Hot Tub Retailer interviews #1 – Andrew Wroot, MySpa (UK) Managing Director
In the first of a new series of Hot Tub Retailer interviews, MySpa Managing Director Andrew Wroot unveils his expansion plans and highlights the benefit of outsourcing HR responsibilities for a growing team.
For over 20 years the MySpa founders have been associated with the iconic Sundance Spas brand and have gained a wealth of experience of hot tub and swim spa retailing with additional leading brands in that time from just a single show site location. Now, to meet a new level of demand for hot tubs and swim spas from consumers Managing Director Andrew Wroot and his five-star rated team have radically changed this retailing strategy by launching the company’s own Wellness Collection of hot tubs and expanding the dealership site locations.
A ‘mega store’ show site destination in Wanlip, Leicestershire, where the Wellness Range of designs were first launched a couple of years ago, also promotes the MySwimSpa sister company’s swim spa options that include Marquis Aquatic Training Vessel (ATV) swim spa models and Tidal Fit Swim Spas by Artesian Spas, gained a new MySpa Cheshire showroom sibling in Macclesfield before COVID-19 government restrictions enforced non-essential retailing businesses to close to the public during the first national lockdown of 2020.
Andrew’s wife Laura, and his father and co-founder Peter Wroot have remained steadfast in their approach to ensuring exemplary products and customer service are always top priority and this has earned them a five-star TrustPilot rating that has now been carried on to the Cheshire showroom and is part of the foundation principles for a new third site that has been launched this year in Rutland.
When the chance came along to expand MySpa’s customer reach to affluent consumers from a prime Cheshire location the opportunity was seized upon. The Macclesfield site at Unit 2 and 3 Old Mill Lane now provides a dedicated single brand showcase location for the Wellness collection.
Andrew is delighted that the decision has paid off and divulged: “Our dealership site in Macclesfield was an opportunity that we didn’t want to miss when it first came along.
“We realised it would be an ideal location for attracting more new hot tub customers for our Wellness Collection in a prime area of Cheshire and it now provides us with the capability to deliver our own branded products and services to a prime area of Cheshire.
“Once the COVID-19 non-essential retailing restrictions were lifted regular footfall resumed and there has been demand for the Wellness models ever since.
After building up a strong reputation in the market from a single location for so long Andrew and his team did not let the dust settle too long before planning the next site location after gaining a taste for showroom expansion.
Andrew revealed that the success of the Macclesfield showroom has provided MySpa with confidence to progress further with the latest expansion plans for the MySpa Rutland site at Rutland Garden Village in Langham, Oakham, and says: “We’ve been pleased with the progress of our Cheshire showroom. That is why we were confident about launching another site location. Our latest showroom in Rutland will now increase our presence even further.”
According to Andrew, one of the key elements of achieving a fluid transition from a single location dealership to running multiple sites has been the important to recruit and train new staff well.
“If anyone is wanting to launch additional showroom sites then my advice would be to ensure you have a good recruitment strategy to help seek out the best candidates that will match your existing products and services. Thankfully, we have professional staff in place that we can trust to deliver our exceptional five-star rates services at all our showroom dealership locations.
“Another element of our success with integrating new staff to the company with both of the two showroom launches has been ensuring all of our existing and new staff are all supported by the same dedicated HR service company.
“HR can be a minefield but by outsourcing all of our HR service requirements to an experienced company this now provides us with a uniform delivery of service for all of our staff throughout all of our sites.”