THE NEXT FRONTIER

When builder Neville Partridge founded a pool construction and valet company in the 1970s, it’s likely he never imagined that this venture was the starting blocks for a legacy.

Although the business was established to install vinyl pools, it had innovation at its heart. Responding to the zeitgeist of the times, in 1988, Neville invested in a concrete pool company that was doing well despite the downturn in the economy. That company was Frontier Pools.

First registered in 1975, the enterprise was one of the first to embrace a technology that allowed concrete to be sprayed onto a vertical surface. More than a decade later, it was still going strong. Neville’s first project with the recently acquired business was in Eastern Beach, Auckland. The pool, which slotted into a right-angled corner and was shaped like an ‘S’, metaphorically and physically broke new boundaries. He decided to keep the name.

Grounded in good old-fashioned service, customers came by word of mouth, and by 2008 the firm had built more than 300 concrete pools around Tamaki Makaurau. Neil Runciman – a national-level competitive water-skier who spent New Zealand winters coaching in the States – was a family friend and, as you do, had long held a summer job with the company. He was young, keen and capable: a fast learner. In 1996, when he hung up his skis and returned to Aotearoa to settle down, he joined Neville full time.

In 2006 Neil bought into the construction arm of the company (assuming full ownership in 2014) whilst Neville retained the retail and valet side of the business. Affable and accomplished, he ran the operation as his mentor had - with dedication to detail and personal service - until 2022 when, following a short illness, he sadly passed away.

Recognising the likeminded attributes of this boutique business, Box™ purchased Frontier Pools as an adjunct to their design-and-build product a year later. “It’s such a natural fit for us,” says Box™ co-founder Dan Heyworth. “Now we can offer clients integrated pool design as part of our one-stop shop ethos – and we are committed to this being a positive step forward, a continuation of a long-standing New Zealand success story.”

In that respect, it’s pretty much business as usual. Neil, who had learnt the hands-on side of pool construction on the job, was a natural front man. He focussed on client relations and project management and won the loyalty of a small team that offered a wraparound, end-to-end service – from construction to tiling, finishing, and plumbing in the filtration and sanitation system. He also initiated a six-week handover plan which allowed the owners to bed in their new pool and learn the ropes.

“When we first bought into the company, we were just about to have our first child,” recalls Neil’s wife Julie Runciman. “We had also just started building the house – and then the GFC hit. We fought hard to keep the business going and keep the wages paid, but a few big commercial projects got us through.”

Residential pools have always been the focus though. When Damian Francis joined the close-knit Frontier Pools team in 2013, he moved up from South Canterbury to follow his wife’s career as a teacher. Having worked in the concreting industry laying slabs and driveways, he was fascinated by the methodology of crafting something from concrete on a vertical plane. “Shotcrete was new to me,” he says. “It was such an interesting process.”

Shotcrete, a specially mixed form of concrete made at a batching plant, is a much dryer product that regular concrete but still needs to be wet enough to be pumped through the lines. “It’s pneumatically applied. We spray it on to shuttered formwork that has been reinforced with steel,” says Damian.

When Neil unexpectedly passed away, Damian put down the tools and took up the reins as operations manager of Frontier Pools, sticking to the tried-and-true values he had learnt over more than a decade. “Neil was very particular,” he says. “With high standards and a real focus on detail.” Not only did he keep the project on track from a big-picture perspective, but he was also pedantic about the visual aesthetic. “For example, he’d set out a plan for the mosaic tiles on the waterline so that the corners met in full modules,” explains Damian.

In the same vein, Julie remembers Neil’s philosophy. “He always said, ‘I am never going to be the cheapest, because I won’t cut corners.’ He wouldn’t put in a baseline heat pump or filtration system - he’d always go for a known quality brand that had reliable post-sales warranty and support.”Neither did he give up on adapting and improving systems either. When Covid-19 put a stop to on-site construction for a few months and Neil was home-office bound, he spent time on his costing programme. “He developed an Excel spreadsheet that was completely plug and play,” explains Julie. “You simply put in the dimensions of the pool, which materials were being used, whether there was a vanishing edge or a spa and out came a quote.”

The pandemic may have been bad for business at the time but, after the long days in lockdown, many homeowners decided they needed to spruce up their backyards. And what better way than by adding a pool? Frontier was off and galloping again.

In the decade or so that Damian has been involved, he has seen the industry develop impressively. From grand designs, such as a pool installed in a Mt Albert property that features a series of circular shapes, to those with a crisp infinity edge that tumble off seamlessly to the horizon, to smaller urban environments where the pools are immediately connected to the home, the beauty of concrete construction is the flexibility of the design it offers. “You’re not restricted by shape or size; nothing is impossible,” says Damian. “We’ve constructed 20-metre lap pools and 3 metre by 3 metre plunge pools in colour palettes from white through to black, with many blues in between. There really are no limitations.”

What has kept him at Frontier Pools is not only the challenge of bringing so many ideas into reality but also the family vibe that surrounds the tight-knit team. Now, falling under the Box™ umbrella, means an even greater scope to integrate pool design with architecture. And the bonus is, the teams already share a similar outlook.

As Julie Runciman puts it. “It’s that personal connection thing. So many of our values align.” From her perspective, selling the business was a bittersweet moment. “But Box™ has been very mindful and considerate of honouring Neil’s memory and his legacy,” she says. “It feels like more than just a transaction.”

Timeline

1975 Rod McCracken founds concrete pool company and registers the name Frontier Pools

1988 Neville Partridge buys Frontier Pools from McCracken

2006 Neil Runciman becomes a co-director of the company

2014 Neville Partridge sells Frontier Pools to Neil Runciman

2023 Box™ purchases Frontier Pools