated the hot tub
division from the bathroom and sinks business. Under a new joined-up hot tub management structure, headed
by commercial director, Duncan Simcox, Jacuzzi jettisoned a
cluster of lower performing retailers and focused on growing its
top performing retail outlets.
Simultaneously, Jacuzzi set about filling strategic gaps with
their own managed stores, growing to ten outlets but now
slimmed down to five premier sites.
“Three years ago we made a conscious decision to form a
business unit that I would be responsible for from front end
to back end,” explains Duncan, who first joined the Jacuzzi UK
operation in 2003 on the strength of a similar sales grounding
with another global brand giant, JCB excavators.
“At the same time, we analysed our retail coverage. We had at
that time we had something like 55 retailers of which, at least 25
were not performing but were taking our time up.
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“If we were going to grow, we needed to concentrate our focus on
our top retailers and it is paying off because by becoming smaller;
we have become bigger.”