Very, Very Nice Alternative Spas...

[East TX Spa]

I bleed HotSpring Teal, but whenever I retire from the spa industry in a couple of years, this is what's going on my back porch!

http://www.rhtubs.com/redwood.htm

Hey Doc, why should I consider going with one of the new Timber Tubs instead of something more traditional?

Old School Terminator

[Dr. Spa]

I would. I wish we had the Timber Tub design when I put my tub in. One of our European distributors wanted something to blow away the competition, and we come up with the Timber Tub design. It's still a traditional wooden hot tub, just 25% thicker than our "normal" hot tub. Without a doubt, at 2-1/8" thick, it's the thickest hot tub world wide. I really like the "beefy" look, and the thickness ads nicely to the natural insulating ability of the wood. It was extremely difficult just to supply our European distributor last year due to the lumber mill strikes, but with the strikes over and the fact it's doing so well in Europe, we decided to introduce it over here.

Funny, someone said that in a poor economy companies introduce new, lower-end, less expensive products, and here I am bringing out the what's probably the highest end product of it's kind.

[East TX Spa]

The longer I'm in this industry and the more bells, whistles, and outright silly accessories I see being incorporated into spa designs, I find myself being drawn towards simple, elegant spas. I hope to have the opportunity to see one of your new Timber Tubs very soon.

Are you going to have them on display at any of the industry trade shows?

Term

[Dr. Spa]

In 2004 we had our hot tubs at the show (Aqua show in Vegas). It was probably the most active booth there. Not sure if it was the nostalgia of the wooden hot tub, or the 50 pounds of candy, and 20 cases of bottled water we were giving away It was weird, very weird. There were a couple of people who had been in the industry for 10 years and didn't have a clue what a wooden hot tub was (for those "confused", this entire industry began with the wooden hot tub). My suspicions thought were realized...todays spa dealers want something that's plug-and-play, and aren't interested the labor required to install wooden hot tubs (which can be quite profitable, especially if they can offer a total backyard make-over). DANG good thing we also had our covers. We continue to do a booth with the covers about every other year.