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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Last year, I learned of a Utah company that has revolutionized the typical hot tub design. It is Bullfrog Spas, and with its innovative technology, the company is quickly rising to the top of its industry.
Bullfrog has developed its own Hydroplumbing water supply system and JetPak technology to create tubs that I learned are not only the most energy efficient and powerful but also the least likely to ever have a leak in the plumbing.
On a recent trip to the company's factory in Sandy, I learned how a typical spa has about a hundred different glue joints and several hundred feet of tubing running under the tub and encased in foam. Finding and fixing a leak can be a problem.
Bullfrog, on the other hand, has designed a single water supply system that connects to three or more self-contained JetPaks within the spa. Essentially, all of the plumbing is inside the spa so a leak would never be a problem. And the JetPaks, which come with a variety of massaging jets, can be interchanged so each Bullfrog Spa can be customized and even upgraded. It's the only design of its kind on the market. The company already owns five patents with many more pending.
David Ludlow, the company's president and CEO, developed the technology. As a third generation pool guy, he knew a lot about pools and spas from working in the family swimming pool business. Six years ago, he invented the Bullfrog design and business took off. Now, 110 distributors nationwide sell the spas, and two other factories‹one in Europe, the other in Australia‹have licensed the Bullfrog technology to build the tubs abroad.
Back home, unit sales are up 63 percent, and Bullfrog Spas, with its 66 employees and 13 representatives, has outgrown its current manufacturing site. Plans to move to a new 33,000-square-foot site in Bluffdale are underway with a move scheduled for December or early January.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
