This is the story of the original founder and owner of Morgan Pools Limited, Carlos Morgan, written by him in 2023.
After arriving in New Zealand in 1970, I started working for a construction company as a commercial plasterer here in Auckland. After a while I went out contracting with some work mates and pretty much stumbled into plastering pools around 1973 to help out a friend of a friend. In those days I was probably one of the first plasterers to work on concrete pools, pools being very much in their infancy.
The guy I was working for was obviously impressed with my work and eventually offered me a partnership in his company building ferro-cement pools. These were all “hand packed “ through six layers of chicken mesh and really all we did was copy the construction method of ferro cement boats and stuck them in the ground. We built these pools for many years with great success and cost effectiveness. We eventually purchased a Putzmeister pump to spray the plaster on to the walls much to the relief of our biceps and of course sped the whole process up. From here we moved on to using Gunite to spray the pools, which was quite an involved process and eventually progressed to spraying ready mix concrete, which of course is still the preferred method today.
After some years in partnership, it was obvious we had different ideas on how things should be done. My partner was very artistic and had great ideas, in a of ways he was ahead of his time, but somewhat short on detail as to how we would implement these ideas, whereas I was more in to the detail of how we would put things together. We parted on good terms and are still good friends today some fifty years later and he is a happy man still creating art.
After experiencing some “recessions” and in depth discussions, I decided to go on my own and target just the very top end of the market as I figured those guys were almost always immune to the fluctuating economy and were often instrumental in determining how it performed.
We decided to do things a bit differently than the standard pool builders in that our ultimate aim was total quality in all aspects of the business from construction to our dealings with and service to our clients. To that end we employed specific tradesmen for each part of the process rather than the “jack of all trades “ approach which most builders did at this time. Our aim was to turn out the highest quality product with each stage being completed to the highest standard not just the pretty finished product and we would charge accordingly and either get the job for our price or walk away.
In those days the pool builder would finish at the coping and a landscaper would then take over with no synergy between the two. This more often than not ended up with a “patchwork quilt” type finish. I decided we should adopt the same approach as architects and have a coordinated approach to each project, so we employed a landscape designer to design the whole project. We would then cost out the pool and the landscape and present the client with a proposal for the complete project, a total concept with everything integrated. This was an immediate success at the end of the market we were targeting. People liked the idea of “one butt to kick” if it all went pear shaped rather than dealing with numerous contractors. With talented designers came unbelievable pool designs and such amazing projects that the “24 x 12 kidney” that was so common in those days was thankfully cast to the annal of history forever.
We began entering and winning pool association competitions here in NZ, Australia and the US. This gave us something to advertise/brag about and we were able to take a different approach to marketing and with Auckland being a “small town” rather than a big city, word soon spread and so we had that end of the market to ourselves, not just in Auckland but would travel throughout New Zealand building high end projects. Our client list soon became a “who’s who” of NZ personalities, including Prime ministers, international movie directors and actors and many “captains of industry”.
At this time we were in the early 80”s and NZ was taking off after “Rogernomics” and a lot of very big hitters were becoming very successful. It had got to the stage where it became prestigious to have one of our pools and real estate agents would often mention us when advertising a house with one of our pools as a sales aid.
Early on the NZSPA ran a bonding scheme at the time and so every contract had to be vetted. I specifically remember at one meeting the chairman, Larry Ogden announcing that Morgan Pools had sold a pool for the princely sum of $10,000 to rapturous applause from the membership—seems almost absurd today but at the time that was a bit of a high but more importantly gave us even further prestige.
I served on the board of the association for many years and spent some five or so year’s as the president. During that period, we held an amazingly successful international conference in Rotorua with delegates coming from all over the globe. I also was chairman of the disputes committee for some 27 years a role I very much enjoyed and am still periodically involved in.
With the growth of the business came other innovations that we implemented that today are accepted as the norm, simple things like creating a rebate around penetrations and then sealing around them to prevent future leaks, putting a perforated sump below the hydro to minimise the risk of blockages and subsequent floatation’s. In the early days our plasterers were still laying the marble up using hawks and trowels, archaic today but gave us an amazing finish which all added to the reptation.
In 1998 I suffered a serious accident which threatened to not only end my business career but also my life. After six months I came out of hospital in a wheelchair and took some two years to recover. During this time, we lost a lot of business but more importantly our reputation suffered enormously losing a lot of the architect and high end builder work that we had enjoyed almost as of right.
In 2008 Justin Mihaere joined us as our general manager. I had known Justin for many years and he was a superb tradesman in his own right and knew the construction side of the industry very well. Together we formulated a plan as to how we would rebuild the company and our reputation and get back to the top. It was a very hard grind but after going right back to the basics and basically rebuilding the company we did claim out “top spot” again and I believe Morgan Pools still enjoys that reputation for top quality work and integrity in service today. Again, showing in the amount of prestigious awards the company won and the top architects and builders specifying us as preferred or nominated contractors.
All of this sounds like it was a one or two man band but here is the reality, and I think most business men would appreciate and agree with this. Without the backing and sacrifice of our wives and family’s how many of us would achieve what we do. For me the support Sandra gave me throughout my career always understanding, supporting, giving a different perspective boosting my moral when I would come home late at night after a crap day, was every bit as instrumental in the success of our business as anything I did at work. The way she took care of things in the business as well as caring for myself in a wheelchair and our four young children during my accident would have been absolutely horrific for her and the fact she kept the business going is nothing short of remarkable and I shall always be grateful to her. The success of Morgan Pools was every bit as much Sandra’s success as mine.
From the time Justin came on board we had spoken about my eventual exit from the company and had many conversations about this. Finally in 2018 Justin and his brother Peter and I agreed on a sale and purchase agreement, and they now carry on the mantle of Morgan Pools and work hard to keep the company at the top of the tree. I couldn’t be happier knowing the company is in the very capable hands of guys who share the same philosophies and approach to attaining the highest standards and quality that the name was built on.
Since “retiring” in 2021 I have continued consulting on various projects around the country and enjoy “keeping my hand and brain in” without the stress of running a business.
All in all the pool industry has been a great career but after some 50 years I’m happy to say I’m not missing it much these days but rather enjoy the elusive freedom people think you have running your own business but really don’t.
The pool industry has developed so much since the early 70’s when there were so many “cowboys” around and it was akin to the wild west with some of the unsavoury characters the industry attracted. It is now so professional and it is quite amazing to see it ever evolving and young people could do far worse than enjoying a career in the pool industry, it offers so many possibilities to provide a good life for those interested in taking it seriously..
