Business idea of the week: Climbing walls for swimming pools

Business idea of the week: Climbing walls for swimming pools

This week we look at this great little idea, which seems tailor made for the South African summer.

By this time of year apart from the vocational refreshing dip in the
pool most of us have run out of excuses to stay in the water for longer
than five minutes. What else is there to do once you have played all
the ball games you can think of and have perfected your handstands or
and bull fights. Enter the poolside climbing wall.

A modular system of 3' x 3' (1 x 1 m) fiberglass panels allows walls to be configured to fit any pool width and height. The panels include rock features, inset and protruding handholds, which can be moved around to vary climbing difficulty. Although the default color scheme is aqua (blues and greens), custom colors are available to match a pool's surroundings.

Any poolside product obviously needs to be very safe. AquaClimb states that its walls are safer than slides or diving boards, since children start off in the water, instead of running around the pool's edge. Also, AquaClimb frames tilt over the water, keeping falling climbers away from the side of the pool. The company recommends roping off a 10 foot area from the AquaClimb to establish a 'drop zone'. The walls don't come with weight or age restrictions, and are sturdy enough to hold adults.

Prices start at R 75 000 and average delivery time is four to six weeks, with demand obviously peaking during the summer months. Customers include public swimming pools, summer camps, residential pools, schools, recreation centers and water parks. AquaClimb is manufactured by Pyramide USA Inc., a leading sport climbing wall provider based in the USA. The company currently only has international dealers in Australia and Western Canada, and welcomes dealer applications (dealers@aquaclimb.com).
Website: www.aquaclimb.com

Upside: No licence dealer in South Africa yet, so opportunity
to become the sole agent. With a massive market of not only homes but
also schools, clubs, pre-school facilities, health clubs and just about
anywhere else where you'll find water and kids (both young and not so
young), its difficult to see this not working.

Downside: Its difficult to see the downside on this one but marketing
and advertising cost could be fairly high in the start-up stages with
a strong sales team being a must on this one. Health n safety issues
will need consideration.

Verdict: Fantastic opportunity, easy to start, not yet available in South Africa, get there first and you have a
winner.

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