The Pool & Spa SCENE team present a round-up of spa news from SPATEX 25…
Spas and hot tubs continue to take a significant share of floor space at the annual SPATEX wet leisure exhibition in Coventry. Following the huge demand for home hot tubs experienced during Covid, when it was not just hard but impossible to meet demand, the hot tub and spa market has faced declining sales and increased challenges.
Pool & Spa SCENE took a tour of the SPATEX spa stands to see which trends are influencing the sector. Aqua Warehouse Group (AWG), the leading supplier of outdoor living products to the UK spa and pool trade, continues to expand its portfolio of products. “Our dealers realise that the hot tub or swim spa is just one element of complete garden project,” reported AWG’s Martin Rigby.
“Customers are looking to create an attractive multi-purpose space, a relaxing environment to spend precious time with family and friends all-year round.” Martin believes many hot tub companies are missing out on a significant opportunity by not offering complementary garden buildings.
He emphasised: “You sold the hot tub so why not the building too! “Imagine installing a hot tub and your customer has just bought a garden building or pergola from somewhere else, that’s a huge chance for additional revenue that has been missed.”
AWG’s first venture in the garden building sector was Remanso Pergolas. Then a ground-breaking move, the launch has been a huge success for AWG with over 30 showrooms displaying Remanso products nationwide. Telluria garden buildings are proving equally as popular within the industry with several well-established companies coming on-board.
With its simple construction method, most Telluria garden buildings can be assembled in just a few days, making it convenient for both customers and dealers. AWG also launched Modulux, its new range of contemporary outdoor kitchens at SPATEX.
Modulux perfectly complements the popular Remanso Pergola range and Telluria garden buildings, creating a must-have for showrooms aiming to capitalize on the booming outdoor living market. Aqua Warehouse are actively looking for dealers of these exciting new products and are offering tempting incentives on showroom display models which is a requirement to become an authorised dealer.
GROWING DEMAND
Over at Sundance Spas, the 880 series continues to attract traction. Managing Director Sundance Spas, Andy Wroot says: “We’re really excited about pushing that forward this year. “We’re also incredibly excited about our first-ever Sundance swim spas that we’re bringing to market for Spring 2025. They are just going into production now.”
Andy has been experiencing a change in demand, with the lower end of the market struggling to find disposable income, but more interest from people with bigger budgets. “We’re seeing that reflected in our sales, and also a shift in focus from our dealerships as well – we’re noticing that they’re focusing more on the on the high end,” he said.
With more people experiencing hot tubs first-hand, Andy’s found potential buyers approaching him with a better knowledge of the products and features that may or may not work for them. He’s also been encouraged by the number of repeat purchasers, meeting ‘second-, third- and fourth- generation’ hot tub owners.
Andy adds: “SPATEX has been useful and inspirational as we get feedback from people seeing the designs that we’re bringing to market.” With growing nationwide coverage within the fledgling new-look Sundance network, prospective dealers are urged to make contact sooner rather than later to secure the remaining protected territories.
Grabbing five minutes with the ever-popular Superior Wellness team can be a challenge. We caught up with Marketing Director, Richard Walker who said the range of products on show at SPATEX reflect his thoughts on where market is heading over the coming year. “I think it’s important that companies have a range of products that represent the ‘good-better-best’ offering, whatever the price point might be.
We have hot tubs that will retail to customers from £5,000 all the way up to £14,000.” The Superior Wellness team is seeing a lot more greys and darker shades increasing in popularity, reflected in the new Platinum Spa luxury line. Having acquired Portuguese brand Portcril, Superior Wellness had its Lounge Divine on display, an angular design in a matte black, and the Double, which is in a gun metal grey.
New shadow weave cabinetry is also proving to be eye-catching. Richard said Superior Wellness is emphasising eco performance with insulation levels making the range some of the most energy-efficient hot tubs in the market. Highlights of the tubs promoted at the show are the Platinum Pure and Platinum Guru, which include better filtration, ozone mixing chamber and an ionised mineral dosing system.
Richard again: “We’re introducing Balboa’s Purezone water monitoring system technology into our Platinum luxury tubs and we’ve improved the audio systems on all of our tubs, with a bass amplifier now in our AquaSolus range. “I love the Platinum Spas Luxury Capri model, a really nice compact, feature-rich, beautiful-looking tub. It’s got the shadow weave cabinet on it and all the features that we’ve introduced for 2025 in the Luxury range.”
PRICE POINTS
With the variety of feature options and price points on offer, the Oasis Outdoor Living Forever Swim swim spas received a lot of attention at SPATEX “To be able to run a six-metre swim spa at Olympic standard from, a 13- amp plug; has massively impressed people and that’s our game-changing system,” revealed Oasis Outdoor Living’s Wayne Green.
“Priced from £16,000 up to £38,000.”We go from four metres to eight metres as well, and then we do 1200i and 1500i and with all these combinations the choice runs to about 29 different units,” Wayne added. Wayne also sees his Equinox brand making a great impression this year. “A complete range of six units, three 13- amp and three 32-amp.
Priced right and with a new take on the insulation, hopefully dealers will be happy with that.” Oasis has been thoroughly reviewing its marketing strategy for 2025, with some great successes already, he said. “We’re trying to educate and market it, use social media, we’ve been doing lots of videos, new brochures, new technology on how to supply brochures to clients. It’s all been new to us.
“We’ve got a good network of dealers now from top to bottom. I think the new range has really excited them,” he continued. “We’ve made the Sunbeach branding stronger to the market. I think it took time, but people now ask for Sunbeach. That’s what we’ve invested in this year.” Our attention switched to Earth Spas and Vortex as we talked with Armando Jordan, Head of Sales and Marketing for Europe.
For Armando, there’s a focus at SPATEX on a recently launched collection. “The latest models of the Kern River range came out in November,” he said, “it has all the upgrades and looks lovely.” Though he’s seen little change in design and aesthetics, regulations have played a part on the technical side, with ozonators having been barred in the whole of Europe.
“We’re going to change to UV lights. All our hot tubs here, we sell in Europe as well.” The choice of heat pumps is also something he is keen to promote to potential buyers in the year ahead, he said, as it’s a topic they are generally not knowledgeable about. “I think the important thing is how to explain that, how to communicate with the customer, what the heat pump can do for them,” said Armando.
“That’s the most important thing, because they are not technical, they don’t understand the possibilities of what it does. “I think that demand has gone down in high-level, high-end tubs, the most expensive ones. Medium entrance hot tubs, I think is where there is more demand nowadays. Also, a little more for entry level, very basic hot tubs from £5,000.”
The new Kern River range is high on his list in 2025, Armando said: “But I like more something more easy to use and to access for everyone in the family, like the Erebus II; a four-five-seater which is available in four colours.”
FRESH APPROACH
A familiar face made a welcome return to SPATEX with a new range marketing as Bellagio Spas. “Most spa retailers look at quality first and then price second now. There are cheaper products here, but our stand was off-the-wall busy,” said Kevin Sanger. “We have the Masrren, which is our chill and hot tub all built in one.
mIn the last 12 months we’ve increased our chill tub range, so we now have seven chill tubs in the range.” There are aesthetic changes coming: “We were in the factory eight weeks ago and there were some colours that I’d never seen from any manufacturer.”
Looking ahead, he added: “We’re now bringing in some turbine swim spas because the swim spa market is still very buoyant, I find you have to give the cross-section of size and specifaction.“We’ve been testing it in the factory now for the last six months, but we will now build a turbine swim spa up to 25-foot.”
Looking ahead to the prospects for the UK spa retailers for 2025. Kevin said: “I think if you have low overheads as a retailer and you’re not owing the bank a lot of money, I do believe you’ll have a reasonable year ahead and you will be here next year.”
Jim Sueppel, Vice President of Sales was upbeat about the performance of Bullfrog Spas at the SPATEX event. “Bullfrog Spas are the most innovative spa, I’d say, on Planet Earth, because it’s different than everybody else out there. “We’re seeing that people are looking for something different because hot tubs have been made the same way for a long, long, long time.”
With an ABS Enduraframe support structure and a unique JetPak Therapy System that allows interchangeability and customisability Jim had been underlined to visitors that this is something built to last that can be re-fitted to different therapy needs.
LISTEN AND LEARN
Jim again: “Today, we’re not sales people, we’re validators. What we like to say is, ‘we’re better here, let me show you why’, and you can prove it out. And that’s where the unique selling proposition of our product really makes a difference.
“I think we’ve got to sell a lifestyle with a hot tub. But when we match [customers] up with an innovative product like Bullfrog, which is brand new to the UK, it’s an exciting thing out there and it gives people something different.
So it’s not just price, price, price. And we will finish with Jim’s mantra: “Nelson Mandela had a famous phrase: ‘I never lose in life. I either win or learn’. We’re doing a lot of learning because we’re listening.”
