2 minute read
Prices & Demand - Chris Bowen
BY JOE TRUSTY
Photos: Nick Allen Photography
We had the opportunity to catch up with Chris Bowen and wanted to hear how he’s positioning for new growth. We also wanted to get a pulse on what he sees going on in the DFW market and his opinion on the status of the industry down in Dallas, Texas. As one of the top pool remodeling firms in town, Bowen has unique insight as to what is going on in the industry right now in his neck of the woods.
This year however has been a challenging one for many. Bowen Pools clearly is no exception to the rule in terms of those impacted by rising prices. This summer, Bowen elected to make a major change in his business. He stated he intends to focus more on pool remodeling and new pool construction. “We sold the service side of our business in August of this year,” said Bowen. He told us he had been struggling with rising chemical costs all year. This summer he decided to sell that division of his company.
“We were definitely getting killed on the pricing side of it,” said Bowen in response to why he was motivated to sell his service company.
“We’ve had shortages and price increases on everything,” said Bowen, “Hopefully when that plant down in Louisiana comes back online prices will level out.”
However, the grass doesn’t seem to be much greener on the construction side of the pool industry. In terms of rising costs, materials are at an all-time high. We asked whether he had begun to push back on previous estimates he had given, to which he replied “That’s been the hardest part. We lost quite a bit of money earlier in the year.”
Being a family man himself, Bowen says that having to tell his customers that their swimming pool or their pool remodeling project is going to cost more is something that he dreads. “We’ve had to go back to clients to renegotiate, but at the end of the day I need to put food on my family’s plate too,” said Bowen.
In his off-hours, Bowen networks online and is peers with many different builders in the industry. He often communicates about what is going on through a private group chat they’ve established. Bowen says that one constant topic of conversation this season has been the unpredictable price increases. He says both service and construction trades have seen huge price hikes from manufacturers and distributors.
“I don’t think the Texas freeze helped matters,” said Bowen, “I believe these price increases would have occurred either way.” Referencing a storm Texas experienced in February which caused pool equipment that would have typically gone towards new construction projects to be immediately requisitioned for repair work.
Experts agree that the rush for equipment in one of America’s biggest pool markets may have contributed to hoarding. This in itself would indirectly cause pricing to go up and availability to go down throughout the summer.
With a pulse on what is going on in the DFW market, Chris Bowen says what many in the pool industry are thinking; that the Covid related demand for pools may have crested.
Read the entire article on Pool Magazine
