SCP acquisitions continue to mount

Expanding its North American distribution and manufacturing base, SCP Pool Corp. recently acquired a Canadian company.

The company, Les Industries R.P. Inc., is a pool distributor and manufacturer based in Terrebonne, Quebec. Terms of the deal, finalized last month, were not disclosed.

The purchase is the second acquisition for SCP within an eight-month period. The Covington, La.-based company bought Fort Wayne Pools Inc., a Fort Wayne, Ind., distributor and manufacturer of package pools and supplies, for slightly more than $40 million in September 2002.

Les Industries R.P., which exports its products to 20 countries, has approximately $10 million in annual sales. It also manufactures inground, vinyl-liner pools featuring steel panels.

"It's a solid team with a leading market presence and has good potential to go forward," said Manuel J: Perez de la Mesa, SCP president. "Their team will benefit from being a part of our company."

Perez downplayed the significance of acquiring another company with a manufacturing segment. "It's just a small part of Les Industries R.P.'s whole business, which accounts for less than $2 million in sales," he said. "It's important, but in the overall scheme of things, it's not why we bought the company.

"The manufacturing end has helped them get to this position in the marketplace, so we're not going to do anything that would take away from their market position."

SCP, which is poised this year to become the first company in the history of the pool and spa industry to reach the billion-dollar sales mark, has registered a rise in revenues of nearly 115 percent in the last five years.

The company plans to continue its high-growth mode, according to Perez. "There are a number of markets that we're not in," he noted. "And there are a number of markets in which our position can be strengthened. In both cases, we are evaluating either acquisitions or the opening of new locations. It's just a matter of time before we do one or the other, or both."

SCP operates 192 service centers in North America and Europe, and distributes more than 60,000 national brand and private-label products to approximately 45,000 customers.

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