The 1990's started with one great change for Holland Home Leisure. My dad who had been my business partner since 1979, retired at the end of the 1990 pool season. It was time for me to go out totally on my own. Dad had already stepped away from the day to day business dealings a few years earlier, but he was still always there to bounce ideas and decisions off of, and while my parents would always be there for me in the years to come, I was determined not to burden them with the day to day burdens of running a small business. So what did I decide to do after the 1991 season, open our first retail store!!
In the spring of 1992 we opened our retail store in Aylesford, and another change occurred. My wife Debby started officially working for the company in the store. In the years before opening the store, she answered most of the phone calls, took messages, served customers who came to our back door, all while raising our four children, now she also wanted a new challenge and started working full time in our retail store. When the store opened it was just 800 sq ft of retail space, and in the next decade it eventually grew to over 2000 sq ft. We expanded product lines, bringing in Hot Tub, and BBQ's plus a wide range of pool and hot tub accessories. It was amazing at how fast we were able to fill the store each of the 3 times we expanded the retail space.
Our staff was growing also. Tim had already joined our staff in the mid 1980's and was now leading one of our installation crews. Mike joined us in 1991 and soon found that service was what he enjoyed and was good at, so we started to have him focus in this area for us. Rick also joined our staff in 1992, leading another construction crew. Jim joined us the next year, and continued to learn different aspects of construction and service. Jack started working in the store with Deb, and stayed with us until he retired in 2004.
As a family we moved into a house where we were finally able to install our very own backyard pool Of course I wanted it to be different so our pool was the first Roman End Pool that we as a company installed. It combined style with function, and now our house became the place to hold all of our family gatherings. We also installed a Hot Tub in our back deck, and now we were not only able to enjoy quality family time together around the pool during the summers, but we found another way to reconnect with family and friends all year, sitting in Hot Water!! It became a great way to end each day, with a quiet moon lit soak in the tub, or what better way to find out what was going on in my kids lives than to spend 20 minutes in the Hot Tub catching up on what was new in their lives.
-Mike vandenHof
Michael vandenHof Sr. Celebrating HHL's 30th Anniversary!
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