During the 6^th SCP Europe International Sales Conference in Lisbon, EuroSpaPoolNews met Ian Pratt, Product Manager in the company. He explained the group's strategy for 2023 regarding the Wellness universe of their catalogue.

Ian Pratt's mission, SCP Europe Product Manager

With an exceptional year and ever higher ambitions for SCP Europe, Ian Pratt gives us the mission entrusted to him by Jean-Louis Albouy.

Ian Pratt, what does your mission consist of regarding the new strategy?

I. P.: "My mission for SCP Europe as Product Manager working directly with Jean-Louis Albouy - SCP Europe CEO - is to source all the products that we are going to need for the future for the entire Wellness Category and program. This includes spas, saunas and all the associated accessories and spare parts. The goal is to capture as much of the market as we can through a complete portfolio of products available in time for the 2023 season.

The project will include bringing to market spas and swim spas whether this be developing or enhancing existing ranges or working closely with our manufacturing partners to develop new exclusive product under our private label brands. We will continue to develop our "LIFE" range of spa accessories as part of the project making sure we capture all possible accessory business. I will be working closely with Sebastien Chigot to develop some speciality water treatment products for spas focusing on ease of application. 

Further sourcing and development will take place sourcing the right products for our sauna category, so we capture more market share.  My mission will include working through the whole program with the manufacturers for both domestic and commercial product ranges, all the way through the development side of it and establishing a complete package that we can present to the SCP Europe group so we have a complete portfolio of products for our catalogues across Europe.

A very important aspect will also be spare parts availability. We have a very solid foundation throughout Europe with our spare parts business so I will work with colleagues to ensure we have all the necessary spa/hot tub and sauna related parts in stock.

Do you have a special European catalogue for that? Or does each country have a specialty?

I. P.: "At the moment Wellness is put into each country catalogue. I am confident by the time we get to 2023 we could well be in a position where we have a dedicated wellness catalogue.
I have just finished a project to bring a new range of hot tubs to our European business, our all-new Garden Leisure Hot Tub range. We searched for a new manufacturer with colleagues at PoolCorp USA and have aligned with a great manufacturer.  It was very important in the current climate with the supply chain to find a manufacturer who could help us continue to grow. At this moment in time, we have managed to do that so we are very excited about this project of launching a new range of 6 hot tubs. There will be more to come as I am already developing another model to add to the range to launch in Q2 next year and beyond that will be development of our private label swim spas and adding new product ranges."