Pool-service franchiser Pool Scouts is welcoming the New Year by opening four new locations in the first quarter.
Locations in Hilton Head/Savannah, Ga., and Pensacola, Fla., are scheduled to open on Feb. 1, followed by a Dallas franchise opening on March 1 and a Long Island, N.Y., outlet opening on April 1.
These openings bring the total number of Pool Scouts franchise operations to eight, plus the corporate headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va. The New York and Georgia businesses mark Pool Scouts’ first forays into these respective states.
The new regions were chosen because of their high concentration of residential pool owners, said Michael Wagner, president of Pool Scouts.
The new franchise owners come from a variety of business backgrounds. John Seery, who will run the Long Island location, operates a nursery/landscape business. Ray Marinaccio, a former New York City-based prosecutor, will head up the Hilton Head/Savannah territory. He also purchased locations in Charleston, S.C., and Augusta, Ga., which are scheduled to open in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Mike Blake, who will run the Dallas location, is converting the pool service business he owned into a Pool Scouts franchise. Amy Kate Kuniyoshi, who will head up the Pensacola location, served in the military and is a scuba dive master.
“We really feel like we [hit] home runs with all of the new candidates that have come on board,” Wagner said.
Pool Scouts is focusing on densely populated metropolitan pool markets in Sunbelt states, Wagner said.
