Tara President and Founder Marshall Richardson with the award.
The award honors the vendor that demonstrates superior operational performance and profitability. POOLCORP, the worlds largest distributor of pool products, has more than 800 active vendors. To narrow down the competition the judges looked at factors such as on-time delivery, inventory discrepancy, warranty resolution and the impact the vendor has on POOLCORP’s year to date results. The senior management decides from the top three performers; this year, the top vendors were Maytronics, Pleatco and Tara.
One of the factors that led POOLCORP to award Tara, was their new delivery service initiative. Freight damage to liners and safety covers can cause a major disruption for dealers and distributors. It causes delays and liability issues. Tara developed a solution for the problem by investing in trucks to deliver their products to distributor locations within their area. As a result, Tara’s liners and safety covers arrive on-time and undamaged.
Tara received the Vendor of the Year Award at POOLCORP’s annual International Sales Conference which brings vendors together with managers and sales representatives from the company’s 350 distribution branches in 12 countries. At the opening ceremony, Tara President and Founder Marshall Richardson and Vice President of Sales Ron Shults were called to stage to accept the award. As Richardson noted in his acceptance speech, “The success of our business is based on building relationships."
Tara is a family owned and operated business based in north Alabama and employees 80 people. Since 1984, Tara has helped pool owners across the country enhance the beauty and safety of their backyard. Tara’s goal of serving their customers with quality, speed and service has been the key to it’s success. The Vendor of the Year award represents a major milestone for the company.
