Area Litehouse stores to go independent

By Don Shilling

The pool store owner said he can get better deals by handling his own purchasing.

BOARDMAN — The local Litehouse Pools Spas stores have dropped their connection to Litehouse to become an independent operation.

The stores in Boardman and Niles are being renamed Mahoning Valley Pool Spa.

Andy Shobel of Canfield, who has owned both stores since 1987, said the affiliation with Litehouse no longer works for him.

“We outgrew it,” he said.

He had a licensing deal that called for him to buy all of his pools and supplies through Litehouse, which is based in suburban Cleveland.

The deal worked fine when his business was smaller, he said. In 1987, the stores had revenues of less than $1 million combined. Now, they average about $4 million.

Now, he will buy items on his own. He said his business has reached the size where he can get the same volume discounts as large stores. Also, he will no longer have to pay Litehouse a mark-up fee.

He said buying pools and supplies on his own should make his stores more competitive.

“It’s exciting with the new name. The guys are pumped up,” he said.

Also, a difficult economy in the past two years has created opportunities because others are shrinking their operations, he said. Schobel said he hopes to expand his service departments and the in-ground pool sales.

“The fastest-growing segment of our business is the service area as some of our competitors have stopped offering service, and customers are looking to do less maintenance so they can enjoy their pool or spa,” he said.

He said his stores are holding their own, staying at about $4 million per year in revenue. The best year came in 2000, right before the last recession, when his company had $5.2 million in revenue.

Schobel said the Litehouse group had more than 20 stores when he joined, but the number has been reduced to 12 as other operators have become independent.

Schobel, an Austintown native, became a licensee of Litehouse after working for the company from 1981 to 1987 at stores in Akron and Cleveland. He took over a Niles store and opened the Boardman store in the same year.

shilling@vindy.com