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Hi, I’m Allan Horwood, president of the Pool Patrol.

I was asked how I got into the automatic pool cover business. We got into it in 1995. We were servicing a pool and the auto cover broke. We had no parts, no service, nobody to call. So we contacted the manufacturer, we went down to Salt Lake City, we learned all about auto pool covers, and in 2000 we negotiated the rights to the auto pool cover in British Columbia, and here we are. Twenty years later with two offices, five full time employees selling hundreds of covers. Consumer direct, selling to your pool builder, servicing both areas, servicing all makes and models of covers, and we’ve grown into one of the fastest service-oriented pool cover company out there.

A lot of people don’t fully understand the purpose of an automatic pool safety cover and how it operates. It’s very typically like an automatic garage door. It runs on tracks, the click of a button, it goes up and down. And I always tell the story about when my son was young and loved to open and close the garage door. He was probably one or two. I’d have him in the truck with me and he loved opening up that garage door and one time I saw it go up, I backed up the truck, and then I saw it come down. And it basically blew up behind me — springs and wheels all over the place — it wasn’t necessarily his fault but now I got a garage door that’s broken, crooked and halfway open. There’s security involved. I have things in there that I’m worried about that I need to protect.

Well it’s kind of like that with the pool safety cover. When your retractable pool cover breaks down, you’ve got an open pool. You’ve got no safety, you’re used to having that child proof swimming pool cover on, you’ve got the little ones — it’s really important. And part of our mandate is to get there quickly. Our response time is going to be right away, we’re going to be able to call you back, we’re going to be able to walk you through what we might be able to do. If we have somebody in the area they could be there right away, if not, they’ll be there tomorrow morning. But at least provide comfort to the homeowners that were on it, and we’ll try to help you.

So I want to take a moment to show you around our warehouse here in Kelowna. As you can see behind me, our racks are looking a little empty right now but we have a massive bulk order of covers coming tomorrow and this rack will be completely full.

Okay, gentlemen. Our first bulk order has arrived. See all the tubes on the truck with a flat deck full, all going into the warehouse. Let’s hope it all fits.

Over here is my desk. I got a little nostalgic, recently. My mom passed away recently and I was digging through a bunch of old photos and this is our swimming pool over here, believe it or not. Built in the 70s. My mom, celebrating the fact that the gunite. Now what’s cool about this photo is that’s still the way they do things, now. If you go to a shotcrete day for a pool builder it’s a very similar process.

Anyways, I want you to come meet some of the guys that work for us up here in Kelowna and we’re going to start with our service manager, Eric Miller, who’s been with us now going on year three.

ERIC
Hi my name’s Eric. I’ve been doing pool covers up here for Allan for the last three years. I’ve called Kelowna home for the last 15 years. Yeah, I love the work, I love the people, love the variety of work and driving all around the Okanagan and seeing the sights, dealing with people and seeing happy customers.

ALLAN
And adding to our staff up here in Kelowna this year, because Eric was a little overwhelmed last year — we got blindsided with the amount of work and we’re excited to be part of a growing business, but we’ve now hired Russ Iverson, who’s going through his apprenticeship program under Eric and myself.

RUSS
Hi, my name’s Russ Iverson. I grew up in the Okanagan, my family’s in Enderby. I’ve been in Kelowna for almost 10 years now and love the place. Happy to be, you know, cruising around and seeing some of the nicer sights.

ALLAN
So if you’re a homeowner you’re building a pool you’re thinking about a pool, or if you have a pool, don’t hesitate to call the Pool Patrol. We’re here where your local source for automatic pool covers. Talk to your pool builder, talk to your landscape architect, your contractor and make sure they ask specifically for a locally sourced and serviced auto pool cover, the Pool Patrol.