Episode 161: Revolutionizing Pool Service Through Partnership with Augusto, Eddie, and Hal of NPP (National Pool Partners)

Episode Summary: 

Today we do a deep dive into the recently established National Pool Partners. Officially launched in January 2021, the multi-regional pool service company has changed the game by partnering with local businesses to provide them the scale and resources of a national enterprise to better serve their customers, teammates, and partners. 

In this conversation, we sit down with National Pool Partner CEO Augusto Titarelli, VP of Operational Excellence Eddie Skehan, and President of Texas Hal Denbar. All three of our guests are founding partners of the company. 

Even with over 10,000 accounts under its belt already, NPP strives to maintain a kind of relationship with its partners typically only formed between local businesses and local customers. It does just this through its heavy involvement with the business of local brands and doing everything it can to nurture direct relationships with customers, elevate the standard of living of its employees, and support the front line. 

Listen in as Augusto, Eddie, and Hal explain how their paths crossed—leading to the groundbreaking consolidation of pool companies in the form of NPP—and where they plan to take the brand from here on out. 

Topics Discussed: 

• 01:05 - Augusto's intro and NPP’s origin story 
• 06:56 - Eddie’s partnership with NPP 
• 12:47 - NPP’s approach to acquiring local companies 
• 14:18 - Systemic process for listening to employees 
• 18:05 - Bringing Patriot Pools into the NPP fold 
• 26:13 - Why pool companies have never consolidated before 
• 35:58 - NPP is creating opportunities that have never existed 
• 38:43 - What changes Hal and Eddie are most excited about 
• 41:55 - Freedom for leadership to do what they're passionate about 
• 50:02 - The importance of supporting the front line (technicians) 
• 58:46 - Catering to strengths and providing growth opportunities 
• 1:05:30 - NPP’s overall vision for the industry 
• 1:11:37 - Why aggregating companies unlocks new opportunities 
• 1:18:12 - Where NPP is now and where they plan to go in the future 

 

 

 

Sponsors: 

• NPP  
• Pentair 
• CCH 
• Primate Pool Tools 
• PoolRx 

 

Connect with Guest: 

• Episode Webpage 
• Website 
• Facebook 
• LinkedIn 

 

Connect with Pool Chasers: 

• Website 
• Instagram 
• Facebook 
• Facebook Group 
• Twitter 
• YouTube 
• Patreon 

 

Key Quotes from Episode: 

• There’s a huge responsibility when you become a very large organization. We do $1.7 billion dollars of service in one single company. You can have that level of respect by building local brands. ~Augusto 
• You have to exist to support the front line. That’s your only mission. If you’re not there to help your tech do their work well and know everything he or she needs to know to do that work well, you have no reason to be there. ~Augusto 
• The only reason I partnered with NPP is because we were aligned on the value for the employees, the customers, and the company. It has to be all three. If you don’t have those three, together, it’s not going to work. ~Eddie 
• I like swimming pools. I might say I love swimming pools. But I’m not in the swimming pool industry because of swimming pools. What I’ve always found enjoyment in is creating jobs and opportunities for as many people as possible. That’s what gets me up in the morning. ~Hal 
• Passion is going to drive this industry; but, when passion is subject to the bureaucracy of having to get things done right, passion kind of gets smothered. ~Augusto 
• Whenever we improve any core area of a company such as leadership, that has trickle-down effects that affect everybody else. ~Eddie 
• It’s not about how you’re going to fix something that’s broken; it’s how you’re going to make it better. ~Augusto