Announcing the appointments, Sunlover General Manager-Director Steve Rickard said these new roles will streamline service to make it easy for trade customers to do business with Sunlover. “In this challenging economy, we will deliver ‘beyond expectations’ service to trade customers. The businesses we service will be able to focus on the task of winning new pool business. We will be our trade customers’ pool heating partners,” said Steve Rickard.

Taking the role of NSW State Manager is Granville Harris, who has a wealth of pool industry knowledge and a unique understanding of client’s requirements and needs. He entered the pool industry in the early 1970s with an architectural background and has held senior sales and management positions, including operating a sales training consultancy.

In the Victorian office, Richard Duncan has been appointed Business Development and Account Manager. His customer service career developed in the transport and logistics industry, where on time cost effective delivery of product is critical to all customers.

To support its focus on trade customers’ needs, Sunlover Heating is launching a range of product brochures, a comprehensive catalogue covering the company’s new lines and a web site featuring a special “trade only” section for online orders. The brochures and website are reference materials to help trade customers sell Sunlover products to their retail clients, and the “trade only” catalogue provides the technical detail to answer retail sales enquiries.

In a major commitment to environmental pool heating technology, Sunlover Heating has claimed sole Australian agency for the high tech OASIS brand heat pumps.

OASIS has been on the Australian market for a number of years and Sunlover Heating now assumes local control of the brand with the launch of a new range designed to minimise operating cost and environmental impact, while delivering maximum heat transfer performance from the surrounding air.

Sunlover Heating managing director Rohan London said the OASIS agency is part of an agreement with New Zealand pool heating industry leader Michael Ridenton. “Michael has worked closely with the manufacturer in China to develop this range of high performance heat pumps. Stock is available and we are now launching our OASIS agency to the trade nationally,” Rohan London said.

Michael Ridenton said significant investment had been made in the development of this product range to ensure it is the most efficient and environmentally sound heat pump on the market. “Built in an ISO9001 quality accredited factory, these are high specification heat pumps,” he said.

“OASIS heat pumps feature ozone friendly refrigerant, scroll compressors, reverse cycle defrost for low ambient conditions, thermostatic expansion valves, flow switches, top end Italian digital self diagnosing controllers, heat and chill controllers, fan speed controllers for the cooling function, blue fin coil protection and titanium heat exchangers.

“Every product is test run at the factory and trade customers will be comfortable with our national 24 hour seven day a week product support service agreement with Frigrite,” said Michael Ridenton.

Competitive pricing

The Sunlover Heating agreement with Michael Ridenton includes ongoing product improvement to ensure that the brand holds its premium product position in the market. “These will be among the most highly specified heat pumps in the market. They will be easy to sell with their long list of environmental and cost saving features,” said Rohan London.

“We are able to deliver this high quality product at a price which compares more than favourably to other heat pump brands. OASIS will bring the cost of a heat pump closer to gas heater prices, with running costs that are significantly lower. These economic incentives, together with the environmental benefits, will encourage more rapid consumer acceptance of heat pumps.

“To help our trade customers market these exciting new products, Michael will work with Sunlover to provide product familiarisation training for trade customers and ongoing product development. With the long list of advantages this range offers, resellers will want to take advantage of this product knowledge opportunity to make sure they can present the full OASIS story to their customers,” said Rohan London.

A qualified engineer with 20 years experience as a heat pump specialist with Carrier and his own New Zealand company, Michael Ridenton was also an international soccer player. He played 40 matches for the New Zealand All Whites and was a professional player in the UK for three years.

The OASIS heat pump range will be a highlight of the Sunlover Heating stand at the 2008 Splash Pool & Spa Trade Show. Sunlover Heating also stocks Carrier brand heat pumps.

Managing Director Rohan London announced the appointment of Steve Rickard as a Director of the rapidly growing business. Steve Rickard has 11 year’s experience in the development of new products for the pool and spa industry. He was national sales manager for one of Australia’s largest suppliers of solar heating system components, which also developed and manufactured components for the automotive, building, construction and medical industries.

“In the face of challenges from drought, rising interest rates and increased transport costs, Sunlover has continued to experience strong growth in the past two years. We have opened a Brisbane based Queensland branch and we acquired the NSW business Carlile Solar in Sydney,” said Rohan London.

“Steve Rickard will help integrate these operations and his knowledge of modern business systems and processes will streamline our relationships with our customers. From the perspective of our customers, the assets that Steve brings to Sunlover are new product ideas and his sales and marketing expertise. His marketing experience will be available to our customers to help them develop their own businesses,” said Rohan London.

Among his first tasks at Sunlover Heating, Steve Rickard is undertaking a survey of the company’s resellers. “The pool builders and pool shop owners that we supply are at the front line. They meet the customers and they read the trends quickly. We want to tap into that knowledge and experience, so we can better supply them with products that are easier to sell because they are in demand. When our research is complete, we will be sharing the results with our resellers to help them target their marketing,” said Steve Rickard.

New heating products

Building on its base of solar heating products, Sunlover began expanding its product range two years ago with the launch of quality solar pool blankets. “To ensure that our blankets gave our resellers a unique sales proposition for their customers, we researched the market carefully. We learned that pool blankets with improved physical properties were desirable, and we saw that pool designers are using stronger colours to make their customers’ pools look more contemporary,” explained Rohan London.

“This input led us to source a tough pool blanket material in a variety of micron thicknesses and in a range of the latest colours, which were not common in the Australian market previously. To complement this range of pool blankets, we have a line of durable pool blanket roller systems. This means we can offer our resellers a complete pool blanket system.

“The most recent addition to the Sunlover product catalogue is a high technology heat pump produced by Carrier Air Conditioning Ltd. This state of the art heat pump produces warm water economically through a roped titanium heat exchanger, which is guaranteed for life. We are confident in this technology, which in a different application, has spurred a boom in air conditioner sales. Supporting our multinational Carrier brand, we have a national contract with Frigrite Limited to provide customer service,” he said.

Brand change

To reflect these management changes and the expanded catalogue of Sunlover products, the company has changed its name from Sunlover Solar to Sunlover Heating. “For 20 years Rohan and the team have serviced the industry with top quality solar heating systems. Sunlover is now offering resellers much more,” said Steve Rickard. “We can now deliver the total pool or spa water heating, and water and chemical saving package. Sunlover Heating will work as your businesses’ pool heating partner.”