When an unfinished furniture store closed in Scarborough last fall, it left a large hole in the town’s otherwise booming retail market. But it didn’t take too long for Jim Van Fleet to see the empty warehouse building as the perfect place to expand his hot tub and spa business.A few hundred feet down the […]
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When an unfinished furniture store closed in Scarborough last fall, it left a large hole in the town's otherwise booming retail market. But it didn't take too long for Jim Van Fleet to see the empty warehouse building as the perfect place to expand his hot tub and spa business.
A few hundred feet down the road, Mainely Tubs and its 37 employees had been hustling sales for hot tubs, spas and saunas while maintaining its commitment to customer service, going from $5 million in revenue in 2012 to $7.5 million last year. The problem was, its 8,000-square-foot space at the time was too small to display or even hold all the products Van Fleet wanted to push.
“We needed a bigger showroom and bigger warehouse because the volume wasn't enough to display what we wanted in our showroom,” he says. At the same time, Van Fleet wanted to stay in the same area, one of the largest retail sectors in the state, with Wal-Mart and the Maine Mall on one side and Cabela's on the other, all running along the gateway of tourism, I-95.
So when Van Fleet heard that Stratham, N.H.-based Mill Stores planned to close its roughly 25,000 square-foot site at 415 Payne Road, he had his real estate broker, Craig Young at CBRE | The Boulos Co., jump on the opportunity. The building hadn't even been listed yet, but with the help of Young, Van Fleet was able to close on the property just before Thanksgiving for $2.2 million.
About six months and $800,000 in refurbishments later, Mainely Tubs opened at its new location in May, tripling the size of its previous showroom and warehouse. When talking about his company's new investment, Van Fleet beams about the future.
“I enjoy the idea of bringing a building with faded glory back to life,” he says of the building, which was originally built in 1978 for Auburn-based Riverside Millwork. “It gives us all the physical space we need to continue our growth path.”
More space for larger products
If you haven't visited a hot tub store before, walking into Mainely Tubs' new location might make you feel as if you received a golden ticket to meet the Willy Wonka of hot tubs.
While the store has its share of ordinary hot tubs and saunas, there are a few standout products that seem larger than life. At the center of the store, for example, is a giant swim spa that sits on an elevated platform, measuring at about 17 feet long and seven feet wide.
“We've had people clamoring for swim spas,” Van Fleet says of the spa behemoth. “These are huge, endless pools. We've never had space for them before. And I never wanted to carry it until I could display it in a responsible way for customers.”
Just a few feet away, Van Fleet takes me inside what is called a telescoping sunroom, a curved glass enclosure that is designed to connect to the side of a house. Van Fleet closes and opens the doors as he describes the product, making his enthusiasm clear.
“It is the best engineered product I have seen in the years I've been going to trade shows,” he says. “See how they telescope? So all of a sudden, you're open or you're closed.”
Outside of these larger-than-life products, Van Fleet says Mainely Tubs' largest distinction has been its record for being a top seller for Hot Spring, a brand of hot tubs and spas made by Vista, Calif.-based Watkins Manufacturing Co. He takes me over to a tall glass display that is full of plaques from the company, handed out over the years for various honors.
“Watkins Manufacturing is the largest, by volume and dollars, manufacturer in the hot tub industry. They also have the largest dealer network, with over 1,000 dealers,” he says, just before pointing to the case. “You could find in this trophy case that on 11 occasions we were named the largest volume Hot Spring store in the world.”
With products ranging from just under $2,000 to $30,000, Van Fleet says the company's sales of 700 units a year are mainly driven by well-to-do Mainers on the coast, as well as seasonal residents who may have even more money to spend. The company also serves customers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. “When I'm asked to attribute the single biggest reason for our success, I like to say we have 18,000 salespeople, which is how many customers we have,” he says.
'I'm in the take-care-of-people business'
Mainely Tubs has come a long way since Van Fleet bought the business in 1993, when it only had two employees at a 700-square-foot space in Portland's Bayside neighborhood. Under his first full year of ownership in 1994, Van Fleet says Mainely Tubs sold fewer than 50 hot tubs, bringing in less than $200,000 in revenue. Needless to say, those were dark times.
But Van Fleet, who previously served as chief financial officer for DeLorme Publishing in Yarmouth, had a plan to turn the company around, and it didn't just involve pushing products.
“When I first bought this business, I said, 'I want to be the L.L.Bean of hot tubs.' Really, that was my mission,” he says.
To Van Fleet, that meant not just selling quality products, but also providing an “unswerving commitment to taking care of people after the sale.” That includes having support staff at the ready to service hot tubs, spas and other products when they require maintenance.
“I don't think I'm in the sales business,” he says. “I think I'm in the take-care-of-people business and they happen to have bought a product from me that I know how to service and repair.”
To be in the taking-care-of-people business, Mainely Tubs wouldn't be complete without its sales team, more than half of whom were previous customers, Van Fleet says. All of them own hot tubs, perhaps primarily for their own enjoyment, but also because it helps them provide better service to customers who may have specific questions.
Van Fleet says none of them work on commission because he wants to foster teamwork and avoid pitting salespeople against each other. The result, he says, is gaining a reputation for having the “friendliest, most outstanding staff in any business anywhere.”
When asked how he has managed to retain some employees for more than 10 years, Van Fleet says I should just ask them. In a matter of seconds, Van Fleet is gone, apparently tending to matters in his office, and I'm alone with a few of his salespeople, including two who have been here for more than 12 years each. Three others are more recent hires.
Patrick Parent, a salesman who has been with the company for 14 years, says Mainely Tubs has good wages and benefits. And the benefits include being able to take time off for family time, which he and others say is a top priority for the company.
“It actually fits my lifestyle and it's relaxing” for employees and customers, Parent adds. “This is discretionary spending. It's not like, 'Oh, we have to get the car fixed again?' Or, 'That root canal's gonna cost 800 bucks?' It's a positive, at-their-discretion experience.”
Julia Leighton, one of the younger salespeople, chimes in, perhaps best encapsulating what Van Fleet wants most for his company. (Van Fleet even brings it up after coming back out.)
“It's a family business and everybody is treated as family,” Leighton says.
