We have some heavy news: Orenda has been acquired by HASA. While the decision to sell was painful, from a strategic standpoint it was the right thing to do. It allows us to focus on our strengths and continue to grow our company while better serving our customers.
00:00 - Introduction
00:50 - Orenda has been acquired by HASA
01:46 - Who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become
02:37 - How Orenda Started
07:04 - Some dude named Eric "decided" to join the company
13:20 - We still think and act like a family business
15:20 - Harold Evans, the "brilliant chemist"
18:41 - Eric the intern
22:00 - The pivot to education
25:50 - Why Orenda was acquired
29:52 - Why HASA?
32:00 - Breaking the news
33:27 - Building (and rebuilding) reputations
40:04 - Thank you to everyone who had a part in building Orenda
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Connect with Orenda Technologies
Website: https://www.orendatech.com
Help Center: https://ask.orendatech.com
Blog: https://blog.orendatech.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/OrendaTechnologies
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orendatech/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orendatechnologies/
Swim Across America | Team Orenda: https://www.swimacrossamerica.org/goto/orenda
105. New company ownership, same tolerable podcast
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[00:00:00] Eric Knight: Well, Jarred, today is a different episode, isn't it?
[00:00:05] Jarred Morgan: I would definitely call it a different episode with the same lame two people.
[00:00:12] Eric Knight: You speak for yourself. I mean, I know I'm lame, but people freaking love you. I don't, I still don't understand why
[00:00:17] Jarred Morgan: I'm still trying to jockey for the primary host position.
[00:00:22] Eric Knight: You're doing what you can, when you can. As always. But, uh, today we got some big news. I have all these topics that we were going to talk about, but obviously over the weekend at the Western Pool and Spa Show, something took over that. So in a short sentence before the awesome intro music, what are we here to talk about, Jarred?
[00:00:41] Jarred Morgan: Orenda sold to HASA.
[00:00:45] Eric Knight: All right. Well, let's get into it.
Orenda has been acquired by HASA
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[00:00:50] Eric Knight: Yeah. So, big news, we've been acquired. And I guess I saw this coming for years. You know, with momentum and a brand, plenty of people are saying, at some point someone's going to want to snatch up this company. And it's finally happened. So walk us through some of the logic behind that.
[00:01:25] And then I think it would be worthwhile to go back and give some context of what Orenda was. People just know us when they come across our website or our podcast. They don't really know who we were, and who we hope to become. I guess I don't even know if that's proper English.
Who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become
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[00:01:46] Jarred Morgan: I mean, I think, well, let's start from the beginning of who we are and were. Like, where did we start? You know us in general. You've seen us at trade shows, you've heard our stories, or something along those lines. But in reality, when you peel back the sheets of running and operating a business, there's a lot that goes into it. And there's a lot of emotion that goes into it. And that's why this episode is, it's an emotional one, to be honest with you. And I know Eric feels the same way.
[00:02:14] We have poured our heart and soul into this business. And it's like, you know, it's your baby at that point.
[00:02:23] Eric Knight: Yeah.
[00:02:23] Jarred Morgan: And it feels that way. But you get to a point where the obligations and just the weight of all of it, it builds up.
How Orenda started
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[00:02:37] Jarred Morgan: And so when we started, Harold started selling Orenda products because a guy named Dick Kersey actually owned Orenda prior to us being involved whatsoever.
[00:02:47] Eric Knight: Yeah. And he was the chemist, right?
[00:02:49] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. So he sold it here and there. Um,
[00:02:52] Eric Knight: But he wasn't in the pool industry.
[00:02:54] Jarred Morgan: No. He tried to sell in the wastewater, industrial water in different applications. But he had the company prior to us. And then Harold started selling Orenda chemicals. And honestly, it was by accident. It was us working in our service business, trying to figure out solutions to problems that we were having when pools were being started up and maintained. And the typical pool guy mentality, of, we were just banging our heads up against the wall.
[00:03:20] So we fell into Orenda's chemicals to help address problems we were having in our service business.
[00:03:26] Eric Knight: I remember him calling some other manufacturers asking for answers and they didn't return his calls. Yeah. For weeks and weeks. I'm not going to say who, but he knows who he is.
[00:03:33] Jarred Morgan: Some people have heard that story. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:03:35] Eric Knight: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:03:36] Jarred Morgan: That's a funny one.
[00:03:37] Eric Knight: Well, it's true. Then Harold's like, well, alright, I'm going to go find answers.
[00:03:41] Jarred Morgan: Yes.
[00:03:42] Eric Knight: And looked outside of the pool industry and that's where he found Dr. Kersey. So it was originally just a couple of products, right? Yeah, It was just enzyme, phosphate remover, and chelating agent.
[00:03:54] Jarred Morgan: Yeah.
[00:03:54] Eric Knight: Which are the exact same formulas that they are today and will be forever.
[00:03:58] Jarred Morgan: I remember the first time Harold brought a pallet of product into the garage when I was 18, maybe 17. And he is like, I'm going to sell this. going to get it into my distribution partner's channel. And we just had pallets of crap in the garage at the house. Man, that was
[00:04:16] Eric Knight: long time ago.
[00:04:17] Jarred Morgan: 15, 16, 17 years ago, something like that. I don't even remember.
[00:04:21] Eric Knight: 2006, 2007. Yeah.
[00:04:23] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. And um, that's where it started for him.
[00:04:28] Eric Knight: Now, of course, you were a pool service guy, but Harold owning the Pool Surgeon all those years since 1984, was a pool service and repair. But when he eventually started to buy out Orenda, his focus shifted to Orenda. Is that correct?
[00:04:42] Jarred Morgan: Absolutely. And it was just kind of one of those things where he, and anybody that knows Harold knows that he enjoys mixing and mingling and getting out and talking to people.
[00:04:51] Eric Knight: Harold? With his crippling social anxiety?
[00:04:53] Jarred Morgan: Yes, yes. It's just, uh, debilitating at times. And it's one of those things where, you know him and he, he just loved getting out there and helping people. Yeah. And he had a footprint to go across the country and get into customers businesses about how to help them.
[00:05:11] Eric Knight: And, well, first of all, loved. You say loved, like it's in the past tense. You mean loves. He still does.
[00:05:17] Jarred Morgan: He really still does. I'm talking about where we were and moving forward. So he still does that. And quite honestly, he's still going to do that. Everybody, so don't, don't have any other ideas. Um, so, you know, back to that, it was eventually, it got to the point where Dick was older, and just didn't have the energy to, you know, fight the fight, I guess, if you want to look at it that way.
[00:05:41] Eric Knight: Yeah. Vitality.
[00:05:43] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. And at that point, Harold was like, I want to do this. And so that's when we took things over and started running with it. And that was in 2010. That's when I really became involved. Harold needed me to come in and say, okay, I don't have anybody to do any of the operational things, the processing things.
[00:06:00] He's out selling in the field, traveling pretty much every week. So I came in as a, okay, I'll handle the operation side and keep things moving from that end. And we just kind of grew the old fashioned way, if you want to look at it that way. Just hard work, putting your nose down, Harold out there every week, going across the country.
[00:06:22] Me getting out occasionally here and there. Entering a sales role to see what I could do and still trying to run the books and make sure everything's flowing right. And as that happens, we just grew and that required more people, more sales reps, more capacity at our bottling facilities, more things, which was fun. It was exciting. We started with a few sales reps. But one person that was here was Monica. Monica Stamper. She...
[00:06:47] Eric Knight: I was just going to say, when did Monica get involved?
[00:06:49] Jarred Morgan: It wasn't long after that. It was pretty early on. And she was a workhorse man. She got out in the field and helped us grow the brand and drive more sales. And it's just an evolution of a small business growing and, and the growing pains that can go with it.
Some dude named Eric "decided" to join the company
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[00:07:04] Jarred Morgan: And then unfortunately, for all of our listeners, uh, around six years later. Some dude named Eric decides he's going to join the company. And I want everybody to know I wasn't on board with this idea, just FYI.
[00:07:20] Eric Knight: I know you weren't.
[00:07:20] Jarred Morgan: And Eric and Eric remembers the conversations.
[00:07:24] Eric Knight: it was like pulling teeth
[00:07:25] Jarred Morgan: Because I was not sold.
[00:07:27] Eric Knight: Well, I'm trying to stay positive on all this because it is heavy news for us. And like Jarred said, this is a piece of us. I first was introduced to Orenda hearing Monica trying to sell it to my old boss, Jeff Gaeckle. And I was working for Paddock Evacuator at the time. This is about 2013 or 2014. And he has a commercial service business.
[00:07:51] And if you know Monica, she's a talker. Hey, Monica, I hope you're listening to this. I still love you, but oh my God. I was trying to have a phone conversation and do my job. And uh, I finally meet her. She's the most bubbly, energetic, friendly, smiling. Lovely, lovely lady. And uh, it was just distracting because it was so much conversation going on rapidly. Jeff said she thinks she can clean up Latin.
[00:08:19] Now Jarred, you now know what Latin is, but see, I was a swimmer and I had trained at a place in Charlotte called Charlotte Latin, which was the SwimMAC Carolina main pool. 50 meter pool, big swim club, 800 plus swimmers hit it every single day. That's what I was used to. That was my standard. Now, granted, I did swim in college, but that was a lot less people.
[00:08:38] That water was a lot cleaner. But when you have a pool that is just hammered with kids every day, it's rare to have clean water at all. I had never seen 50 meters across that pool. It's a 50 meter pool by 25 yards. It was very common to not see 25 yards across underwater. Now you can look at it and see the lines on the bottom, but that's not the same as looking through water with goggles on.
[00:09:02] And so I knew what Latin was like, and I knew it was dirty. I just knew it was a pool that just, it's just too heavily used. And Jeff said she thinks she can clean Latin with some enzyme.
[00:09:14] That's pretty much all I remember about it. I went back to my business and all this stuff. I went back to my job and I don't know, a couple weeks later, Jeff comes in and he is livid.
[00:09:27] Absolutely livid that they put in these enzymes. That's what we were told. Now mind you, you know what enzymes are now for the most of you listening, but at the time we didn't. Okay, so I'm saying enzymes in air quotes here. Enzymes clouded up the pool and turned it white for four days. Which meant swim practice couldn't happen for four days.
[00:09:48] Well, obviously what happened was back then, the dosing wasn't exactly figured out yet, and so they way overdosed PR 10,000 phosphate remover, and the pool had never been treated for phosphates. And it turned this pool into completely opaque milk. And so they couldn't run practice. You couldn't see the bottom of the pool, and it wasn't going away.
[00:10:07] And so he's getting progressively angrier each day. Oh, damnit, you know, the water's just so dirty! And he's saying it's enzymes because he didn't realize it was not an enzyme. It's just a different Orenda product. The enzymes went in too.
[00:10:21] Well anyways, on the fourth day, it all settled out. And all of this white dust fell to the floor and it covered up all the black tile lines at the bottom of the swimming pool. The water was so clear, he walked in and about had a heart attack because he thought the water was gone.
[00:10:39] He thought somebody just completely drained the pool. I think it was an optical illusion because when you have pure white dust on the bottom, the way that that building is lit, it hid all the black lines. It was just an empty vessel, like it was a brand new cement. And he realized, oh my God, this, this is full. Look at this pool.
[00:10:58] Now, vacuuming that much dust, if you have like a half inch of dust on the bottom of a 50 meter pool, think about that. It took a long time to clean up that pool. But the water quality was never like that ever. And once he got it up and running and clean and clear, he came to the office and he's like, Eric, you have got to go swim in Latin.
[00:11:19] Now. I hadn't swam. Remember, I'm working full-time. I hadn't swam in like over a year. Ah, Jeff, I'm too busy. I don't really want to swim. Uh, no, I don't have the time. I didn't think about it. Well, I don't know, fast forward a week or two. I don't know what the time was. Maybe it was a month. I am unable to get into the gym, and so I was like, you know what, I'll just go lift at Latin because they have a, a small gym in there.
[00:11:39] So I go there and I remember the door code. I go in there, I lift and I said, I'll, I'll get a swim in afterward. And the water looked good, but I wasn't looking at the water. I was probably looking at my phone. I dove in and I freaked out. I absolutely freaked out. Because it felt so weird. I'd never felt water like that.
[00:11:57] And I, you know, I've got my 10,000 hours, I've been swimming a long time and I'd never felt water like that. And that's legitimate. I'm not exaggerating when I say that. It felt so different on my skin. At first it didn't feel good because it was different, right? But as I was like feeling the water through my fingers, I'm at the bottom of the pool looking across and I could see 50 meters, like drinking water.
[00:12:20] I was like, what in God's name happened to this water? I know what Latin looks like. I know what it feels like. I know what it smells like. It, it was so weird being in that water. And then once you start moving, you realize this water feels amazing. And I asked the coach, what happened to the water? Like, what did you do?
[00:12:36] They're like, oh, uh, Jeff, uh, Jeff put some chemicals in here. I was like, oh, that's right! Those enzymes! I remember the lady who came in and kept talking to him forever. So I called up Jeff. Jeff, I hope you're listening to this. I called up Jeff as I'm leaving Latin. I said, Jeff, I just swam at Charlotte Latin.
[00:12:55] And his answer was Right?! I told you! He'd been talking about these enzymes. So he went from like furious. Well, first of all, he started with disbelief and then livid. Absolutely livid because it clouded up. And then elation. And that was my first exposure to Orenda. I tell this story because like, I feel like this is some finality in this family business that is no longer a family business. Let's get all this out man. Let's take our time.
We're still think and act like a family business
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[00:13:20] Jarred Morgan: Well we're, we're still family in this business.
[00:13:23] Eric Knight: Well we are.
[00:13:23] Jarred Morgan: Let's get that straight
[00:13:24] Eric Knight: Different ownership though.
[00:13:26] Jarred Morgan: It's a different ownership. But we are still family. And anybody that's in this industry knows this is not a big industry. Yeah. This is a very tight-knit, familial business operation. And we can get into that in a minute whenever we start talking about HASA because that is what attracted us to that specific choice.
[00:13:47] Eric Knight: Yeah, well that aspect of family's not going anywhere, but I feel like this podcast is a way for us to, you know, I'm not going to lie, man. And there's been a mourning process of what was. And I'm optimistic, cautiously optimistic of the future, and I think that's just normal. These stories. most people have never heard them. But
[00:14:08] Jarred Morgan: You could roll into the, the other story. Yeah.
[00:14:11] Eric Knight: Well, no, there's, there's probably more than one. But anyways, I'm still working for this company and now I've experienced it. I say, look, whoever this company is, they know water chemistry. And from a selfish perspective, I was selling ventilation systems that remove chloramines from an indoor pool. And so what would happen is after six, eight weeks or whatever, the air would get good, but the water chemistry tended to fall off because either operators got lazy or they didn't know what they were doing, and then something would catch up and we'd get a call.
[00:14:42] And usually it was nothing to do with our system, or maybe the system was off because they tripped a breaker or something like that. And I was just tired of the water chemistry calls. So selfishly, completely selfishly, I said, if we include Orenda in an evacuator sale, we could just send the calls to them, and I don't have to deal with water chemistry.
[00:15:01] I mean that that's really what it was. And so we just started bundling it in and saying, okay, yeah, you know, we'll eat this cost to make sure that we don't have the callbacks later on. And I don't know what we sold. I mean, it was thousands of dollars, probably tens of thousands, I don't remember. But we sold quite a few evacuators that year and included Orenda on all of them.
Harold Evans, the brilliant chemist
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[00:15:20] Eric Knight: And that's when Harold came into the picture, because I didn't know about Harold. All I knew about was Monica. And Jeff had met Harold and said he's this brilliant chemist who came up with these eco-friendly formulas and this enzyme does all this stuff and look what it did to Latin, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:15:35] Well, here's the funny thing. The reason he said that is because Monica was referring to Dick Kersey when she said the company was founded by a brilliant chemist. So meanwhile, this is like telephone game. I'm the third guy in a row. I'm hearing, oh wow. The founder of Orenda is this brilliant chemist and blah, blah, blah.
[00:15:53] So Jeff meets him. He's like, he is the funniest, most talkative guy. He does not act like a chemist at all. Like he's so relatable. He's hilarious. And I'm thinking, that doesn't sound like a chemist, but cool. So they want to split a booth with us at the N R P A show, the National Recreation and Park Show in Charlotte.
[00:16:11] And so they get this little booth. Uh, we have a 10 by 10 booth and they have like one little standup table. Harold and Monica worked the hell out of that show. I mean, I felt bad because I didn't know how to really act at a show. Monica is in the lanes, Harold's out in the hallway just talking to people, nonstop. Talking to everybody, just working it hard.
[00:16:31] I was like, man, they have so much energy. And during one of the breaks I walk around with Harold and get to know him. Now mind you, in the back of my mind, Jarred, I was told this guy's a brilliant chemist, right? Because Monica was referring to Dick Kersey, but Jeff didn't know that. So I'm like, man, this guy he's not like an engineer or a scientist at all. He's just like, funny as hell. He's so funny. And uh,
[00:16:54] Jarred Morgan: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're saying that engineers and scientists can't be funny?
[00:16:58] Eric Knight: Oh. And some are, that's not fair. But, but you get the idea. Like he, he didn't have the personality type of somebody who went through and got a PhD in chemistry, right. But anyways, we're walking around. I was like, so where'd you get your chemistry degree?
[00:17:10] And he's like, what? Your chemistry degree, where'd you get your chemistry degree? School of hard knocks or something like that. In the field, man, I learned it on the job. I was like, you, you did what? You learned chemistry on the job!? And then he tells me, he is like, I'm not a chemist, I'm a pool guy.
[00:17:25] You're a pool guy!? Who's the chemist? He's like, oh, I bought the company for the chemist. So I didn't know. We end up going to Canada in 2015 to the biggest indoor water park in the Western Hemisphere at the time because they had air quality issues.
[00:17:40] So we go up there and do this evaluation and Harold goes with us because I need somebody who knows water chemistry. And I didn't know any at the time. And that trip was a bonding moment for four days. Derek and I went up there from Paddock and, and Harold joined us. We went to Banff, we went to a whole bunch of facilities and we just really got to know him.
[00:17:59] I thought this man's soul is so good. He is in this for the right reasons. Everything about him, his entire mission here. He doesn't need to do this. That's what stuck out. He had a successful business. He's choosing to do this because he was completely devoted to helping people, even if he competed with them.
[00:18:21] That stuck out and he didn't say those words. You could just tell. And I thought that was so unique. That was, it was contagious. That's what I will say. It was contagious. Meanwhile, I end up moving on to an app startup with my old coach. And that's when we learned how to do a website and blogging and how to create an app.
Eric the intern
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[00:18:41] Eric Knight: And so then he just calls out of the blue like a year and a half later. Just to see how I'm doing. Nothing prompted the call. And while we were on the phone, I I pulled up your website. And what was on that website, Jarred?
[00:18:55] Jarred Morgan: Uh, that's not my department, Eric.
[00:18:57] Eric Knight: It was your company. What was on your website back then? Not much.
[00:19:03] Jarred Morgan: Yeah, I was going to say, uh, it was pretty bare bones. It just probably a wordpress. Here's some, here's some letters and a picture of a bottle.
[00:19:09] Eric Knight: Pixelated bottle images. Yeah, science and nature in harmony. And a bunch of slogans, but no content yet. So anyways, I said, Harold, how's anybody going to find you on Google if you don't have any content on your website?
[00:19:20] And it, so It started actually, uh, as a part-time internship, basically. Because I was doing a startup and I was learning as I go. And, and that's how it started, just showing and sharing what I was learning in the startup with you guys.
[00:19:31] Harold was like, the cucumber, he didn't say your name yet. The cucumber doesn't think we can afford you yet. And uh, that's when I learned, uh, your relationship with your father-in-law. So now I'll, I'll kick it back to you. That was like summer of 2016 when that happened.
[00:19:45] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. I'm a cautiously skeptical person by nature. And so when Harold's over here talking about, you know, I think he'd do a great job. You know, he's your age, he's from this industry, uh, he's a swimmer. He's got this drive and you know, it'd be great. And I'm like, eh, that's, that's, I'm skeptical here. I don't know, man. You're asking me to commit resources to, to this guy who's literally just going to like, write blogs.
[00:20:17] Eric Knight: Well that's, I mean, technically that's what I was doing.
[00:20:19] Jarred Morgan: That's what it was.
[00:20:20] Eric Knight: Yeah. Well I was working on the website too. But yeah, yeah. Blogs is how it started. Yeah.
[00:20:24] Jarred Morgan: That's what it was like. Uh, I was like, you know what, whatever. We'll, we'll give it a shot. Okay. We'll see. And I think it's safe to say, I don't regret that decision.
[00:20:36] Eric Knight: It happened pretty quick because we were starting from zero. So let's grade on a curve here. It's very easy to show improvement when you start with seven viewers a month according to Google Analytics.
[00:20:46] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. And honestly it was just a different approach. And it's something that, you know, historically in our industry up until that point has been just, Hey, let's compete out there in the marketplace. Let's talk features and benefits. Let's get out there and just let's, let's hustle. And Yes.
[00:21:01] Eric Knight: Sell against the others. Show why we're better.
[00:21:03] Jarred Morgan: Yeah, not to say that that doesn't work, I mean, history says it can. But it was just a mindset that we decided at that point was, okay, let's try something different and let's see if it works. Right?
[00:21:14] It was fun. And it still is fun, and it's still, you know, nothing's changed as far as that's concerned. But that's how Eric and I kind of started our working relationship. It was like, oh, cool. Hey dude, write those blogs. Yeah. It's developed so much more than you guys probably get a little glimpse of it here, but you don't understand it.
[00:21:43] Eric Knight: It's a rite of passage for Jarred to initially reject the idea of hiring you.
[00:21:47] Jarred Morgan: Absolutely.
[00:21:47] Eric Knight: Because most in our company were not favored by Jarred before they were hired. Nope. We can't do this. Nope. They're not going to be a good fit. We can't afford 'em yet. And then they come in and light things up. But I, I just think it's funny.
The pivot to education
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[00:22:00] Eric Knight: But that said, this episode isn't about us. It's just, it's some nostalgia to realize that at that moment, Harold separated himself from anybody else I've ever worked with. And that's no insult to anybody else. Like even my friends and their employers.
[00:22:14] He separated himself by getting out of the way and saying, I'm willing to take this risk. I'm willing to commit resources that I don't yet have. Because I believe in what you're trying to do, because I know that that's paying it forward. And he paid for the app out of his own pocket.
[00:22:33] And at the time he said, I want an LSI calculator. I'm like, what's LSI? Let's go back to late 2016. And he wanted it because it would be cool. That's where it was.
[00:22:45] And so we architected this app and um, it's since gone through many iterations of course, but it was the app that actually changed everything for us, in my opinion. Because until we had played around with the numbers and saw what the LSI was doing with them, we didn't understand the LSI. And that really lit a fire that changed everything for us because now we had a platform of education. And from there stemmed out the four pillars, at Orenda Academy, and all of these other things that we created. But it really changed when we understood what water wanted.
[00:23:21] Jarred Morgan: Well, it's not even what water wanted. It's when we understood what do our customers, what do our friends in this industry want too? And they wanted resources. They wanted help. And the satisfaction that comes with helping people? You can't measure it in my opinion. I mean, it's just selfishly satisfying.
[00:23:42] Eric Knight: It is. For sure. And what, when I was doing all that research for those blogs, there wasn't a lot out there. There is some quality information, but it was too dense. I don't have a chemistry degree, and it's hard to find. Like it's out there, but it's really hard to find. You have to go down a rabbit hole and really dig. All the stuff that's easily accessible from a simple search online. Um, It was clickbait.
[00:24:04] That's why you found it. You know, it wasn't quality information. And I started looking outside of the pool industry for information on water and found great sites from across the world that really started everything. We forged relationships with chemists since, but that was really the pivot. We're becoming an education focused company, not just out there competing bottle for bottle.
[00:24:26] That was a huge change. And it's an uncomfortable change for a lot of people who had built something that seemed like a well-oiled machine at the time. I remember it. I remember back then when we were that small. I remember being the fourth person in that company. You, Harold, Monica, and me. And we did everything. We wore every hat, we did all of it. And those, those were fun days, but man, were they, they were long days too, weren't they Jarred? I mean, I, I know you weren't doing anything because we were out there working, you were just staying at home, running the business or whatever that means.
[00:24:55] Jarred Morgan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Mm-hmm. That's how I would, that's how I'd characterize it too. There's a lot that goes into running a business and Eric and I, you know, he gives me recommendations on reading books, but then I'm like, bro, I don't read. You've tried to get me on show notes this whole time. Good luck.
[00:25:11] Eric Knight: Oh yeah. Well that true, true. You still haven't had one.
[00:25:14] Jarred Morgan: Yeah, no.
[00:25:15] Eric Knight: Well, we did go through a few books though. I mean, we went through traction and scaling up and a couple others.
[00:25:19] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. And those are great books. And that's kind of what I'm getting to is you, you got challenges and things that you face when you run a business in any business, quite honestly. It doesn't matter if you're maintaining a pool, or running a service business, or building pools, you're going to have challenges throughout the process. And hopefully you learn from some of those challenges and you implement changes into your business accordingly and so forth. And that's how I view every challenge that we've ever faced as a business is I'm going to take the learning opportunity here and make ourselves better.
Why Orenda was acquired
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[00:25:50] Jarred Morgan: And trust me, everybody, we've had challenges. But it's experience and it's value that nobody can take from us. Just to get back to the running a business aspect of what it is that we do. For us, it got to a point where we grew. We grew a lot. When you grow, it puts strain on other pieces of the business. So that's ultimately how we came to the realization that, hey, we either, you know, we could try and truck this thing out and invest money in places and infrastructure and processes and, and do what we needed to do. Or we could find a partner that has all those things in place. They already know how to do them.
[00:26:36] Eric Knight: Yeah. And better than we do.
[00:26:38] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. How do we navigate that? When you're running the family business, it's a hard realization to come to. It's just accepting things that aren't easy to accept. And it's acknowledging things that you just have to be real with yourself. I mean, Eric and I have a very open, honest relationship with one another. He knows my strengths and weak weaknesses.
[00:26:59] I know his, and that's how relationships work. And sometimes you got to have that with yourself. And we've had a lot of reflection over the past, you know, 6, 8, 9 months. It reached a point of, Hey, we need help. And that's where we are today.
[00:27:20] Eric Knight: It's hard. Because at some point growth becomes painful. Every one of us was just stretched to our limit. It was stressful. We couldn't keep up with the calls, we couldn't keep up with the emails, the requests from the website and to be honest with you, like for me personally, just being gone so much and trying to keep up with all of it, it's, it's not sustainable. It's just not sustainable.
[00:27:48] And as a result, we are not able to uphold the standards that we hold ourselves to. We can't continue delivering that level of customer service unless we have help. Unless we can alleviate what we're not good at so that we can focus on what we are good at. What we want to be doing.
[00:28:05] Adding value to you; education; more of these remarkably dumb podcasts that we do. Um, you're shaking your head, but you know it. So, but, but the point is like,
[00:28:15] Jarred Morgan: I'm sorry. You're right. I mean if these people want to continue listening because we're going to do more episodes
[00:28:19] Eric Knight: I can't believe they still are.
[00:28:20] Jarred Morgan: Are we up to like 106 listeners yet?
[00:28:23] Eric Knight: No, no. We passed 106. I think we're close to 120, but I don't know enough to count.
[00:28:27] Jarred Morgan: Okay, good.
[00:28:27] Eric Knight: We don't have an exact figure. But the point is, We are not good at what we're not good at. And we know our lane. Jarred has his lane. I have a different lane. Everybody in our company has their own lane. And that's what's unique about this. I think we were able to grow the way we did because we had a unified mission that everybody not only understood and could clearly articulate, but they embraced it.
[00:28:53] Everybody's done their part. And I think it's only possible because culture does start at the top with Harold and you that we're all doing the same thing. Cause we know where we're going. It gets to a point where the landscape changes. Distribution changes; acquisitions change things; shipping got more expensive; bottling got more expensive and more difficult; shortages; labor shortages; challenges on your side of the business, Jarred, that I wasn't directly involved with, that I would hear you venting about because they were out of your control. And yet, our success hinges upon things that are out of our control. And it's not your strength.
[00:29:30] You have to do it. It's kinda like chlorine has to get rid of sunscreen and makeup, but chlorine wasn't made to do that. It takes a lot of chlorine to do it and still doesn't do the greatest job at it. Chlorine's an excellent sanitizer. Well, we know what we're good at and we want to focus on that. And you know, as much as this decision is painful, it is the right decision to make.
Why HASA?
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[00:29:52] Eric Knight: I'll let you address it first of why HASA? Because HASA was not the only company that wanted Orenda. You don't need to name the other ones, but there were several others.
[00:30:00] Jarred Morgan: And I won't, and you're right, we look at everything. And we consider, I hope, everything. For those of you that don't know HASA, HASA has been around for roughly 50 years in the industry. They are a West coast chlorine and acid manufacturer. They started as a family business. Um, and they were sold, you know, I want to say
[00:30:22] Eric Knight: 2017, I think? 2017, yes.
[00:30:24] Jarred Morgan: Seven or so years ago, is what I was going to say. They're West coast, so they're from the Pacific Northwest, California, Arizona, Nevada, and then Texas. Those are where their roots are. And so when I looked at that, I said, okay, great. That's a good customer base for us. We can support that territory. They can help us support that territory in a very good way. And then on top of that, we think we can grow in the other places that they're currently not because we have our footprint there.
[00:30:57] And the other thing was the people. That was a very important piece of this. And there's no concern from our perspective that anybody's going anywhere. Job security was an important piece of this conversation. And with a bigger upside to move forward into. That was very important.
[00:31:19] Eric Knight: So it's not just infrastructure, it's not just the fact that they have the resources and extra people and all of these things to be able to accelerate what we're trying to do. It's that it gives us a more complete line.
[00:31:34] Jarred Morgan: That too.
[00:31:34] Eric Knight: We now have the ability to talk about algae.
[00:31:38] Jarred Morgan: Chlorine is our favorite algaecide.
[00:31:40] Eric Knight: Yeah, for sure. And, and it's a non stabilized chlorine.
[00:31:43] Jarred Morgan: Even better. That's the point here. We have a more complete package to talk about. And it gives us the opportunity to go down roads that obviously we couldn't. And the opportunities I truly believe are there and they're a good thing now.
Breaking the news
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[00:32:00] Jarred Morgan: It's been one of those whirlwind weekends. Let's just be honest about it. And Eric can speak from his perspective. It's, it's shocking at first.
[00:32:10] Eric Knight: The Western show was very hard because without sleep and trying to not tell anybody about it and knowing it and then having to teach two classes. Which, if you were there at the Western show, taking my classes, thank you for being there.
[00:32:22] That was a very tough show. We're still mourning this thing. But I'm optimistic because I think this allows us to do what we want to do.
[00:32:31] Jarred Morgan: Yeah. There's been time to process and you take a step back and you look at the big picture and you sit back and you say, you know what? You're right. We have a great opportunity. They're not coming in here and telling us what we need to do, everybody.
[00:32:44] So I hope you understand that they acquired us because they like what we do. And that's a very important thing. They are excited to collaborate together on how we can make all of the combined businesses better.
[00:33:01] They like the open conversations and flexibility that goes with that. We think we can provide a lot of value there and vice versa. They can provide a lot of value to us. So it's one of those things where it's overall a good thing.
[00:33:14] Eric Knight: Yeah, get a chance to grow another business and on a much bigger scale. And Everybody struggled in manufacturing during COVID. If you don't understand the challenges behind the scenes, it is hard to throw stones.
[00:33:26] Jarred Morgan: Very.
Building (and rebuilding) reputations
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[00:33:27] Eric Knight: We are aware of HASA's reputation. But then again, we got lucky in how we navigated COVID, mainly because Jarred made a mistake and bought way too much raw material. And that really helped out. Did it not?
[00:33:40] Jarred Morgan: It was definitely a mistake. And boy, you could say dumb luck timing. But
[00:33:44] Eric Knight: Had that not happened, we would've been in trouble too.
[00:33:48] Jarred Morgan: That's exactly the point of, the last three years, everybody, need to understand something on the production/ operation side of the business. Which you all have felt in getting equipment or pipe or just anything. Chemicals, right? You've felt it in your business. Well, we felt it just a little differently where I couldn't get a cap, or a bottle, or a label, or a box, or, you know, I couldn't have, you know, turnover within production. Somebody wouldn't show up. It would be a revolving door of people coming in and out. Then you got to train somebody else.
[00:34:21] So quality control obviously is a piece of that conversation. And when you have all these changes come in within a year and a half span, it's going to put a strain on a business, no matter whose business it is.
[00:34:32] And we were sending bottles out the door with white caps on a PR bottle and getting calls of why is this, that and the other. And I was like, you sometimes you just got to make a call like, Hey, we needed to get this out the door. And I don't have any caps, I don't have a timeframe on getting a cap. So it was either this or nothing.
[00:34:51] Eric Knight: Or getting raw materials.
[00:34:52] Jarred Morgan: Yeah.
[00:34:52] Eric Knight: SC-1000, I don't remember which year, maybe it was 2021 or 2022. There was a few months there where we didn't think we were going to have enough. It was selling faster than we had it, and fortunately we were able to get it, but woo, that was close.
[00:35:05] Jarred Morgan: And it was, it was moving a lot of things around to ensure that we had those things together. But obviously all that is subsiding. So that's a good thing.
[00:35:12] Eric Knight: But now what this allows us to do is buy the volume we really need to fuel the growth that we are capable of.
[00:35:19] Jarred Morgan: It's that, it's having strategic storage locations across the country eventually. It's having, uh, better capability to turn around and serve our customers. I see a slew of positives that come from this. We posted about this yesterday and we read the comments. We pay attention to our interactions. We take that very seriously and that's something we still do and are still going to do.
[00:35:43] And that is deeply personal and important to us to make sure that we answer your questions, hopefully alleviate any concerns and to let you know that nobody's going anywhere. Nothing's changing as far as we're concerned. Unfortunately, Eric still has to talk to me. Uh,
[00:36:03] Eric Knight: Well, no, that's not fair to say. I don't have to, I do a lot of these alone. I chose to, I thought you, you deserve to be on this one. But
[00:36:10] Jarred Morgan: true.
[00:36:10] Eric Knight: Um, Well, I mean, I've had, I've had other people on there too, but, uh, you keep pushing it. Jarred, you might find yourself less invited to this thing. Yeah. What was I saying?
[00:36:18] Jarred Morgan: All these, all these, well, yeah, you're right.
[00:36:20] I'm going to, I'm going to really push this. Uh, but no, we see the people talking about how, oh, there goes the neighborhood. Oh no. Another thing. Yeah, here we go. And that's not the case. I understand the knee jerk reaction to think that way. But at the same time, hopefully between this and the posts and things that we do, if, if you called our hotline right now, you're going to get me or Eric or Ryan or Joe or Tyler or Miguel.
[00:36:46] You're going to get us. Nothing's different.
[00:36:49] Eric Knight: I'd like to read one comment. I'll leave him anonymous. But there have been a lot of comments on these Facebook posts. And a lot of them are overwhelmingly positive for us, but a lot of them are just, they're sad, they're depressed, they're upset. They don't like the fact that we're a part of a bigger company because they like how we were.
[00:37:06] Right. It's change, right? And yeah, there are negative opinions of HASA out there for some of their customers. Not all, but some. We get it. Like we have some negative opinions. Here's what he says.
[00:37:16] I honestly don't know how to feel about this. Orenda has always been that company that punches outside of its weight class. They did things differently. Taught instead of asking for money. These are reasons why their fans are legion. Will the name Orenda stay? Will it be a brand name that we think of fondly in the future with other bits of nostalgia no longer with us? I'm afraid they'll be absorbed and in time no trace will be left. Sad days.
[00:37:42] That resonates with me man. It really resonates with me that that's some of my fear too. But I think a lot of that fear has been alleviated that we've been assured that what we are doing, they want us to continue doing. And if anything, it's going to accelerate.
[00:38:00] Jarred Morgan: You're right.
[00:38:01] Eric Knight: And we've seen other companies get folded into bigger companies and their culture gets crushed. A, I don't think it's going to happen. B, no. I refuse to let it happen.
[00:38:10] Jarred Morgan: And not only that, as you said before, that was an important part of going down this path and why we specifically chose to partner with HASA. Because we know that we can provide value to each other and we know that the, the brand name is still going to be there. We're still doing what we did yesterday. And education is still an extremely important part of our company and theirs for that matter. And so it's going to be a positive thing and there's a lot of opportunity.
[00:38:46] Eric Knight: Yeah, it's different. It's different.
[00:38:51] Jarred Morgan: Different, for sure.
[00:38:51] Eric Knight: But we are still here. We are still here for you. We appreciate all of you more than you know. Um, yeah, I, I don't need to keep repeating that, but it's true. Stay with us. Give us a chance here. There will be some acclimation, but the podcast is still going to be just as lame as it always has been. I promise you that. Uh,
[00:39:17] Jarred Morgan: Very mediocre.
[00:39:19] Eric Knight: Yeah, mediocre at best. We do have plenty of topics to cover. We do have big plans for this podcast this year, which not only are not stopped, they just got supercharged. So I think it's going to be really good in that regard. And, I'm optimistic and I hope you are too.
Thank you to everyone who had a part in building Orenda
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[00:39:35] Eric Knight: I just want to end by personally thanking everyone who's had a part in what we built here.
[00:39:40] Jarred Morgan: And they know who they are.
[00:39:41] Eric Knight: And that's not just employees. They know who they are. It's not just people like Monica, who we love dearly. And from the very beginning, I mean, I never got to meet Dr. Kersey, but his vision has been carried on and, and multiplied exponentially. Every employee we've had, every vendor we've had, every dealer we've had, every customer who's given it a try.
[00:40:00] Every one of you who listens to the podcast. We're here because of you. And we will continue because of you. And we had a choice. We could be bitter or we could be better. I choose to be better. What about you, Jarred?
[00:40:13] Jarred Morgan: I'm ready to compete.
[00:40:14] Eric Knight: And now we get to compete in a bigger league.
[00:40:17] Jarred Morgan: Yep.
[00:40:17] Eric Knight: This has been episode 105 of The Rule Your Pool podcast. I'm your host, Eric Knight and my trusty co-host here, Jarred the Cucumber Morgan.
[00:40:26] Jarred Morgan: Thank you all and
[00:40:27] Eric Knight: I couldn't help myself.
[00:40:27] Jarred Morgan: Sorry everybody that you have to hear us banter more. Like I said, I don't think we can say sorry enough because I truly feel like I just,
[00:40:35] Eric Knight: it's a loss.
[00:40:36] Jarred Morgan: I just don't know if I like
[00:40:36] Eric Knight: it's a loss.
[00:40:37] Jarred Morgan: Well it's, I don't know if I like you that much, it's just you and I just keep going back and forth.
[00:40:42] Eric Knight: I know you don't have to tell them that everybody knows. Geez. I say just because you don't listen to the podcast. I mean, I talk about you behind your back all the time. you, but you don't even subscribe to the podcast.
[00:40:50] You absolutely. You're the worst co-host ever.
[00:40:52] Jarred Morgan: You could be, and I have no clue. You're right. I'll choose to not think that way though.
[00:40:57] Eric Knight: I'm telling you straight up. I talk about you on every episode. All right. Until next time, have a great season. Thank you. Thanks.