Business View Magazine | March 2020

76 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2020 Pool THE MID-SOUTH W idely acknowledged to be the leading swimming pool builder and retailer in the Mid-South, Memphis Pool is a force of good in the fight against the big-box retail shopping landscape. Operating successfully since 1952, the firm is not only an award- winning gunite pool builder specializing in custom construction and outdoor living designs, it’s also been under the same family ownership and management for almost 60 years. “My father, Roy Reed, was a schoolteacher in the late fifties,” shares the company’s president, Mark Reed. “Naturally, he was always looking for something to do in the summers. He’d gone to work for a swimming pool service for two or three years when the man who owned it decided it was time for him to retire. My father had a decision to make: continue teaching, or buy the company. He bought it in the early ‘60s and eventually quit teaching to go into the swimming pool business full-time. In the late ‘60s, he opened our first retail store. At that time, it was a two- person operation. From there, we’ve expanded into four retail locations, construction, service, renovations—all things swimming pool.” Their philosophy has been, and continues to be, one of loyalty to loyalty: ‘build a long-term customer’. And the sales have followed. For Reed, building that customer loyalty starts with the customer experience. He believes in taking the high road—growing the business beyond “just making a sale” and focusing on providing stellar AT A GLANCE MEMPHIS POOL WHAT: A leading swimming pool builder and servicer WHERE: Memphis, Tennessee WEBSITE: www.memphispool.com