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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020
or
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from              to             
Commission File Number: 0-26640
pool-20201231_g1.jpg
POOL CORPORATION
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware36-3943363
(State or other jurisdiction of(I.R.S. Employer
incorporation or organization)Identification No.)
109 Northpark Boulevard,
Covington,Louisiana70433-5001
(Address of principal executive offices)(Zip Code)
(985) 892-5521
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: 
Title of each classTrading Symbol(s)Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per sharePOOLNasdaq Global Select Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes  x    No  ¨ 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.
Yes  ¨    No  x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.           
Yes  x    No  ¨



Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    
Yes x    No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filerxAccelerated filer
Non-accelerated fileroSmaller reporting company
Emerging growth company
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.    ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes      No  x
The aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant based on the closing sales price of the registrant’s common stock as of June 30, 2020 was $10,531,013,045.
As of February 19, 2021, there were 40,229,370 shares of common stock outstanding.
Documents Incorporated by Reference
Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement to be mailed to stockholders on or about March 30, 2021 for the
Annual Meeting to be held on May 4, 2021, are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K.



POOL CORPORATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
   
  Page
PART I. 
   
Item 1. 
Item 1A.
Item 1B.
Item 2.
Item 3.
Item 4.
  
PART II. 
   
Item 5.
Item 6.
Item 7.
Item 7A.
Item 8.
Item 9.
Item 9A.
Item 9B.
  
PART III. 
   
Item 10.
Item 11.
Item 12.
Item 13.
Item 14.
  
PART IV. 
   
Item 15.
Item 16.
   




PART I.
Item 1.  Business

General

Pool Corporation (the Company, which may be referred to as we, us or our) is the world’s largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies, equipment and related leisure products and is one of the leading distributors of irrigation and landscape products in the United States. Our vision is to establish POOLCORP as the global, digital distribution leader in swimming pool, backyard and irrigation and landscape distribution markets. The Company was incorporated in the State of Delaware in 1993 and has grown from a regional distributor to a multi-national, multi-network distribution company. 

Our industry is highly fragmented, and as such, we add considerable value to the industry by purchasing products from a large number of manufacturers and then distributing the products to our customer base on conditions that are more favorable than our customers could obtain on their own.

As of December 31, 2020, we operated 398 sales centers in North America, Europe and Australia through our four distribution networks:

SCP Distributors (SCP);
Superior Pool Products (Superior);
Horizon Distributors (Horizon); and
National Pool Tile (NPT).

Our Industry

We believe that the swimming pool industry is relatively young, with room for continued growth from the increased penetration of new pools. Significant growth opportunities also reside with pool remodel and pool equipment replacement activities due to the aging of the installed base of swimming pools, technological advancements and the development of energy-efficient and more aesthetically attractive products. Additionally, the desire for consumers to enhance their outdoor living spaces with hardscapes, lighting and outdoor kitchens also promotes growth in this area.

Favorable demographic and socioeconomic trends have positively impacted our industry, and we believe these trends will continue to do so in the long term.  These favorable trends include the following:

long-term growth in housing units in warmer markets due to the population migration toward the southern United States, where use of the outdoor home environment is more prevalent and extends longer throughout the year;
increased homeowner spending on outdoor living spaces for relaxation and entertainment;
consumers bundling the purchase of a swimming pool and other products, with new irrigation systems, landscaping and improvements to outdoor living spaces often being key components to both pool installations and remodels;
consumers using more automation and control products, higher quality materials and other pool features that add to our sales opportunities over time; and
increased consumer spending on homes including outdoor living spaces driven by stay-at-home and remote work trends.

Almost 60% of consumer spending in the pool industry is for maintenance and minor repair of existing swimming pools.  Maintaining a proper sanitization balance and the related upkeep and repair of swimming pool equipment, such as pumps, heaters, filters and safety equipment, creates a non-discretionary demand for pool chemicals, equipment and other related parts and supplies.  We also believe cosmetic considerations such as a pool’s appearance and the overall look of backyard environments create an ongoing demand for other maintenance-related goods and certain discretionary products.
 
We believe that the recurring nature of the maintenance and repair market has historically helped maintain a relatively consistent rate of industry growth.  This characteristic has helped cushion the negative impact on revenues in periods when unfavorable economic conditions and softness in the housing market adversely impacted consumer discretionary spending including pool construction and major replacement and refurbishment activities.

1


The following table reflects growth in the domestic installed base of in-ground swimming pools over the past 11 years (based on Company estimates and information from 2019 P.K. Data, Inc. reports):

pool-20201231_g2.jpg

The replacement and refurbishment market currently accounts for close to 25% of consumer spending in the pool industry.  The activity in this market, which includes major swimming pool remodeling, is driven by the aging of the installed base of pools. The timing of these types of expenditures is more sensitive to economic factors including home values, single-family home sales and consumer confidence that impact consumer spending compared to the maintenance and minor repair market.

New swimming pool construction comprises just over 15% of consumer spending in the pool industry.  The demand for new pools is driven by the perceived benefits of pool ownership including relaxation, entertainment, family activity, exercise and convenience.  The industry competes for new pool sales against other discretionary consumer purchases such as kitchen and bathroom remodeling, boats, motorcycles, recreational vehicles and vacations.  The industry is also affected by other factors including, but not limited to, consumer preferences or attitudes toward pool and related outdoor living products for aesthetic, environmental, safety or other reasons.

The irrigation and landscape industry shares many characteristics with the pool industry, and we believe that it will realize similar long-term growth rates. Irrigation system installations often occur in tandem with new single-family home construction making it more susceptible to economic variables that drive new home sales. However, the landscape industry offers similar maintenance-related growth opportunities as the swimming pool industry. Product offerings such as chemicals and fertilizers, power equipment and related repair and maintenance services offer recurring revenue streams in an industry otherwise closely tied to the housing market. The irrigation and landscape distribution business serves both residential and commercial markets, with the majority of sales related to the residential market.  We believe that irrigation accounts for approximately 35% - 40% of total spending in the industry, with the remaining 60% - 65% of spending related to landscape maintenance products, power equipment, hardscapes and specialty outdoor products and accessories.

2


Our NPT network primarily serves the swimming pool market but does provide some overlap with the irrigation and landscape industries as we offer our market-leading brand of pool tile, composite pool finish products and hardscapes. As more consumers create and enhance outdoor living areas and continue to invest in their outdoor environment, we believe we can focus our resources to address such demand, while leveraging our existing pool and irrigation and landscape customer base. We feel the development of our NPT network is a natural extension of our distribution model. In addition to our 21 standalone NPT sales centers, we currently have over 100 SCP and Superior sales centers that feature consumer showrooms where landscape and swimming pool contractors, as well as homeowners, can view and select pool components including pool tile, decking materials and interior pool finishes in various styles and grades, and serve as stocking locations for our NPT branded products. We also offer virtual tools for homeowners to select and design their pool and outdoor environments, working with their chosen contractors to install these products. We believe our showrooms, local stocking of products and virtual support provide us with a competitive advantage in these categories. Given the more discretionary nature of these products, this business is more sensitive to external market factors compared to our business overall.

Economic Environment

Certain trends in the housing market, the availability of consumer credit and general economic conditions (as commonly measured by Gross Domestic Product or GDP) affect our industry, particularly new pool and irrigation system starts as well as the timing and extent of pool refurbishments, equipment replacement, landscaping projects and outdoor living space renovations.

We believe that over the long term, single-family housing turnover and home value appreciation may correlate with demand for new pool construction, with higher rates of home turnover and appreciation having a positive impact on new pool starts over time.  We also believe that homeowners’ access to consumer credit is a critical factor enabling the purchase of new swimming pools and irrigation systems.  Similar to other discretionary purchases, replacement and refurbishment activities are more heavily impacted by economic factors such as consumer confidence, GDP and employment levels. Contractor labor availability has also become an issue in recent years, limiting our customers’ ability to fully meet consumer construction and renovation demand.

The market environment from June 2009, when the Great Recession ended, until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession began, was characterized by steady economic expansion, the cautious recovery of consumer spending, modest housing recovery and low inflation. However, in terms of homeowners investing in their existing homes, discretionary expenditures, including backyard renovations, have flourished over this time period with steady increases in home values and lack of affordable new homes prompting homeowners to stay in their homes longer and upgrade their home environments, including their backyards. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many families spent more time at home and sought out opportunities to create or expand existing home-based outdoor living and entertainment spaces, which resulted in an increase in new pool construction and greater expenditures for maintenance and remodeling products, despite the overall decline in economic activity in the U.S. While we estimate that new pool construction increased from approximately 80,000 units in 2019 to approximately 100,000 units in 2020, construction levels are still down approximately 55% compared to peak historical levels and down approximately 40% from what we consider normal levels. An average of approximately 170,000 new units per year were built in the years leading up to the Great Recession. We expect that new pool and irrigation construction levels will continue to grow incrementally, but we believe that consumer investments in outdoor living spaces beyond the swimming pool will generate greater growth over the next several years.

Times of strong economic conditions in the United States enable further replacement, remodeling and new construction activity. Although some constraints exist around residential construction activities, we believe that we are well positioned to take advantage of both the market expansion and the inherent long-term growth opportunities in our industry. Additionally, recent regulation passed by the U.S. Department of Energy mandates all new and replacement motors and pumps for swimming pools must meet certain compliance regulations by July 2021. This mandate, coupled with additional product developments and technological advancements, offers further growth opportunities over the next few years.

Considering the factors discussed above, we believe we will realize annual sales growth rates of approximately 6% to 8% over the next five years.

3


Business Strategy and Growth

Our mission is to provide exceptional value to our customers and suppliers, creating exceptional return to our shareholders, while providing exceptional opportunities to our employees.  Our core strategies are as follows:

to promote the growth of our industry;
to promote the growth of our customers’ businesses; and
to continuously strive to operate more effectively.

We promote the growth of our industry through various advertising and promotional programs intended to raise consumer awareness of the benefits and affordability of pool ownership, the ease of pool maintenance and the many ways in which a pool and the surrounding spaces may be enjoyed beyond swimming.  These programs include digital and media advertising, industry-oriented website development such as www.swimmingpool.com®, www.hottubs.com® and www.nptpool.com®, social media platforms and other digital marketing initiatives, including our NPT® Backyard mobile app.  We use these programs as tools to educate consumers and lead prospective pool owners to our customers.

We promote the growth of our customers’ businesses by offering comprehensive support programs that include promotional tools and marketing support to help our customers generate increased sales.  Our uniquely tailored programs include such features as customer lead generation, personalized websites, brochures, direct mail, marketing campaigns and business development training.  As a customer service, we also provide certain retail store customers assistance with all aspects of their business, including site selection, store layout and design, product merchandising, business management system implementation, comprehensive product offering selections and efficient ordering and inventory management processes. In addition to these programs, we feature consumer showrooms in over 100 of our sales centers and host our annual Retail Summit to educate our customers about product offerings and the overall industry, although we did not host our annual Retail Summit in January 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also act as a day-to-day resource by offering product and market expertise to serve our customers’ unique needs.

In addition to our efforts aimed at industry and customer growth, we strive to operate more effectively by continuously focusing on improvements in our operations. We aim to create capacity with business to business development tools and execution to ensure best-in-class service and value creation for our customers and suppliers. In particular, we have developed the Pool360 and Horizon 24/7 platforms that help our customers be more productive by allowing them to get pricing, check availability, enter orders and make payments online while leveraging our customer service staff resources, particularly during peak business periods. These tools not only offer real-time integration into our enterprise resource planning system, creating efficiencies in our business processes as well, but they also provide our customers graphical catalog presentation in the same platform. We’ve enhanced our BlueStreak mobile order processing, which enables our sales associates with wireless technology that puts them next to the customer rather than behind the counter. Orders are processed faster, often eliminating the need for customers to get out of their vehicles. We are also actively making improvements to our sales centers and warehouses, including improved showroom layouts, sales center merchandising and velocity slotting. Velocity slotting uses technology to identify fast moving, high velocity items, which are then color-coded and placed in an easily accessible location to create efficiencies for both our employees and customers. In addition to these initiatives, we strive to expand our Pool Corporation-branded products and exclusive brand offerings.

We have grown our distribution networks through new sales center openings, acquisitions and the expansion of existing sales centers depending on our market presence and capacity. For additional information regarding our new sales center openings, acquisitions and closures/consolidations, see Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and Item 8, Note 2 of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in this Form 10-K.

We plan to continue to make strategic acquisitions and open new sales centers to further penetrate existing markets and expand into both new geographic markets and new product categories. We believe that our high customer service levels and expanded product offerings have enabled us to gain market share historically. Going forward, we expect to realize sales growth higher than the industry average due to further increases in market share and continued expansion of our product offerings.

We estimate that price inflation has averaged 1% to 2% annually in our industry over the past ten years.  We generally pass industry price increases through our supply chain and may make strategic volume inventory purchases ahead of vendor price increases in order to obtain favorable pricing.  We estimate that annual price inflation in 2018 and 2020 was consistent with the ten-year average. We estimate that annual price inflation in 2019 was approximately 2% above our historical range as we sold through strategic inventory purchases from 2018. We believe that results in 2021 will be impacted by inflationary product cost increases of approximately 2% to 3% (compared to our historical average of 1% to 2%).

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Customers and Products

We serve roughly 120,000 customers. No single customer accounted for 10% or more of our sales in 2020. Most of our customers are small, family-owned businesses with relatively limited capital resources. Most of these businesses provide labor and technical services to the end consumer and operate as independent contractors and specialty retailers employing no more than ten employees (in many cases, working alone or with a limited crew).  These customers also buy from other distributors, mass merchants, home stores and certain specialty and internet retailers.

We provide extended payment terms to qualified customers for sales under early buy programs. The extended terms usually require payments in equal installments in April, May and June or May and June depending on geographic location. See Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Critical Accounting Estimates - Allowance for Doubtful Accounts” for additional information.

We sell our products primarily to the following types of customers:

swimming pool remodelers and builders;
specialty retailers that sell swimming pool supplies;
swimming pool repair and service businesses;
irrigation construction and landscape maintenance contractors; and
commercial customers who service large commercial installations such as hotels, universities and community recreational facilities.

We conduct our operations through 398 sales centers in North America, Europe and Australia. Our primary markets, with the highest concentration of swimming pools, are California, Texas, Florida and Arizona, collectively representing approximately 54% of our 2020 net sales.  In 2020, we generated approximately 94% of our sales in North America (including Canada and Mexico), 5% in Europe and 1% in Australia. While we continue to expand both domestically and internationally, we expect this geographic mix to be similar over the next few years. References to product line and product category data throughout this Form 10-K generally reflect data related to the North American swimming pool market, as it is more readily available for analysis and represents the largest component of our operations.

We use a combination of local and international sales and marketing personnel to promote the growth of our business and develop and strengthen our customers’ businesses.  Our sales and marketing personnel focus on developing customer programs and promotional activities, creating and enhancing sales management tools and providing product and market expertise.  Our local sales personnel work from our sales centers and are charged with understanding and meeting our customers’ specific needs.

We offer our customers more than 200,000 manufacturer and Pool Corporation-branded products.  We believe that our selection of pool equipment, supplies, chemicals, replacement parts, irrigation and related products and other pool construction and recreational products is the most comprehensive in the industry. We sell the following types of products:
 
maintenance products, such as chemicals, supplies and pool accessories;
repair and replacement parts for pool equipment, such as cleaners, filters, heaters, pumps and lights;
fiberglass pools and hot tubs and packaged pool kits including walls, liners, braces and coping for in-ground and above-ground pools;
pool equipment and components for new pool construction and the remodeling of existing pools;
irrigation and related products, including irrigation system components and professional lawn care equipment and supplies;
building materials, such as concrete, plumbing and electrical components, both functional and decorative pool surfaces, decking materials, tile, hardscapes and natural stone, used for pool installations and remodeling;
commercial products, including American Society of Material Engineers heaters, safety equipment and commercial pumps and filters; and
other pool construction and recreational products, which consist of a number of product categories and include discretionary recreational and related outdoor living products, such as hot tubs, grills and components for outdoor kitchens, that enhance consumers’ use and enjoyment of outdoor living spaces.

We currently have over 600 product lines and approximately 50 product categories. Based on our 2020 product classifications, sales for our pool and hot tub chemicals product category represented approximately 10% of total net sales for 2020 and 12% of total net sales in 2019 and 2018. No other product categories accounted for 10% or more of total net sales in any of the last three fiscal years.
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We continue to identify new related product categories, and we typically introduce new categories each year in select markets.  We then evaluate the performance in these markets and focus on those product categories that we believe exhibit the best long-term growth potential. We expect to realize continued sales growth for these types of product offerings by expanding the number of locations that offer these products, increasing the number of products offered at certain locations and continuing a modest broadening of these product offerings on a company-wide basis.

Recent regulation passed by the U.S. Department of Energy mandates all new and replacement motors and pumps sold for swimming pools must meet certain compliance regulations by July 2021. We expect to see minimal impact from this change until mid-way through the 2021 season. New product technology provides opportunities not only for improved energy efficiency but also new enticements for leisure activities. Smart controls provide growth opportunities as most existing swimming pools run on mechanical time clocks. Major equipment manufacturers have developed and will continue to develop more retrofit kits that allow homeowners to interact with their pools or hot tubs through their smartphones. Robotic cleaners offer consumers a more efficient option for maintaining their swimming pools. We see each of these developments as significant growth opportunities. We offer a growing selection of energy-efficient and environmentally preferred products, which supports sustainability and helps our customers save energy, water and money. Our green technology products include variable speed pumps, LED pool and hot tub lights and high-efficiency heat pumps.

Over the last several years, we have increased our product offerings and service abilities related to commercial swimming pools. We consider the commercial market to be a key growth opportunity as we focus more attention on providing products to customers who service large commercial installations such as hotels, universities and community recreational facilities. While we are leveraging our existing networks and relationships to grow this market, in 2017, we also acquired Lincoln Equipment, Inc., a national distributor of equipment and supplies to commercial and institutional swimming pool customers. Sales to commercial customers declined in 2020 due to COVID-19 related closures and the decline in both business and leisure travel. We expect commercial sales to improve as COVID-19 pandemic conditions ease.

In 2020, the sale of maintenance and minor repair products (non-discretionary) accounted for almost 60% of our sales and gross profits, while just over 40% of our sales and gross profits were derived from the refurbishment, replacement, construction and installation (equipment, materials, plumbing, electrical, etc.) of swimming pools (partially discretionary). During the economic downturn, which spanned from late 2006 to early 2010 and reached its low point in 2009, sales of maintenance and minor repair products had increased to approximately 70% of our sales and gross profits due to the significant declines in new pool construction and deferred remodeling and replacement activity. The current trend reflects a partial shift back toward a greater percentage of our sales coming from major refurbishment and replacement products due to the recovery of these activities since levels reached their historic low point in 2009.

Post-2009, we experienced product and customer mix changes, including a shift in consumer spending to some higher value, lower margin products such as variable speed pumps and high efficiency heaters. In 2020, we experienced higher sales of lower margin, big-ticket items, such as pool equipment and in-ground and above-ground pools. These products positively contribute to our sales and gross profit growth but negatively impact our gross margin. We expect continued demand for these products, but believe our efforts in various pricing and sourcing initiatives, including growth in our higher margin private label and exclusive products (PLEX) and our expansion of building materials product offerings, have helped offset these gross margin declines and will lead to somewhat flat or slightly lower gross margin trends over the next few years.

Operating Strategy

We distribute swimming pool supplies, equipment and related leisure products domestically through our SCP and Superior networks and internationally through our SCP network. We adopted the strategy of operating two distinct distribution networks within the U.S. swimming pool market primarily to offer our customers a choice of distinctive product selections, locations and service personnel.

We distribute irrigation and related products through our Horizon network and tile, decking materials and interior pool finish products through our NPT network, as well as through SCP and Superior networks. We evaluate our sales centers based on their performance relative to predetermined standards that include both financial and operational measures.  Our corporate support groups provide our field operations with various services, such as developing and coordinating customer and vendor related programs, human resources support, information systems support and expert resources to help them achieve their goals.  We believe our incentive programs and feedback tools, along with the competitive nature of our internal networks, stimulate and enhance employee performance.

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Distribution

Our sales centers are located within population centers near customer concentrations, typically in industrial, commercial or mixed-use zones.  Customers may pick up products at any sales center location, or we may deliver products to their premises or job sites via our trucks or third-party carriers.

Our sales centers maintain well-stocked inventories to meet our customers’ immediate needs.  We utilize warehouse management technology to optimize receiving, inventory control, picking, packing and shipping functions. For additional information regarding our inventory management, see Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Critical Accounting Estimates - Inventory Obsolescence,” of this Form 10-K.

We also operate four centralized shipping locations (CSLs) in the United States that redistribute products we purchase in bulk quantities to our sales centers or, in some cases, directly to customers.  Our CSLs are regional locations that carry a wide range of traditional swimming pool, irrigation and landscape products and related construction products.  

Purchasing and Suppliers

We enjoy good relationships with our suppliers, who generally offer competitive pricing, return policies and promotional allowances.  It is customary in our industry for certain manufacturers to manage their shipments by offering seasonal terms to qualifying purchasers such as Pool Corporation, which are referred to as early buy purchases.  These early buy purchases typically allow us to place orders in the fall at a modest discount, take delivery of product during the off-season months and pay for these purchases in the spring or early summer.

Our preferred vendor program encourages our distribution networks to stock and sell products from a smaller number of vendors offering the best overall terms and service to optimize profitability and shareholder return.  We also work closely with our vendors to develop programs and services to better meet the needs of our customers and to concentrate our inventory investments.  These practices, together with a more comprehensive service offering, have positively impacted our selling margins and our returns on inventory investments. See Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Critical Accounting Estimates - Vendor Programs,” for additional information.

We regularly evaluate supplier relationships and consider alternate sourcing to assure competitive cost, service and quality standards.  Our largest suppliers include Pentair plc, Hayward Pool Products, Inc. and Zodiac Pool Systems, Inc., which accounted for approximately 20%, 10% and 9%, respectively, of the cost of products we sold in 2020.

Competition

We are the largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool and related backyard products (based on industry knowledge and available data) and the only truly national wholesale distributor focused on the swimming pool industry in the United States.  We are also one of the leading distributors of irrigation and landscape products in the United States.  We face intense competition from many regional and local distributors in our markets and from one national wholesale distributor of landscape supplies.  We also face competition, both directly and indirectly, from mass market retailers (both store-based and internet) and large pool supply retailers who primarily buy directly from manufacturers.

Some geographic markets we serve, particularly the four largest and higher pool density markets of California, Texas, Florida and Arizona, have a greater concentration of competition than others.  Barriers to entry in our industry are relatively low.  We believe that the principal competitive factors in swimming pool and irrigation and landscape supply distribution are:

the breadth and availability of products offered;
the quality and level of customer service, including ease of ordering and product delivery;
the breadth and depth of sales and marketing programs;
consistency and stability of business relationships with customers and suppliers;
competitive product pricing; and
geographic proximity to the customer.

We believe that we generally compete favorably with respect to each of these factors.

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Seasonality and Weather

Our business is highly seasonal. In general, sales and operating income are highest during the second and third quarters, which represent the peak months of swimming pool use, pool and irrigation installation and remodeling and repair activities. Sales are substantially lower during the first and fourth quarters. In 2020, we generated approximately 61% of our net sales and 76% of our operating income in the second and third quarters of the year.

We typically experience a build-up of product inventories and accounts payable during the winter months in anticipation of the peak selling season.  Excluding borrowings to finance acquisitions and share repurchases, our peak borrowing usually occurs during the late spring and summer, primarily because extended terms offered by our suppliers are typically payable in April, May and June, while our peak accounts receivable collections typically occur in June, July and August.

We expect that our quarterly results of operations will continue to fluctuate depending on the timing and amount of revenue contributed by new and acquired sales centers.  Based on our peak summer selling season, we generally open new sales centers and close or consolidate sales centers, when warranted, either in the first quarter before the peak selling season begins or in the fourth quarter after the peak selling season ends.

Weather is one of the principal external factors affecting our business. The table below presents some of the possible effects resulting from various weather conditions.

WeatherPossible Effects
Hot and dryIncreased purchases of chemicals and supplies
  for existing swimming pools
 Increased purchases of above-ground pools and
  irrigation and lawn care products
Unseasonably cool weather or extraordinary amountsFewer pool and irrigation and landscaping
of raininstallations
Decreased purchases of chemicals and supplies
Decreased purchases of impulse items such as
  above-ground pools and accessories
Unseasonably early warming trends in spring/late coolingA longer pool and landscape season, thus positively
trends in fallimpacting our sales
(primarily in the northern half of the U.S. and Canada)  
Unseasonably late warming trends in spring/early coolingA shorter pool and landscape season, thus negatively
trends in fallimpacting our sales
(primarily in the northern half of the U.S. and Canada)  

For discussion regarding the effects seasonality and weather had on our results of operations in 2020 and 2019, see Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Seasonality and Quarterly Fluctuations,” of this Form 10-K.

Government Regulations

Our business is subject to regulation under local fire codes and international, federal, state and local environmental and health and safety requirements, including regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Fire Protection Agency and the International Maritime Organization. Most of these requirements govern the packaging, labeling, handling, transportation, storage and sale of chemicals and fertilizers. We store certain types of chemicals and/or fertilizers at each of our sales centers and the storage of these items is strictly regulated by local fire codes. In addition, we sell algaecides and pest control products that are regulated as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and various state pesticide laws. These laws primarily relate to labeling, annual registration and licensing.

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Human Capital Management

We employed approximately 4,500 people at December 31, 2020. Given the seasonal nature of our business, our peak employment period is the summer and, depending on expected sales levels, we add 200 to 500 employees to our work force to meet seasonal demand. Approximately 90% of our employees are located in the U.S.

We believe that our success is a direct result of the contributions and commitment of our employees. We provide competitive pay and benefits, as well as training and other resources to our employees. Our goal is to be an Employer of Choice through focusing on the engagement, development, retention and health and well‑being of our employees. We have established a set of standard operating procedures to optimize our human capital management function, including hiring and human resource policies, training practices and operational instruction manuals. We focus on the following factors in implementing and developing our human capital strategy:

employee health, safety and wellness;
employee growth and development;
diversity and inclusion; and
employee compensation and benefits.

Employee Health, Safety and Wellness

Our commitment to the health, safety and wellness of our employees ranks at the top of our core fundamental values. Our ultimate goal is to send every employee home each night in the same condition in which they came to work that morning. We aim to achieve zero serious injuries through continued investment in and focus on our core safety programs and injury-reduction initiatives. This effort begins immediately with new employees and is reinforced each day through a focus on safety awareness, risk identification and other essential safety protocols.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken a number of actions to protect the health and well-being of our employees and to reward our employees for their contributions to our success. These actions include providing personal protective equipment, expanding healthcare benefits and re-configuring working spaces and arrangements. We also made efforts to reward our employees by extending paid leave and paying additional discretionary bonuses to our employees for their contributions.

Employee Growth and Development

We strive to be an Employer of Choice by investing in our employees. Our goal is to attract, develop and retain a talented team of people inspired by our mission to provide exceptional value to our customers and suppliers and create exceptional return to our shareholders, while providing exceptional opportunities for our employees. Our success depends on our employees understanding how their work contributes to the company’s overall strategy. We use a variety of channels to facilitate open and direct communication with our employees, including open forums with executives and employee experience surveys.

When our employees succeed, the company succeeds. To help our employees achieve success in their roles, we emphasize continuous training and development opportunities. These include safety and security protocols, updates on new products and service offerings and deployment of technologies. We also provide managerial training to mid-level managers and departmental leaders. This coursework covers topics such as talent review, development of underperforming employees, handling employee misconduct and coaching and success workshops.

We also provide an entry level program to prepare Manager Trainees (MITs) for sales and operations management opportunities. Our MITs are hosted at either our state-of-the-art EDGEucation Center, located in Plano, TX or in a virtual classroom. Our program includes lectures, projects and role play to provide MITs with industry knowledge, leadership skills and the tools necessary to succeed within our organization.

Diversity and Inclusion

We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace that represents the communities in which we work and live. We believe that diversity drives innovation and delivers the best solutions to complex problems, and we are building a culture where differences are welcomed and valued. To achieve this, we are committed to expanding the diversity of our workforce through the hiring, retention and advancement of underrepresented populations. In addition, we support our existing employees with training and development that helps create a more inclusive environment. Our recent initiatives include the establishment of a diversity and inclusiveness team, expanding existing content in core employee development programs and improving our efforts to recruit and hire first-class diverse talent.
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Employee Compensation and Benefits

We strive to provide market-competitive pay, benefits and services to our employees. Our performance-based compensation philosophy is based on rewarding each employee’s individual contributions regardless of gender, race or ethnicity. Our total compensation package includes cash compensation (base salary and incentive or bonus payments), company contributions toward additional benefits (such as health and disability plans), retirement plans with a company match and paid time off. We also offer the opportunity to become a shareholder through equity grants for management and our employee stock purchase plan.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

We are committed to sustainable business practices, which, for us, includes offering eco-friendly products to our customers, closely monitoring our sourcing activities, providing a safe, inclusive work environment for our employees, and being good stewards within the communities we serve. Currently, we are taking steps to trim our carbon footprint and to improve product choices that allow our customers to reduce their environmental impact. Further, we are installing more energy-efficient systems throughout our network and ensuring that our health and wellness programs include affordable, high quality benefits to improve the lives of our employees. We are continually striving to ensure success in our business while protecting resources for future generations. Our sustainability goals include the reduction of greenhouse gases and other harmful air emissions, water conservation, energy conservation and carbon footprint minimization. We continue to improve the ways in which we handle, distribute, transport and dispose of all products, particularly the chemicals and fertilizers that we sell.

We are dedicated to growing the swimming pool industry and have chosen charitable activities to support the swimming pool environment, in addition to our support of other local organizations. We actively encourage our employees to volunteer and engage with their communities through our stewardship committee and supporting charitable organizations. We believe these endeavors will continue to create value for our customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers and communities.

Our employees, managers and officers conduct our business under the direction of our CEO and the oversight of our Board of Directors (our Board) to enhance our long-term value for our stockholders. The core responsibility of our Board is to exercise its fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of our company and our stockholders. In exercising this obligation, our Board and committees perform a number of specific functions, including risk assessment, review and oversight. While management is responsible for the day-to-day management of risk, our Board is responsible for oversight of our risk management programs, ensuring that an appropriate culture of risk management exists within the company, and assisting management in addressing specific risks, such as strategic risks, financial risks, regulatory risks and operational risks.

Intellectual Property

We maintain both domestic and foreign registered trademarks and patents, primarily for our Pool Corporation and Pool Systems Pty. Ltd. (PSL) branded products that are important to our current and future business operations. We also own rights to numerous internet domain names.

Geographic Areas

The table below presents net sales by geographic region, with international sales translated into U.S. dollars at prevailing exchange rates, for the past three fiscal years (in thousands):

 Year Ended December 31,
 202020192018
United States$3,579,990 $2,911,772 $2,720,077 
International356,633 287,745 278,020 
 $3,936,623 $3,199,517 $2,998,097 


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The table below presents net property and equipment by geographic region, with international property and equipment balances translated into U.S. dollars at prevailing exchange rates, for the past three fiscal year ends (in thousands):

 December 31,
 202020192018
United States$100,857 $105,170 $100,905 
International7,384 7,076 6,059 
 $108,241 $112,246 $106,964 


Website Access and Available Information

Our website is www.poolcorp.com. The information on our website is not a part of this document.

Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge on our website at www.poolcorp.com as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such reports with, or furnish them to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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Item 1A.  Risk Factors

Cautionary Statement for Purposes of the “Safe Harbor” Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This report contains forward-looking information that involves risks and uncertainties. Our forward-looking statements express our current expectations or forecasts of possible future results or events, including projections of earnings and other financial performance measures, statements of management’s expectations regarding our plans and objectives and industry, general economic and other forecasts of trends, future dividend payments, share repurchases and other matters. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this filing, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as they occur. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historic or current facts and often use words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “believe,” “will likely result,” “outlook,” “project,” “may,” “can,” “plan,” “target,” “potential,” “should” and other words and expressions of similar meaning.

No assurance can be given that the expected results in any forward-looking statement will be achieved, and actual results may differ materially due to one or more factors. For these statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

Risk Factors

Certain factors that may affect our business and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement are described below. Investors should carefully consider the risks described below in addition to the other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The risks discussed below are not the only risks we face. Other risks or uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently believe are immaterial, may materially affect our business if they occur. Moreover, new risks emerge from time to time. Further, our business may also be affected by additional factors that generally apply to all companies operating in the U.S. and globally, which have not been included.

Risks Relating to Macroeconomic Conditions

The demand for our swimming pool, irrigation, landscape and related outdoor living products may be adversely affected by unfavorable economic conditions.

Consumer discretionary spending affects our sales and is impacted by factors outside of our control, including general economic conditions, the residential housing market, unemployment rates and wage levels, interest rate fluctuations, inflation, disposable income levels, consumer confidence and access to credit. In economic downturns, the demand for swimming pool, irrigation, landscape and related outdoor living products may decline, often corresponding with declines in discretionary consumer spending, the growth rate of pool eligible households and swimming pool construction. Maintenance and repair products and certain replacement and refurbishment products are required to maintain existing swimming pools, and each currently accounts for approximately 60% and 25% of net sales related to our swimming pool business; however, the growth in this portion of our business depends on the expansion of the installed pool base and could also be adversely affected by decreases in construction activities, similar to the trends between late 2006 and early 2010. A weak economy may also cause consumers to defer discretionary replacement and refurbishment activity. Even in generally favorable economic conditions, severe and/or prolonged downturns in the housing market could have a material adverse impact on our financial performance. Such downturns expose us to certain additional risks, including but not limited to the risk of customer closures or bankruptcies, which could shrink our potential customer base and inhibit our ability to collect on those customers’ receivables.

We believe that homeowners’ access to consumer credit is a critical factor enabling the purchase of new pools, irrigation systems and outdoor living products. Between late 2006 and early 2010, the unfavorable economic conditions and downturn in the housing market resulted in significant tightening of credit markets, which limited the ability of consumers to access financing for new swimming pools and irrigation systems. Although we have seen improvement since 2010, tightening consumer credit could prevent consumers from obtaining financing for pool, irrigation and related outdoor projects, which could negatively impact our sales of construction-related products.

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The COVID-19 pandemic and associated responses could adversely impact our business and results of operations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted economic activity and markets throughout the world. In response, governmental authorities have imposed, and others in the future may impose, stay-at-home orders, shelter-in-place orders, quarantines, executive orders and similar government orders and restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19. Such orders or restrictions have resulted in temporary store closures, limitation of store hours, limitations on the number of people in stores or in warehouses, enhanced requirements on sanitation, social distancing practices and travel restrictions, among other effects. In almost all of our markets, we are designated as an essential business under the relevant state and local regulations and have been allowed to remain open; however, if this changes, it could adversely impact our financial condition and operating results. Our sales in March and April 2020 were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the first quarter of 2020, we recorded impairment charges of $6.9 million related to the pandemic. For additional information, see Note 3 of our “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K. During 2020, there were declines followed by resurgences of COVID-19 cases throughout the U.S., and cases generally rose during the fourth quarter. In December 2020, the first COVID-19 vaccines were approved for use in the U.S., and the early stages of distribution of the vaccine are in process as of the date of this report. Recently, variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been identified in the U.S. and elsewhere, and information about them is rapidly emerging, including how easily they might spread, whether they could cause more severe illness, and whether currently authorized vaccines will protect against them. Accordingly, COVID-19 may have negative impacts on our business in the future, and any future adverse impacts on our business may be worse than we anticipate. Impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with heightened demand, could also adversely impact our supply chain, making it difficult to source and receive products needed to keep our customers adequately supplied. The ultimate impact will depend on the severity and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and any future resurgences and actions taken by governmental authorities and other third parties in response, including the distribution and acceptance of vaccines, each of which is uncertain, rapidly changing and difficult to predict. In addition, our recent growth rates driven by home-centric trends influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic may not be sustainable and may not be indicative of future growth rates.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry

We are susceptible to adverse weather conditions.

Given the nature of our business, weather is one of the principal external factors affecting our business and the effect of seasonality has a significant impact on our results. In 2020, we generated approximately 61% of our net sales and 76% of our operating income in the second and third quarters of the year. These quarters represent the peak months of swimming pool use, pool and irrigation installation and remodeling and repair activities. Unseasonably late warming trends in the spring or early cooling trends in the fall can shorten the length of the pool season. Also, unseasonably cool weather or extraordinary rainfall during the peak season can have an adverse impact on demand due to decreased swimming pool use, installation and maintenance, as well as decreased irrigation installations. While warmer weather conditions favorably impact our sales, global warming trends and other significant climate changes can create more variability in the short term or lead to other unfavorable weather conditions that could adversely impact our sales or operations. Drought conditions or water management initiatives may lead to municipal ordinances related to water use restrictions. Such restrictions could result in decreased pool and irrigation system installations which could negatively impact our sales.

Certain extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, tropical storms and wildfires may impact our ability to deliver our services or cause damage to our facilities. As a consequence of these or other catastrophic or uncharacteristic events, we may experience interruption to our operations, increased costs or losses of property, equipment or inventory, which would adversely affect our revenue and profitability.

For a discussion regarding seasonality and weather, see Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Seasonality and Quarterly Fluctuations,” of this Form 10-K.

Our distribution business is highly dependent on our ability to maintain favorable relationships with suppliers.

As a distribution company, maintaining favorable relationships with our suppliers is critical to our success. We believe that we add considerable value to the swimming pool and irrigation supply chains by purchasing products from a large number of manufacturers and distributing the products to a highly fragmented customer base on conditions that are more favorable than these customers could obtain on their own. We believe that we currently enjoy good relationships with our suppliers, who generally offer us competitive pricing, return policies and promotional allowances. However, any failure to maintain favorable relationships with our suppliers could have an adverse effect on our business.

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Our largest suppliers are Pentair plc, Hayward Pool Products, Inc. and Zodiac Pool Systems, Inc., which accounted for approximately 20%, 10% and 9%, respectively, of the costs of products we sold in 2020. A decision by our largest suppliers, acting individually or in concert, to sell their products directly to retailers or other end users of their products, bypassing distribution companies like ours, would have an adverse effect on our business. Additionally, if our suppliers experience difficulties or disruptions in their operations (including due to the COVID-19 pandemic) or if we lose a single significant supplier due to financial failure or a decision to sell exclusively to retailers or end-use consumers, we may experience increased supply costs or may experience delays in establishing replacement supply sources that meet our quality and control standards and may lose revenue.

We depend on a global network of suppliers to source our products, including our own branded products and products we have exclusive distribution rights to. Product quality, warranty claims or safety concerns could negatively impact our sales and expose us to litigation.

We rely on manufacturers and other suppliers to provide us with the products we distribute. As we increase the number of Pool Corporation and Pool Systems Pty. Ltd. branded products we distribute, our exposure to potential liability claims may increase. Product and service quality issues could negatively impact customer confidence in our brands and our business. If our product and service offerings do not meet applicable safety standards or our customers’ expectations regarding safety or quality, we could experience lost sales and increased costs and be exposed to legal, financial and reputational risks, as well as governmental enforcement actions. Actual, potential or perceived product safety concerns, including health-related concerns, could damage our reputation and expose us to litigation, as well as government enforcement actions, and result in costly product recalls and other liabilities.

We face intense competition both from within our industry and from other leisure product alternatives.

Within our industry, we directly compete against various regional and local distributors as they compete against our customers for the business of pool owners and other end-use customers. We indirectly compete against mass market retailers and large pool or irrigation supply retailers as they purchase the great majority of their needs directly from manufacturers, and to a lesser extent with internet retailers, as they purchase the majority of their needs from distributors. Outside of our industry, we compete indirectly with alternative suppliers of big ticket consumer discretionary products, such as boat and motor home distributors, and with other companies who rely on discretionary homeowner expenditures, such as home remodelers. New competitors may emerge as there are low barriers to entry in our industry, which has led to highly competitive markets consisting of various-sized entities, ranging from small or local operators to large regional businesses. Given the density and demand for pool products, some geographic markets that we serve also tend to have a higher concentration of competitors than others, particularly California, Texas, Florida and Arizona. These states encompass our four largest markets and represented approximately 54% of our net sales in 2020.

More aggressive competition by store- and internet-based mass merchants and large pool or irrigation supply retailers could adversely affect our sales.
 
Mass market retailers today carry a limited range of, and devote a limited amount of shelf space to, merchandise and products targeted to our industry. Historically, mass market retailers have generally expanded by adding new stores and product breadth, but their product offering of pool and irrigation related products has remained relatively constant. Should store‑ and internet-based mass market retailers increase their focus on the pool or irrigation industries, or increase the breadth of their pool and irrigation and related product offerings, they may become a more significant competitor for our direct customers and end-use consumers, which could have an adverse impact on our business. We may face additional competitive pressures if large pool or irrigation supply retailers look to expand their customer base to compete more directly within the distribution channel.

We depend on our ability to attract, develop and retain highly qualified personnel.

We consider our employees to be the foundation for our growth and success. As such, our future success depends in large part on our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel. This includes succession planning related to our executive officers and key management personnel. If we are unable to attract and retain key personnel, our operating results could be adversely affected.

Given the seasonal nature of our business, we may hire additional employees during the summer months, including seasonal and part-time employees, who generally are not employed during the off-season. If we are unable to attract and hire additional personnel during the peak season, our operating results could be negatively impacted.

14


Past growth may not be indicative of future growth.

Historically, we have experienced substantial sales growth through organic market share gains, new sales center openings and acquisitions that have increased our size, scope and geographic distribution. Our various business strategies and initiatives, including our growth initiatives, are subject to business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control. While we contemplate continued growth through internal expansion and acquisitions, no assurance can be made as to our ability to:

penetrate new markets;
generate sufficient cash flows to support expansion plans and general operating activities;
obtain financing;
identify appropriate acquisition candidates and successfully integrate acquired businesses;
maintain favorable supplier arrangements and relationships; and
identify and divest assets which do not continue to create value consistent with our objectives.

If we do not manage these potential difficulties successfully, our operating results could be adversely affected.

Our results in 2020 were positively impacted by home-centric trends resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. These trends may not continue, or may reverse, which could adversely impact our results of operations. In addition, in recent years our customers have had difficulty employing a sufficient number of qualified individuals to keep up with the demand for pool maintenance, refurbishment and installation. If this trend continues or accelerates, our results of operations could be negatively impacted.

We are subject to inventory management risks. Insufficient inventory may result in lost sales opportunities or delayed revenue, while excess inventory may negatively impact our gross margin.

We balance the need to maintain inventory levels that are sufficient to ensure competitive lead times against the risk of inventory obsolescence due to changing customer or consumer requirements and fluctuating commodity prices. In order to successfully manage our inventories, we must estimate demand from our customers and purchase products that substantially correspond to consumer demand. If we overestimate demand and purchase too much of a particular product, we face a risk that the price of that product will fall, leaving us with inventory that we cannot sell at normal profit margins. In addition, we may have to write down such inventory if we are unable to sell it for its recorded value. If we underestimate demand and purchase insufficient quantities of products, inventory shortages could result in delayed revenue or loss of sales opportunities altogether as potential customers turn to competitors’ products that are readily available. If we maintain insufficient inventory levels and prices rise for these products, we could be forced to purchase products at higher prices and forego profitability in order to meet customer demand. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be negatively impacted if either or both of these situations occur frequently or in large volumes.

The cost of chemical products could increase our cost of sales and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Based on our 2020 product classifications, sales for our pool and hot tub chemicals product category represented approximately 10% of total net sales for 2020 and 12% of total net sales in 2019 and 2018. Our principal chemical products are granular chlorine compounds and liquid chlorine, which are commodity materials. The prices of these chemical products are a function of, among other things, manufacturing capacity and demand. We have generally passed through chlorine price increases to our customers. The price of granular chlorine compounds and liquid chlorine may increase in the future, and we may not be able to pass on any such increase to our customers. We purchase chlorine products primarily from the largest domestic suppliers. The alternate sources of supply we currently view as reliable may ultimately be unable to supply us with all of our principal chemical products, including chlorine products. Additionally, significant price fluctuations or shortages in our principal chemical products may increase our cost of sales, and our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

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Risks Relating to Legal, Regulatory and Compliance Matters

The nature of our business subjects us to compliance with employment, environmental, health, transportation, safety and other governmental regulations. Our costs of doing business could increase as a result of changes in, expanded enforcement of, or adoption of new federal, state or local laws and regulations.

We are subject to regulation under federal, state, local and international employment, environmental, health, transportation and safety requirements, which govern such things as packaging, labeling, handling, transportation, storage and sale of chemicals and fertilizers. These laws and regulations, and related interpretations and enforcement activity, may change as a result of a variety of factors, including political, economic or social events. Changes in, expanded enforcement of, or adoption of new federal, state or local laws and regulations governing minimum wage or living wage requirements, the classification of exempt and non-exempt employees or other wage, labor or workplace regulations could increase our costs of doing business and adversely impact our results of operations.

We sell algaecides and pest control products that are regulated as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and various state pesticide laws. These laws primarily relate to labeling, annual registration and licensing. Management has processes in place to facilitate and support our compliance with these requirements. However, failure to comply with these laws and regulations may result in investigations, the assessment of administrative, civil and criminal fines, damages, seizures, disgorgements, penalties or the imposition of injunctive relief. Moreover, compliance with such laws and regulations in the future could prove to be costly. Although we presently do not expect to incur any capital or other expenditures relating to regulatory matters in amounts that may be material to us, we may be required to make such expenditures in the future. These laws and regulations have changed substantially and rapidly over the last 25 years and we anticipate that there will be continuing changes.

The clear trend in environmental, health, transportation and safety regulations is to place more restrictions and limitations on activities that impact the environment, such as the use and handling of chemicals. Increasingly, strict restrictions and limitations have resulted in higher operating costs for us and it is possible that the costs of compliance with such laws and regulations will continue to increase. Our attempts to anticipate future regulatory requirements that might be imposed and our plans to remain in compliance with changing regulations and to minimize the costs of such compliance may not be as effective as we anticipate.

We store chemicals, fertilizers and other combustible materials that involve fire, safety and casualty risks.

We store chemicals and fertilizers, including certain combustibles and oxidizing compounds, at our sales centers. A fire, explosion or flood affecting one of our facilities could give rise to fire, safety and casualty losses and related liability claims. We maintain what we believe is prudent insurance protection. However, we cannot guarantee that our insurance coverage will be adequate to cover future claims that may arise or that we will be able to maintain adequate insurance in the future at rates we consider reasonable. Successful claims for which we are not fully insured may adversely affect our working capital and profitability. In addition, changes in the insurance industry have generally led to higher insurance costs and decreased availability of coverage.

We conduct business internationally, which exposes us to additional risks.

Our ability to successfully conduct operations in, and source products and materials from, international markets is affected by many of the same risks we face in our U.S. operations, as well as unique costs and difficulties of managing international operations. Our international operations, which accounted for 9% of our total net sales in 2020, expose us to certain additional risks, including:

difficulty in staffing international subsidiary operations;
different political economic and regulatory conditions;
local laws and customs;
currency fluctuations;
adverse tax consequences; and
dependence on other economies.

For foreign-sourced products, we may be subject to certain trade restrictions that would prevent us from obtaining products. There is also a greater risk that we may not be able to access products in a timely and efficient manner. Fluctuations in other factors relating to international trade, such as tariffs, transportation costs and inflation are additional risks for our international operations. 
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Changes in tax laws and accounting standards related to tax matters have caused, and may in the future cause, fluctuations in our effective tax rate.

Taxation and tax policy changes, tax rate changes, new tax laws, revised tax law interpretations and changes in accounting standards and guidance related to tax matters may cause fluctuations in or adversely affect our effective tax rate. Our effective tax rate may also be impacted by changes in the geographic mix of our earnings.

In the first quarter of 2017, we adopted Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting, on a prospective basis. Our projections of financial statement impacts related to ASU 2016-09 are subject to several assumptions which can vary significantly, including our estimated share price and the period that our employees will exercise vested stock options. Excess tax benefits or deficiencies recognized under ASU 2016-09 vary from quarter to quarter and past results may not be indicative of future results.

Risks Relating to Technology, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy

We rely on information technology systems to support our business operations. A significant disturbance or breach of our technological infrastructure could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, failure to maintain the security of confidential information could damage our reputation and expose us to litigation.

Information technology supports several aspects of our business, including among others, product sourcing, pricing, customer service, transaction processing, financial reporting, collections and cost management.  Our ability to operate effectively on a day-to-day basis and accurately report our results depends on a solid technological infrastructure, which is inherently susceptible to internal and external threats. We are vulnerable to interruption by fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunication failures, internet failures, security breaches and other catastrophic events. Exposure to various types of cyber-attacks such as malware, computer viruses, worms or other malicious acts, as well as human error, could also potentially disrupt our operations or result in a significant interruption in the delivery of our goods and services.

We are making, and expect to continue to make, investments in technology to maintain and update our computer systems. Implementing significant system changes increases the risk of computer system disruption. The potential problems and interruptions associated with implementing technology initiatives, as well as providing training and support for those initiatives, could disrupt or reduce our operational efficiency. Advances in computer and software capabilities, encryption technology and other discoveries increase the complexity of our technological environment, including how each interact with our various software platforms. Such advances could delay or hinder our ability to process transactions or could compromise the integrity of our data, resulting in a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. We also may experience occasional system interruptions and delays that make our information systems unavailable or slow to respond, including the interaction of our information systems with those of third parties. A lack of sophistication or reliability of our information systems could adversely impact our operations and customer service and could require major repairs or replacements, resulting in significant costs and foregone revenue.
The European Union and other international regulators, as well as state governments, have recently enacted or enhanced data privacy regulations, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, and other governments are considering establishing similar or stronger protections. These regulations impose certain obligations for handling specified personal information in our systems and for apprising individuals of the information we have collected about them. Despite our best efforts to comply, any noncompliance could result in incurring potential substantial penalties and reputational damage.

Our numerous procedures and protocols designed to mitigate cybersecurity risks (including processes to timely notify appropriate personnel for assessment and resolution and company-wide training programs), our investments in information technology security and our updates to our business continuity plan may not prevent or effectively mitigate adverse consequences from cybersecurity risks. The failure to maintain security over and prevent unauthorized access to our data, our customers’ personal information, including credit card information, or data belonging to our suppliers, could put us at a competitive disadvantage. Such a breach could result in damage to our reputation and subject us to potential litigation, liability, fines and penalties, resulting in a possible material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

17


General Risk Factors

We may be adversely affected by changes in LIBOR reporting practices or the method in which LIBOR is determined.

Borrowings under our unsecured syndicated senior credit facility, term facility, accounts receivable securitization facility and our derivatives instruments are indexed to the London Inter-bank Offering Rate (“LIBOR”). In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority (the regulatory authority over LIBOR) stated they will plan for a phase out of regulatory oversight of LIBOR after 2021 to allow for an orderly transition to an alternative reference rate. On November 30, 2020, ICE Benchmark Administration, the administrator of LIBOR, with the support of the United States Federal Reserve and the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, announced plans to consult on ceasing publication of USD LIBOR on December 31, 2021 for only the one week and two month USD LIBOR tenors and on June 30, 2023 for all other USD LIBOR tenors. While this announcement extends the transition period to June 2023, the United States Federal Reserve concurrently issued a statement advising banks to stop new USD LIBOR issuances by the end of 2021. The full impact of the transition away from LIBOR, including the discontinuance of LIBOR publication and the adoption of a replacement rate for LIBOR, remains unclear. These changes may have an adverse impact on our financing costs and any floating rate indebtedness we may incur.

Disruptions from natural or man-made disasters or extreme weather, public safety issues, geopolitical events and security issues, labor or trade disputes and similar events could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Natural or man-made disasters or extreme weather (including as a result of climate change), public safety issues, geopolitical events and security issues (including terrorist attacks, armed hostilities or insurrections), labor or trade disputes and similar events can lead to uncertainty and have a negative impact on demand for our products, in addition to causing disruptions to our supply chain. Discretionary spending is generally adversely affected during times of economic, social or political uncertainty. The potential for natural or man-made disasters or extreme weather, geopolitical events and security issues, labor or trade disputes and similar events could create these types of uncertainties and negatively impact our business in ways that cannot presently be predicted.

Item 1B.  Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

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Item 2.  Properties

We lease the Pool Corporation corporate offices, which consist of approximately 60,000 square feet of office space in Covington, Louisiana, from an entity in which we have a 50% ownership interest. We own five sales center facilities in Florida, two in Texas, one in Alabama, one in California, one in Georgia and one in Tennessee. We lease all of our other properties and the majority of our leases have three to seven year terms. As of December 31, 2020, we had twenty leases with remaining terms longer than seven years that expire between 2028 and 2035.

Most of our leases contain renewal options, some of which involve rent increases. In addition to minimum rental payments, which are set at competitive rates, certain leases require reimbursement for taxes, maintenance and insurance.

Our sales centers range in size from approximately 2,000 square feet to 70,000 square feet and generally consist of warehouse, counter, display and office space.  Our centralized shipping locations (CSLs) range in size from approximately 103,000 square feet to 185,000 square feet.

We believe that our facilities are well maintained, suitable for our business and occupy sufficient space to meet our operating needs. As part of our normal business, we regularly evaluate sales center performance and site suitability and may relocate a sales center or consolidate two locations if a sales center is redundant in a market, underperforming or otherwise deemed unsuitable. We do not believe that any single lease is material to our operations.

The table below summarizes the changes in our sales centers during the year ended December 31, 2020:

Network12/31/19New
Locations
Closed/Consolidated
Locations (1)
Acquired
Locations
12/31/20
SCP176 (1)186 
Superior72 — — 73 
Horizon67 — (1)10 76 
NPT (2)
17 — — 21 
Total Domestic332 (2)23 356 
SCP International41 — (1)42 
Total373 (3)25 398 

(1)Consolidated sales centers are those locations where we expect to transfer the majority of the existing business to our nearby sales center locations.
(2)In addition to the stand-alone NPT sales centers, there are over 100 SCP and Superior locations that have consumer showrooms and serve as stocking locations that feature NPT brand tile and composite finish products.


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The table below identifies the number of sales centers in each state, territory or country by distribution network as of December 31, 2020:
LocationSCPSuperiorHorizonNPTTotal
United States    
California28 25 17 76 
Florida37 13 56 
Texas26 16 55 
Arizona26 
Georgia11 
Nevada
New York— — — 
Tennessee— — 
New Jersey— — 
North Carolina— 
Pennsylvania— 
Virginia— 
Washington— — 
Alabama— — 
Indiana— — 
Louisiana— — — 
Oregon— — 
Illinois— — 
Missouri— — 
Ohio— — 
Oklahoma— 
South Carolina— — 
Arkansas— — — 
Colorado— — 
Idaho— — 
Connecticut— — — 
Kansas— — — 
Massachusetts— — — 
Michigan— — — 
Minnesota— — 
Mississippi— — — 
Hawaii— — — 
Iowa— — — 
Kentucky— — — 
Maryland— — — 
Nebraska— — — 
New Mexico— — — 
Puerto Rico— — — 
Utah— — — 
Wisconsin— — — 
Total United States186 73 76 21 356 
International    
Canada16 — — — 16 
France— — — 
Australia— — — 
Mexico— — — 
Portugal— — — 
Spain— — — 
Belgium— — — 
Croatia— — — 
Germany— — — 
Italy— — — 
United Kingdom— — — 
Total International42 — — — 42 
Total228 73 76 21 398 

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Item 3.  Legal Proceedings

From time to time, we are subject to various claims and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business, including product liability, personal injury, commercial, contract and employment matters. While the outcome of any litigation is inherently unpredictable, based on currently available facts, we do not believe that the ultimate resolution of any of these matters will have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

Item 4.  Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

21


PART II.

Item 5.  Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the trading symbol “POOL.”  On February 19, 2021, there were approximately 481 holders of record of our common stock.  

We initiated quarterly dividend payments to our shareholders in the second quarter of 2004 and we have continued payments in each subsequent quarter. Our Board has increased the dividend amount fifteen times, including in the fourth quarter of 2004, annually in the second quarters of 2005 through 2008 and in the second quarters of 2011 through 2020.  Our Board may declare future dividends at their discretion, after considering various factors, including our earnings, capital requirements, financial position, contractual restrictions and other relevant business considerations. For a description of restrictions on dividends in our Credit Facility, Term Facility and Receivables Facility, see Note 5 of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K. We cannot assure shareholders or potential investors that dividends will be declared or paid any time in the future if our Board determines that there is a better use of our funds.

Stock Performance Graph

The information included under the caption “Stock Performance Graph” in this Item 5 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is not deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the 1934 Act) or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the 1934 Act, and will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or the 1934 Act, except to the extent we specifically incorporate it by reference into such a filing.

The following graph compares the total shareholder return on our common stock for the last five fiscal years with the total return on the S&P 500 Index, S&P MidCap 400 Index and the Nasdaq Index for the same period, in each case assuming the investment of $100 on December 31, 2015 and the reinvestment of all dividends. Our common stock was added to the S&P 500 Index in October 2020. We believe the S&P 500 Index includes companies with market capitalization comparable to ours. Additionally, we chose the S&P 500 Index for comparison, as opposed to an industry index, because we do not believe that we can reasonably identify a peer group or a published industry or line-of-business index that contains companies in a similar line of business. Consistent with our prior year presentation, we have also included the S&P MidCap 400 Index.

pool-20201231_g3.jpg
22


Base
Period
Indexed Returns
Years Ending
Company / Index12/31/1512/31/1612/31/1712/31/1812/31/1912/31/20
Pool Corporation$100.00 $130.87 $164.60 $190.89 $275.84 $488.12 
S&P 500 Index100.00 111.96 136.40 130.42 171.49 203.04 
S&P MidCap 400 Index100.00 120.74 140.35 124.80 157.49 179.00 
Nasdaq Index100.00 108.87 141.13 137.12 187.44 271.64 

Purchases of Equity Securities

The table below summarizes the repurchases of our common stock in the fourth quarter of 2020:

Period
Total Number
of Shares Purchased (1)
Average
Price
Paid per
Share
Total Number of
Shares Purchased
as Part of Publicly
Announced Plan
Maximum Approximate
Dollar Value of Shares
That May Yet be Purchased
Under the Plan (2)
October 1 – October 31, 202017 $349.83 — $176,910,333 
November 1 – November 30, 2020— $— — $176,910,333 
December 1 – December 31, 2020— $— — $176,910,333 
Total17 $349.83 —  

(1)These shares may include shares of our common stock surrendered to us by employees in order to satisfy minimum tax withholding obligations in connection with certain exercises of employee stock options or lapses upon vesting of restrictions on previously restricted share awards, and/or to cover the exercise price of such options granted under our share-based compensation plans. There were 17 shares surrendered for this purpose in the fourth quarter of 2020.
(2)As of February 19, 2021, our total authorization remaining was $172.0 million.


Item 6.  Selected Financial Data

Not applicable.
 
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Item 7.  Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

For a discussion of our base business calculations, see the RESULTS OF OPERATIONS section below.

2020 FINANCIAL OVERVIEW

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a pandemic, and on March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency. States and cities have taken various measures in response to COVID-19, including mandating the closure of certain businesses and encouraging or requiring citizens to avoid large gatherings. Most of our North American operations are and have been continuously open for business as we are designated as an essential business in almost all of our markets. Our operations in Europe closed for a short period during the first half of 2020 in France, Spain and Italy, in order to comply with local authorities’ orders. Our products are used to maintain and protect outdoor commercial, residential and municipal environments through chemically-balanced, virus and bacteria-free swimming pool water. We also supply products used in the prevention of runoff, flood, fire and other natural disasters. These products are essential to the health and safety of the general public. As a result, our supply chain generally remains intact, with our customers continuing to meet end-user needs.

The health, safety and security of our employees has been, and remains, one of our highest priorities. We have adapted our operations and implemented a number of measures to facilitate a safer sales center environment for both our customers and employees, which includes following best practices and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We implemented enhanced hygiene and sanitation practices at our sales centers and at our corporate offices. In limited instances, we have had to close facilities in whole or in part as a result of government regulations, as well as positive or presumed positive results from COVID-19 testing. The direct impact of any closures did not have a material impact on our operations.

Beginning in the middle of March 2020, when stay-at-home orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic were initially issued, we experienced sales declines across most markets. However, as stay-at-home restrictions eased in late April through early May, our business not only rebounded, but accelerated. We experienced unprecedented demand as families spent more time at home and sought out opportunities to create or expand existing home-based outdoor living and entertainment spaces, resulting in broad sales gains across nearly all of our product categories and geographies. While the short-term impact of this trend has had a positive impact on our business, it is unclear what the long-term impact will be. In addition, governmental restrictions have had a material impact on some of our customers, limiting their ability to operate in certain geographies from mid-March into mid-May. While these restrictions were lifted, new stay-at-home orders or other government mandates could have a material impact on our results.

Our balance sheet is strong with low leverage and sufficient access to additional capital. Given the seasonality of our business, our warehouses were stocked with inventory in preparation for the upcoming peak season prior to the implementation of most stay-at-home orders. As a result, the limited vendor supply interruptions experienced in 2020 have had a minimal impact on our business. Supply disruptions have largely been limited to categories with the greatest demand, including heat-related equipment and above-ground swimming pools and have not been material to our business. We continue to work closely with our suppliers to maintain the flow of essential products to provide customers with the materials they need to serve their communities.

Given the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we began taking steps in April to reduce both capital expenditures and operating costs. As a result, capital expenditures in 2020 were $21.7 million, which is approximately 65% of 2019 capital expenditures. We specifically reduced operating costs for labor, fuel, utilities, advertising, meetings, travel and entertainment. As our business outlook and market trends improved since the implementation of these cost-saving measures, we continue to assess our discretionary spending.

The impact of the ongoing pandemic on our business and financial results will continue to vary by location and depend on numerous evolving factors that we are not able to accurately predict. These factors include the duration and scope of the pandemic, global economic conditions during and after the pandemic, governmental actions that have been taken (or may be taken in the future) in response to the pandemic and changes in customer and supplier behavior in response to the pandemic.

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Financial Results

Net sales increased 23% to $3.9 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to $3.2 billion in 2019, while base business sales increased 22%. We realized broad sales gains across nearly all product categories. Our sales benefited from greater swimming pool usage and high demand for residential pool products, which was driven by home-centric trends influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and aided by warmer weather conditions during the year.

Gross profit reached $1.1 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020, a 22% increase over gross profit of $924.9 million in 2019. Gross margin declined 20 basis points to 28.7% in 2020 compared to 28.9% in 2019. The decline in gross margin is primarily due to sales of lower margin, big-ticket items, such as pool equipment and in-ground and above-ground pools, which comprised a larger portion of our product mix in 2020 compared to 2019.

Selling and administrative expenses (operating expenses) increased 14%, or $83.2 million, to $666.9 million in 2020, up from $583.7 million in 2019, with base business operating expenses up 12% over 2019. The increase in operating expenses primarily reflects a $43.9 million increase in performance-based compensation from $24.3 million in 2019 to $68.2 million in 2020 and expenses of $16.9 million from recently acquired businesses. Excluding $6.9 million of impairment charges we recorded in the first quarter of 2020 and performance-based compensation in both periods, adjusted operating expenses increased 6%, reflecting growth-driven labor and freight expenses and greater facility-related costs partially offset by lower discretionary spending.

Operating income for the year increased 36% to $464.0 million, up from $341.2 million in 2019. Operating margin increased 110 basis points to 11.8% in 2020 compared to 10.7% in 2019.

We recorded a $28.6 million, or $0.70 per diluted share, benefit from Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to a benefit of $23.5 million, or $0.57 per diluted share, realized in 2019.

Net income increased 40% to $366.7 million in 2020 compared to $261.6 million in 2019. Earnings per share increased 40% to a record $8.97 per diluted share compared to $6.40 per diluted share in 2019. Excluding the impact of non-cash impairments, net of tax, in 2020 and the impact from ASU 2016-09 in both periods, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 44% to $8.42 in 2020 compared to $5.83 in 2019. See the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures included in RESULTS OF OPERATIONS below.

Financial Position and Liquidity

Cash provided by operations was $397.6 million in 2020, which helped fund the following initiatives:

payments of $124.6 million for acquisitions;
net debt repayments of $95.8 million;
quarterly cash dividend payments to shareholders, totaling $91.9 million for the year;
share repurchases, totaling $76.2 million for the year;
net capital expenditures of $21.7 million; and
growth in net working capital of $21.1 million.

Total net receivables, including pledged receivables, increased 28% compared to December 31, 2019, reflecting December sales growth and partially offset by improved collections. Our allowance for doubtful accounts was $4.8 million at December 31, 2020 and $5.5 million at December 31, 2019. Our days sales outstanding ratio, as calculated on a trailing four quarters basis, was 26.5 days at December 31, 2020 and 29.0 days at December 31, 2019.

Inventory levels grew 11% to $781.0 million at December 31, 2020 compared to $702.3 million at December 31, 2019, reflecting business growth and inventory from acquired businesses of $42.2 million. Our reserve for inventory obsolescence was $11.4 million at December 31, 2020 compared to $9.0 million at December 31, 2019. Our inventory turns, as calculated on a trailing four quarters basis, were 3.8 times at December 31, 2020 and 3.2 times at December 31, 2019.

Accrued expenses and other current liabilities increased $82.9 million to $143.7 million in 2020, primarily reflecting increases in accrued performance-based compensation, unrealized losses on interest rate swaps and deferred payroll tax payments.

Total debt outstanding of $416.0 million at December 31, 2020 decreased $95.4 million, or 19%, compared to December 31, 2019, as we have utilized our operating cash flows to decrease debt balances.
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Current Trends and Outlook

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, families spent more time at home and sought out opportunities to create or expand existing home-based outdoor living and entertainment spaces, which resulted in an increase in new pool construction and greater expenditures for maintenance and remodeling products. We believe that increased consumer spending on homes, including outdoor living spaces, will continue in 2021 and may have longer term benefits as work-from-home trends persist or increase.

The market environment from June 2009, when the Great Recession ended, until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession began, was characterized by steady economic expansion, the cautious recovery of consumer spending, modest housing recovery and low inflation. However, in terms of homeowners investing in their existing homes, discretionary expenditures, including backyard renovations, have flourished over this time period with steady increases in home values and lack of affordable new homes prompting homeowners to stay in their homes longer and upgrade their home environments, including their backyards. We expect that new pool and irrigation construction levels will continue to grow incrementally, constrained by availability of construction labor, but we believe that consumer investments in outdoor living spaces beyond the swimming pool will generate continued growth over the next several years.

Although some constraints exist around residential construction activities, we believe that we are well positioned to take advantage of both the market expansion and the inherent long term growth opportunities in our industry. Additionally, recent regulation passed by the U.S. Department of Energy mandates all new and replacement motors and pumps for swimming pools must meet certain compliance regulations by July 2021. This mandate, coupled with additional product developments and technological advancements, offers further growth opportunities over the next few years.

In 2020, we benefited from strong pool construction trends as robust demand fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased home investment trends. While we estimate that new pool construction increased from approximately 80,000 units in 2019 to approximately 100,000 new units in 2020, construction levels are still down approximately 55% compared to peak historical levels and down approximately 40% from what we consider normal levels. Favorable weather plays a role in industry growth by accelerating growth in any given year, expanding the number of available construction days, extending the pool season and pool usage and positively impacting demand for discretionary products. Conversely, unfavorable weather impedes growth. In establishing our outlook each year, we base our growth assumptions on normal weather conditions and do not incorporate alternative weather predictions into our guidance. 

We established our initial outlook for 2021 based on reasonable expectations of organic market share growth, ongoing leverage of existing investments in our business and continuous process improvements. For 2021, we expect strong growth in the first half of the year, particularly the first quarter of 2021, due to continued elevated demand influenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the second half of the year, we expect to face tougher year-over-year comparisons and inherent industry capacity constraints, although we remain encouraged by positive industry outlooks.

Impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with heightened demand, could also adversely impact our supply chain, making it difficult to source and receive products needed to keep our customers adequately supplied. We anticipate that we may face product shortages or elevated prices specifically related to Trichlor, a popular sanitizer for pools and hot tubs, as the industry faces constraints resulting from the loss of a major supplier due to a fire in the summer of 2020. Although supply constraints did not have a material impact on our business in 2020, it is difficult to predict the extent to which this could impact our business in 2021.

We expect to continue to gain market share through our comprehensive service and product offerings, which we continually diversify through internal sourcing initiatives and expansion into new markets. We also plan to broaden our geographic presence by opening 8 to 10 new sales centers in 2021 and by making selective acquisitions when appropriate opportunities arise.

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The following summarizes our outlook for 2021:

We expect sales growth of 8% to 12%, impacted by the following factors and assumptions:
normal weather patterns for 2021;
continued elevated demand for residential pool products, driven by home-centric trends influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic;
a benefit from construction backlogs depending on our customers’ building capacity, including the availability of labor, and weather;
estimated 4% to 5% growth from acquisitions completed throughout 2020;
market share gains;
inflationary product cost increases of approximately 2% to 3% (compared to our historical average of 1% to 2%); and
estimated 2% growth in the installed base of pools.

We expect gross margin to decline 20 to 40 basis points for the full year of 2021 compared to the full year of 2020 with gains or relatively neutral gross margin trends in the first half of 2021 and declines in the latter half of 2021.

We expect operating expenses will grow at approximately 60% to 70% of the rate of our gross profit growth, reflecting inflationary increases and incremental costs to support our sales growth expectations, with greater growth in the first half of the year and more modest growth in the back half. The main challenges in achieving this metric include managing people and facility costs in tight labor and real estate markets. However, we continue to see significant opportunity to leverage our existing infrastructure to achieve this goal. We also expect performance-based compensation for the full year of 2021 to normalize and decrease by approximately $30.0 million compared to the full year of 2020.

In 2021, we expect our effective tax rate will approximate 25.5%, excluding the impact of ASU 2016-09. Our effective tax rate is dependent upon our results of operations and may change if actual results are different from our current expectation. Due to ASU 2016-09 requirements, we expect our effective tax rate will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, particularly in periods when employees elect to exercise their vested stock options or when restrictions on share-based awards lapse. Based on our December 31, 2020 stock price, we estimate that we have approximately $4.5 million in unrealized excess tax benefits related to stock options that expire and restricted awards that vest in the first quarter of 2021. We may recognize additional tax benefits related to stock option exercises in 2021 from grants that expire in years after 2021, for which we have not included any expected benefits in our guidance. The estimated impact related to ASU 2016-09 is subject to several assumptions which can vary significantly, including our estimated share price and the period that our employees will exercise vested stock options. We recorded a $28.6 million benefit in our provision for income taxes for the year ended December 31, 2020 related to ASU 2016-09.

We project that 2021 earnings will be in the range of $9.12 to $9.62 per diluted share, including an estimated $0.11 benefit from ASU 2016-09 during the first quarter of 2021. We expect cash provided by operations will approximate net income for fiscal year 2021. We expect to continue to use cash to fund opportunistic share repurchases over the next year. We also expect to use cash for the payment of cash dividends as and when declared by our Board of Directors.

The forward-looking statements in this Current Trends and Outlook section are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including the effects of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the sensitivity of our business to weather conditions, changes in the economy and the housing market, our ability to maintain favorable relationships with suppliers and manufacturers, competition from other leisure product alternatives and mass merchants and other risks detailed in Item 1A of this Form 10-K. Also see “Cautionary Statement for Purposes of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995” prior to the heading “Risk Factors” in Item 1A.


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CRITICAL ACCOUNTING ESTIMATES

Critical accounting estimates are those estimates made in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles that involve a significant level of estimation uncertainty and have had, or are reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations.

Management has discussed the development, selection and disclosure of our critical accounting estimates with the Audit Committee of our Board. Our critical accounting estimates are discussed below, including, to the extent material and reasonably available, the impact such estimates have had, or are reasonably likely to have, on our financial condition or results of operations.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

We maintain an allowance for doubtful accounts based on an estimate of the losses we will incur if our customers do not make required payments. We perform periodic credit evaluations of our customers and typically do not require collateral. Consistent with industry practices, we generally require payment from our North American customers within 30 days, except for sales under early buy programs for which we provide extended payment terms to qualified customers. The extended terms usually require payments in equal installments in April, May and June or May and June, depending on geographic location. Credit losses have generally been within or better than our expectations.

Similar to our business, our customers’ businesses are seasonal. Sales are lowest in the winter months and our past due accounts receivable balance as a percentage of total receivables generally increases during this time. We provide reserves for uncollectible accounts based on our accounts receivable aging. These reserves range from 0.05% for amounts currently due to up to 100% for specific accounts more than 60 days past due.

At the end of each quarter, we perform a reserve analysis of all accounts with balances greater than $20,000 and more than 60 days past due. Additionally, we perform a separate reserve analysis on the balance of our accounts receivables with emphasis on past due accounts. We estimate future losses based upon historical bad debts, customer receivable balances, age of customer receivable balances, customers’ financial conditions and current and forecasted economic trends, including certain trends in the housing market, the availability of consumer credit and general economic conditions (as commonly measured by Gross Domestic Product or GDP). We monitor housing market trends through review of the House Price Index as published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which measures the movement of single-family house prices.

During the year, we write off account balances when we have exhausted reasonable collection efforts and determined that the likelihood of collection is remote. These write-offs are charged against our allowance for doubtful accounts. In the past five years, write-offs have averaged approximately 0.08% of net sales annually.  Write-offs as a percentage of net sales approximated 0.09% in 2020, 0.12% in 2019 and 0.07% in 2018. We expect that write-offs will range from 0.05% to 0.10% of net sales in 2021.

At the end of each fiscal year, we prepare a hindsight analysis by comparing the prior year-end allowance for doubtful accounts balance to (i) current year write-offs and (ii) any significantly aged outstanding receivable balances. Based on our hindsight analysis, we concluded that the prior year allowance was within a range of acceptable estimates and that our estimation methodology is appropriate.

If the balance of the accounts receivable reserve increased or decreased by 20% at December 31, 2020, pretax income would change by approximately $1.0 million and earnings per share would change by approximately $0.02 per diluted share (based on the number of weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the year ended December 31, 2020).

Inventory Obsolescence

Product inventories represent the largest asset on our balance sheet. Our goal is to manage our inventory such that we minimize stock-outs to provide the highest level of service to our customers. To do this, we maintain at each sales center an adequate inventory of stock keeping units (SKUs) with the highest sales volumes. At the same time, we continuously strive to better manage our slower moving classes of inventory, which are not as critical to our customers and thus, inherently turn at slower rates.

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We classify products at the sales center level based on sales at each location over the expected sellable period, which is the previous 12 months for most products, except for special order non-stock items that lack a SKU in our system and products with less than 12 months of usage. Below is a description of these inventory classifications:

new products with less than 12 months usage;
highest sales velocity items, which represent approximately 80% of net sales at the sales center;
lower sales velocity items, which we keep in stock to provide a high level of customer service;
products with no sales for the past 12 months at the local sales center level, excluding special order products not yet delivered to the customer; and
non-stock special order items.

There is little risk of obsolescence for our highest sales velocity items, which represent approximately 80% of net sales at the sales center, because these products generally turn quickly. We establish our reserve for inventory obsolescence based on inventory with lower sales velocity and inventory with no sales for the past 12 months, which we believe represent some exposure to inventory obsolescence, with particular emphasis on SKUs with the least sales over the previous 12 months. The reserve is intended to reflect the value of inventory at net realizable value. We provide a reserve of 5% for inventory with lower sales velocity, inventory with no sales for the past 12 months and non-stock inventory as determined at the sales center level. We also provide an additional 5% reserve for excess lower sales velocity inventory and an additional 45% reserve for excess inventory with no sales for the past 12 months. We determine excess inventory, which is defined as the amount of inventory on hand in excess of the previous 12 months’ usage, on a company-wide basis. We also evaluate whether the calculated reserve provides sufficient coverage of total inventory with no sales for the past 12 months. We have not changed our methodology from prior years.

In evaluating the adequacy of our reserve for inventory obsolescence, we consider a combination of factors, including:

the level of inventory in relation to historical sales by product, including inventory usage by class based on product sales at both the sales center level and on a company-wide basis;
changes in customer preferences or regulatory requirements;
seasonal fluctuations in inventory levels;
geographic location; and
superseded products and new product offerings.

We periodically adjust our reserve for inventory obsolescence as changes occur in the above-identified factors. At the end of each fiscal year, we prepare a hindsight analysis by comparing the prior year-end obsolescence reserve balance to (i) current year inventory write-offs and (ii) the value of products with no sales for the past 12 months that remain in inventory. Based on our hindsight analysis, we concluded that our prior year reserve was within a range of acceptable estimates and that our estimation methodology is appropriate.

If the balance of our inventory reserve increased or decreased by 20% at December 31, 2020, pretax income would change by approximately $2.3 million and earnings per share would change by approximately $0.04 per diluted share (based on the number of weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the year ended December 31, 2020).

Vendor Programs

Many of our vendor arrangements provide for us to receive specified amounts of consideration when we achieve any of a number of measures.  These measures generally relate to the volume level of purchases from our vendors, or our net cost of products sold, and may include negotiated pricing arrangements.  We account for vendor programs as a reduction of the prices of the vendor’s products and therefore a reduction of inventory until we sell the product, at which time we recognize such consideration as a reduction of cost of sales in our income statement.

Throughout the year, we estimate the amount earned based on our expectation of total purchases for the fiscal year relative to the purchase levels that mark our progress toward the attainment of various levels within certain vendor programs. We accrue vendor program benefits on a monthly basis using these estimates provided that we determine they are probable and reasonably estimable. Our estimates for annual purchases, future inventory levels and sales of qualifying products are driven by our sales projections, which can be significantly impacted by a number of external factors including changes in economic conditions and weather.  Changes in our purchasing mix also impact our estimates, as certain program rates can vary depending on our volume of purchases from specific vendors.

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We continually revise these estimates throughout the year to reflect actual purchase levels and identifiable trends. As a result, our estimated quarterly vendor program benefits accrual may include cumulative catch-up adjustments to reflect any changes in our estimates between reporting periods. These adjustments tend to have a greater impact on gross margin in the fourth quarter since it is our seasonally slowest quarter and because the majority of our vendor arrangements are based on calendar year periods. We update our estimates for these arrangements at year end to reflect actual annual purchase or sales levels. In the first quarter of the subsequent year, we prepare a hindsight analysis by comparing actual vendor credits received to the prior year vendor receivable balances. Based on our hindsight analysis, we concluded that our vendor program estimates were within a range of acceptable estimates and that our estimation methodology is appropriate.

If market conditions were to change, vendors may change the terms of some or all of these programs. Although such changes would not affect the amounts we have recorded related to products already purchased, they may lower or raise our cost for products purchased and sold in future periods.

Income Taxes

We record deferred tax assets and liabilities based on differences between the financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities using currently enacted rates and laws that will be in effect when we expect the differences to reverse.  Due to changing tax laws and state income tax rates, significant judgment is required to estimate the effective tax rate expected to apply to tax differences that are expected to reverse in the future.
We record Global Intangible Low Tax Income (GILTI) on foreign earnings as period costs if and when incurred, although we not have realized any impacts since the enactment of U.S. tax reform enacted in December 2017.
As of December 31, 2020, U.S. income taxes were not provided on the earnings or cash balances of our foreign subsidiaries, outside of the provisions of the transition tax from U.S. tax reform. As we have historically invested or expect to invest the undistributed earnings indefinitely to fund current cash flow needs in the countries where held, additional income tax provisions may be required. Determining the amount of unrecognized deferred tax liability on these undistributed earnings and cash balances is not practicable due to the complexity of tax laws and regulations and the varying circumstances, tax treatments and timing of any future repatriation. We determined not to change our indefinite reinvestment assertion in light of U.S. tax reform.

We operate in 39 states, 1 United States territory and 11 foreign countries. We are subject to regular audits by federal, state and foreign tax authorities, and the amount of income taxes we pay is subject to adjustment by the applicable tax authorities.  We recognize a benefit from an uncertain tax position only after determining it is more likely than not that the tax position will withstand examination by the applicable taxing authority. Our estimate for the potential outcome of any uncertain tax issue is highly judgmental. We regularly evaluate our tax positions and incorporate these expectations into our reserve estimates. We believe we have adequately provided for any reasonably foreseeable outcome related to these matters.  However, our future results may include favorable or unfavorable adjustments to our estimated tax liabilities in the period the assessments are made or resolved, or when statutes of limitation on potential assessments expire.  These adjustments may include changes in valuation allowances that we have established.  As a result of these uncertainties, our total income tax provision may fluctuate on a quarterly basis.

Each year, we prepare a return to provision analysis upon filing our income tax returns. Based on this hindsight analysis, we concluded that our prior year income tax provision was within a range of acceptable estimates and that our provision calculation methodology is appropriate. Differences between our effective income tax rate and federal and state statutory tax rates are primarily due to valuation allowances recorded for certain of our international subsidiaries with tax losses.

Performance-Based Compensation Accrual

The Compensation Committee of our Board (Compensation Committee) annually reviews our compensation structure to oversee management’s implementation of maintaining a program that attracts, retains, develops and motivates employees without leading to unnecessary risk taking. Our compensation packages include bonus plans that are specific to each group of eligible participants and their levels and areas of responsibility. The majority of our bonus plans have annual cash payments that are based primarily on objective performance criteria. We calculate bonuses based on the achievement of certain key measurable financial and operational results, including operating income and diluted earnings per share (EPS).

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We use an annual cash performance award (annual bonus) to focus corporate behavior on short-term goals for growth, financial performance and other specific financial and business improvement metrics. Management sets the company’s annual bonus objectives at the beginning of the bonus plan year using both historical information and forecasted results of operations for the current plan year. Management also establishes specific business improvement objectives for both our operating units and corporate employees. The Compensation Committee approves objectives for annual bonus plans involving executive management.

We also utilize our medium-term (three-year) Strategic Plan Incentive Program (SPIP) to provide senior management with an additional cash-based, pay-for-performance award based on the achievement of specified earnings growth objectives. Payouts through the SPIP are based on three-year compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of our diluted EPS.

We record annual performance-based compensation accruals based on operating income achieved in a quarter as a percentage of total expected operating income for the year. We estimate total expected operating income for the current plan year using management’s estimate of the total overall incentives earned per the stated bonus plan objectives. Starting in June, and continuing each quarter through our fiscal year end, we adjust our estimated performance-based compensation accrual based on our detailed analysis of each bonus plan, the participants’ progress toward achievement of their specific objectives and management’s estimates related to the discretionary components of the bonus plans, if any.

We record SPIP accruals based on our total expected EPS for the current fiscal year and earnings growth estimates for the succeeding two years. We base our current fiscal year estimates on the same assumptions used for our annual bonus calculation and we base our forward-looking estimates on historical growth trends and our projections for the remainder of the three-year performance periods.

Our quarterly performance-based compensation expense and accrual balances may vary relative to actual annual bonus expense and payouts due to the following:

differences between estimated and actual performance;
our projections related to achievement of multiple-year performance objectives for our SPIP; and
the discretionary components of the bonus plans.

We generally make bonus payments at the end of February following the most recently completed fiscal year. Each year, we compare the actual bonus payouts to amounts accrued at the previous year's end to determine the accuracy of our performance-based compensation estimates. Based on our hindsight analysis, we concluded that our performance-based compensation accrual balances were within a reasonable range of acceptable estimates and that our estimation methodologies are appropriate.

Impairment of Goodwill and Other Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets

Goodwill is our largest intangible asset. At December 31, 2020, our goodwill balance was $268.2 million, representing approximately 15% of total assets. Goodwill represents the excess of the amount we paid to acquire a company over the estimated fair value of tangible assets and identifiable intangible assets acquired, less liabilities assumed.

We perform a goodwill impairment test in the fourth quarter of each year or on a more frequent basis if events or changes in circumstances occur that indicate potential impairment.  To the extent the carrying value of a reporting unit is greater than its estimated fair value, we record a goodwill impairment charge for the difference, up to the carrying value of the goodwill. We recognize any impairment loss in operating income.

Since we define an operating segment as an individual sales center and we do not have operations below the sales center level, we define a reporting unit as an individual sales center.  As of October 1, 2020, we had 226 reporting units with allocated goodwill balances. The most significant goodwill balance for a reporting unit was $5.7 million and the average goodwill balance was $0.9 million.

In October of 2020, 2019 and 2018, we performed our annual goodwill impairment test and did not recognize any goodwill impairment at the reporting unit level.

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In the first quarter of 2020, we determined certain impairment triggers for our Australian reporting units had occurred due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on expected future operating cash flows. We performed interim goodwill impairment analyses, which included discounted cash flow analyses, and determined that the estimated fair values of our Australian reporting units no longer exceeded their carrying values. In the period ended March 31, 2020, we recorded impairment equal to the total goodwill and intangibles carrying amounts of our five Australian reporting units, which included goodwill impairment of $3.5 million and intangibles impairment, related to the Pool Systems tradename and trademark, of $0.9 million.

We estimate the fair value of our reporting units based on an income approach that incorporates our assumptions for determining the present value of future cash flows.  We project future cash flows using management’s assumptions for sales growth rates, operating margins, discount rates and earnings multiples. These estimates can significantly affect the outcome of our impairment test.  We also review for potential impairment indicators at the reporting unit level based on an evaluation of recent historical operating trends, current and projected local market conditions and other relevant factors as appropriate.

To test the reasonableness of our fair value estimates, we compared our aggregate estimated fair values to our market capitalization as of the date of our annual impairment test. We expect that a reasonable fair value estimate would reflect a moderate acquisition premium. Our aggregate estimated fair values fell in line with our market capitalization, which we consider to be reasonable for the purpose of our goodwill impairment test. To facilitate a sensitivity analysis, we reduced our consolidated fair value estimate to reflect more conservative discounted cash flow assumptions, the sensitivity of a 50 basis point increase in our estimated weighted average cost of capital or a 50 basis point decrease in the estimated perpetuity growth rate. Our sensitivity analysis generated a fair value estimate below our market capitalization and resulted in the identification of no additional at-risk locations.
Based on our 2020 goodwill impairment analysis, we consider one of our Horizon reporting units in California as most at risk for goodwill impairment due to marginal results in recent years. The most sensitive assumptions related to our fair value for this location relates to future projected operating results and management’s ability to effectively manage costs. As of December 31, 2020, our aggregate goodwill balance for this reporting unit was $1.4 million.

If our assumptions or estimates in our fair value calculations change or if operating results are less than forecasted, we could incur impairment charges in future periods, especially related to the reporting unit discussed above.  Impairment charges would decrease operating income, negatively impact diluted EPS and result in lower asset values on our balance sheet.  

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 1 of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K for details.


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RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The table below summarizes information derived from our Consolidated Statements of Income expressed as a percentage of net sales for the past three fiscal years:

Year Ended December 31,
202020192018
Net sales100.0 %100.0 %100.0 %
Cost of sales71.3 71.1 71.0 
Gross profit28.7 28.9 29.0 
Operating expenses16.9 18.2 18.6 
Operating income11.8 10.7 10.5 
Interest and other non-operating expenses, net0.3 0.7 0.7 
Income before income taxes and equity earnings11.5 %9.9 %9.8 %

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not add to operating income or income before income taxes and equity earnings.

Our discussion of consolidated operating results includes the operating results from acquisitions in 2020, 2019 and 2018.  We have included the results of operations in our consolidated results since the respective acquisition dates.

Fiscal Year 2020 compared to Fiscal Year 2019

The following table breaks out our consolidated results into the base business component and the excluded components (sales centers excluded from base business):

(Unaudited)Base BusinessExcludedTotal
(in thousands)Year EndedYear EndedYear Ended
 December 31,December 31,December 31,
 202020192020201920202019
Net sales$3,886,079 $3,183,940 $50,544 $15,577 $3,936,623 $3,199,517 
Gross profit1,117,303 922,193 13,599 2,732 1,130,902 924,925 
Gross margin28.8 %29.0 %26.9 %17.5 %28.7 %28.9 %
Operating expenses (1)
650,020 579,068 16,855 4,611 666,875 583,679 
Expenses as a % of net sales16.7 %18.2 %33.3 %29.6 %16.9 %18.2 %
Operating income (loss) (1)
467,283 343,125 (3,256)(1,879)464,027 341,246 
Operating margin12.0 %10.8 %(6.4)%(12.1)%11.8 %10.7 %

(1)Base business and total include $6.9 million of impairment from goodwill and other assets recorded in the first quarter of 2020.
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We have excluded the following acquisitions from base business for the periods identified:



Acquired

Acquisition
Date
Net
Sales Centers
Acquired

Periods
Excluded
TWC Distributors, Inc. (1)
December 202010December 2020
Jet Line Products, Inc.October 20209October - December 2020
Northeastern Swimming Pool Distributors, Inc. (1)
September 20202September - December 2020
Master Tile Network LLC (1)
February 20204February - December 2020
W.W. Adcock, Inc. (1)
January 20194January - March 2020 and January - March 2019
Turf & Garden, Inc. (1)
November 20184January 2020 and
January 2019
(1)We acquired certain distribution assets of each of these companies.

When calculating our base business results, we exclude sales centers that are acquired, closed or opened in new markets for a period of 15 months. We also exclude consolidated sales centers when we do not expect to maintain the majority of the existing business and existing sales centers that are consolidated with acquired sales centers.

We generally allocate corporate overhead expenses to excluded sales centers on the basis of their net sales as a percentage of total net sales.  After 15 months of operations, we include acquired, consolidated and new market sales centers in the base business calculation including the comparative prior year period.

The table below summarizes the changes in our sales centers during 2020:

December 31, 2019373 
Acquired locations25 
New locations
Closed/consolidated locations(3)
December 31, 2020398 

For information about our recent acquisitions, see Note 2 of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

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Net Sales

(in millions)Year Ended December 31,  
20202019Change
Net sales$3,936.6 $3,199.5 $737.1 23%

Net sales increased 23% compared to 2019, with 22% of this increase resulting from base business sales growth. As the pandemic forced families to spend more time at home in 2020, they sought out opportunities to create or expand existing home-based outdoor living and entertainment spaces. This created unprecedented demand throughout our markets, and we realized broad sales gains across nearly all product categories. Our sales benefited from greater swimming pool usage, high demand for residential pool products and warmer weather conditions during the year.

The following factors benefited our sales growth (listed in order of estimated magnitude):

strong demand for discretionary products, as evidenced by improvements in sales growth rates for product offerings such as equipment, building materials and above-ground pools and hot tubs (see discussion below);
increased demand for residential swimming pool maintenance supplies due to earlier pool openings and increased usage, as evidenced by improvements in sales growth rates to retail customers (see discussion below);
market share gains, including those in building materials (see discussion below);
inflationary product cost increases of approximately 1% to 2%;
1% sales growth from recent acquisitions; and
1% sales growth from an additional selling day in 2020 compared to 2019.

We believe that sales growth rates for certain product offerings, such as equipment, building materials and above-ground pools and hot tubs evidence increased spending in traditionally discretionary areas, such as pool construction, pool remodeling and equipment upgrades. In 2020, sales for equipment, such as swimming pool heaters, pumps, lights and filters, increased 31% compared to 2019, and collectively represented approximately 29% of net sales. This increase reflects both the growth of replacement activity and continued demand for higher-priced, more energy-efficient products. Sales of building materials, which includes tile and sales from recently acquired Master Tile locations, grew 23% compared to 2019 and represented approximately 12% of net sales in 2020. Sales of above-ground pools increased 57% in 2020 compared to 2019 and represented approximately 1% of net sales in 2020.

Sales to customers who service large commercial installations and specialty retailers that sell swimming pool supplies are included in the appropriate existing product categories, and growth or decline in these areas are reflected in the numbers above. Sales to retail customers increased 24% compared to 2019 and represented approximately 13% of our net sales in 2020. Sales to commercial customers declined 10% in 2020, driven by COVID-19 related closures and the decline in both business and leisure travel. Sales to commercial customers represented approximately 4% of our net sales in 2020.

2020 Quarterly Sales Performance Compared to 2019 Quarterly Sales Performance

Strong demand for discretionary products during the first quarter of 2020 led to net sales and base business sales growth of 13%. Sales were also favorably impacted by an additional selling day in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019.
Net sales and base business sales increased 14% in the second quarter of 2020 as stay-at-home restrictions eased in late April through early May, and sales benefited from greater swimming pool demand and usage, resulting in broad sales gains across many product categories and geographies.
In the third quarter of 2020, net sales and base business sales increased 27% and benefited from continued elevated demand for residential pool products, driven by home-centric trends influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Net sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 increased 44%, while base business sales increased 39%. Sales benefited from continued stay-at-home trends combined with favorable weather nationwide and acquisitions, which added 4% to sales growth.

In addition to the sales discussion above, see further details of significant weather impacts under the subheading Seasonality and Quarterly Fluctuations below.

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Gross Profit

(in millions)Year Ended December 31,  
20202019Change
Gross profit$1,130.9 $924.9 $206.0 22%
Gross margin28.7 %28.9 %  

Gross margin declined 20 basis points to 28.7% in 2020 compared to 28.9% in 2019, primarily due to sales of lower margin, big-ticket items, such as pool equipment and in-ground and above-ground pools, which comprised a larger portion of our product mix in 2020 compared to 2019.

Operating Expenses

(in millions)Year Ended December 31, 
20202019Change
Selling and administrative expenses$659.9 $583.7 $76.2 13%
Impairment of goodwill and other assets6.9 — 6.9 100%
Operating expenses as a percentage of net sales16.9 %18.2 %  

Operating expenses increased 14%, or $83.2 million, to $666.9 million in 2020, up from $583.7 million in 2019, while base business operating expenses grew 12%. The increase in operating expenses primarily reflects a $43.9 million increase in performance-based compensation from $24.3 million in 2019 to $68.2 million in 2020 and expenses of $16.9 million from recently acquired businesses.

In the first quarter of 2020, we recorded impairment charges of $6.9 million, which included non-cash goodwill and intangibles impairment charges of $4.4 million, equal to the total goodwill and intangibles carrying amounts of our Australian reporting units, and $2.5 million from a long-term note, as collectability was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excluding impairment charges and performance-based compensation in both periods, adjusted operating expenses were up 6%, reflecting growth-driven labor and freight expenses and greater facility-related costs partially offset by lower discretionary spending. As a result of strong expense control and our ability to leverage our existing network, operating expenses as a percentage of net sales declined 130 basis points, contributing to the 110 basis point expansion in our operating margin for the year.

Interest and Other Non-operating Expenses, net

Interest and other non-operating expenses, net decreased $11.4 million compared to 2019, reflecting lower average debt levels and lower average interest rates between periods. Average outstanding debt was $422.2 million in 2020 versus $599.6 million in 2019. Our 2020 average outstanding debt balance has decreased as we utilized operating cash flows to pay off debt balances. Our weighted average effective interest rate decreased to 2.1% in 2020 compared to 3.4% in 2019.

Income Taxes

Our effective income tax rate was 18.9% at December 31, 2020 and 17.7% at December 31, 2019. We recorded a $28.6 million, or $0.70 per diluted share, benefit from ASU 2016-09 for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to a benefit of $23.5 million, or $0.57 per diluted share, realized in the same period in 2019. Excluding the benefits from ASU 2016-09, our effective tax rate was 25.2% and 25.1% for the years ended 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Net Income and Earnings Per Share

Net income increased 40% to $366.7 million in 2020 compared to $261.6 million in 2019. Adjusted net income, excluding the $6.3 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, impact of non-cash impairments, net of tax, increased 43% to $373.0 million. Earnings per share increased 40% to $8.97 per diluted share compared to $6.40 per diluted share in 2019. Excluding the impact of non-cash impairments, net of tax, and the impact from ASU 2016-09 in both periods, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 44% to $8.42 in 2020 compared to $5.83 in 2019. See the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures below.
36


Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted Income Statement Information
We have included adjusted net income and adjusted diluted EPS, which are non-GAAP financial measures, as supplemental disclosures, because we believe these measures are useful to investors and others in assessing our year-over-year operating performance. We believe these measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, net income and diluted EPS presented in accordance with GAAP, respectively, and in the context of our other disclosures included within this Form 10-Q. Other companies may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently than we do, which may limit their usefulness as comparative measures.

The table below presents a reconciliation of net income to adjusted net income.

(Unaudited)Year Ended
(in thousands)December 31,
2020
Net income$366,738 
Impairment of goodwill and other assets6,944 
Tax impact on impairment of long-term note (1)
(654)
Adjusted net income$373,028 
(1)As described in our First Quarter 2020 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, our effective tax rate at March 31, 2020 was a 0.1% benefit. Excluding impairment from goodwill and intangibles and tax benefits from ASU 2016-09 recorded in the first quarter of 2020, our effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2020 was 25.4%, which we used to calculate the tax impact related to the $2.5 million long-term note impairment.

The table below presents a reconciliation of diluted EPS to adjusted diluted EPS.

(Unaudited)Year Ended
December 31,
20202019
Diluted EPS$8.97 $6.40 
After-tax non-cash impairment charges0.15 — 
Adjusted diluted EPS excluding after-tax non-cash impairment charges9.12 6.40 
ASU 2016-09 tax benefit0.70 0.57 
Adjusted diluted EPS excluding after-tax non-cash impairment charges and tax benefit$8.42 $5.83 


Fiscal Year 2019 compared to Fiscal Year 2018

For a detailed discussion of the Results of Operations in Fiscal Year 2019 compared to Fiscal Year 2018, see the Results of Operations section of Management’s Discussion and Analysis included in Part II, Item 7 of our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K.  
37


Seasonality and Quarterly Fluctuations

For discussion regarding the effects seasonality and weather have on our business, see Item 1, “Business,” of this Form 10-K.

The following table presents certain unaudited quarterly data for 2020 and 2019. We have included income statement and balance sheet data for the most recent eight quarters to allow for a meaningful comparison of the seasonal fluctuations in these amounts. In our opinion, this information reflects all normal and recurring adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation of this data. Due to the seasonal nature of our industry, the results of any one or more quarters are not necessarily a good indication of results for an entire fiscal year or of continuing trends.

(Unaudited)QUARTER
(in thousands)20202019
 FirstSecondThirdFourthFirst Second Third Fourth
Statement of Income Data        
Net sales$677,288 $1,280,846 $1,139,229 $839,261 $597,456 $1,121,328 $898,500 $582,234 
Gross profit189,629 373,481 328,698 239,095 174,631 330,314 257,931 162,050 
Operating income35,588 205,857 148,233 74,351 38,386 172,523 104,540 25,798 
Net income30,912 157,555 119,098 59,174 32,637 131,390 79,525 18,024 
Net sales as a % of annual net sales
17 %33 %29 %21 %19 %35 %28 %18 %
Gross profit as a % of annual gross profit
17 %33 %29 %21 %19 %36 %28 %18 %
Operating income as a % of annual operating income
8 %44 %32 %16 %11 %51 %31 %%
Balance Sheet Data
Total receivables, net$345,915 $453,405 $366,412 $289,200 $313,127 $417,126 $307,798 $226,539 
Product inventories, net858,190 628,418 612,824 780,989 815,742 694,447 616,217 702,274 
Accounts payable517,620 346,272 268,412 266,753 472,487 342,335 214,309 261,963 
Total debt586,050 438,804 339,934 416,018 698,977 692,337 547,560 511,407 
 
Note: Due to rounding, the sum of quarterly percentage amounts may not equal 100%.

38


Weather Impacts on Fiscal Year 2020 to Fiscal Year 2019 Comparisons

In the first quarter of 2020, sales benefited from above-average temperatures throughout the contiguous United States, particularly in the southern United States. These favorable weather conditions contrast from the first quarter of 2019 when wetter and cooler-than-normal temperatures to begin the year hindered sales growth.

Weather conditions in the second quarter of 2020 were varied across the contiguous United States; however, results in the second quarter of 2020 benefited from generally mild weather conditions. Much of the western United States benefited from warmer weather, while the southeastern United States experienced slightly below-average temperatures. Southern California and the southeastern United States, including Florida, experienced more precipitation than normal. In contrast, results for the second quarter of 2019 were largely impacted by record rainfall and cooler temperatures in three of our largest markets, California, Texas and Arizona, particularly in the month of May, which was the second wettest May on record for the contiguous United States.

Overall, weather conditions in the third quarter of 2020 were generally favorable, which benefited results. Much of the western United States experienced above-average temperatures, particularly in California, which was also plagued with the most active wildfire year on record. Precipitation was below-average in most of the western half of the United States and normal to above-average in the eastern half. Likewise, results in the third quarter of 2019 were positively impacted by above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation throughout most of the country.

Sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 benefited from above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation, particularly in the month of November, which was the fourth warmest on record in a 126-year period for the contiguous United States. Similarly, in the fourth quarter of 2019, sales benefited from above average temperatures, primarily in the southern and southeastern United States.

Weather Impacts on Fiscal Year 2019 to Fiscal Year 2018 Comparisons

For a detailed discussion of Weather Impacts on Fiscal Year 2019 compared to Fiscal Year 2018, see the Seasonality and Quarterly Fluctuations section of Management’s Discussion and Analysis included in Part II, Item 7 of our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K.  

Geographic Areas

Since all of our sales centers have similar operations and share similar economic characteristics, we aggregate our sales centers into a single reportable segment. For additional details, see Note 1 of our “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

For a breakdown of net sales and property, plant and equipment between our United States and international operations, see Item 1, “Business,” of this Form 10-K.



39


LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

Liquidity is defined as the ability to generate adequate amounts of cash to meet short-term and long-term cash needs. We assess our liquidity in terms of our ability to generate cash to fund our operating activities, taking into consideration the seasonal nature of our business. Significant factors which could affect our liquidity include the following:

cash flows generated from operating activities;
the adequacy of available bank lines of credit;
the quality of our receivables;
acquisitions;
dividend payments;
capital expenditures;
changes in income tax laws and regulations;
the timing and extent of share repurchases; and
the ability to attract long-term capital with satisfactory terms.

Our primary capital needs are seasonal working capital obligations, debt repayment obligations and other general corporate initiatives, including acquisitions, opening new sales centers, dividend payments and share repurchases. Our primary working capital obligations are for the purchase of inventory, payroll, rent, other facility costs and selling and administrative expenses. Our working capital obligations fluctuate during the year, driven primarily by seasonality and the timing of inventory purchases. Our primary sources of working capital are cash from operations supplemented by bank borrowings, which have historically been sufficient to support our growth and finance acquisitions. The same principle applies to funds used for capital expenditures and share repurchases.

We prioritize our use of cash based on investing in our business, maintaining a prudent capital structure, including a modest amount of debt, and returning cash to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Our specific priorities for the use of cash are as follows:

capital expenditures primarily for maintenance and growth of our sales center structure, technology-related investments and fleet vehicles;
strategic acquisitions executed opportunistically;
payment of cash dividends as and when declared by our Board of Directors (Board);
repayment of debt to maintain an average total leverage ratio (as defined below) between 1.5 and 2.0; and
repurchases of our common stock under our Board authorized share repurchase program.

Capital expenditures were 0.6% of net sales in 2020, 1.0% of net sales in 2019 and 1.1% of net sales in 2018. Capital expenditures in 2020 were lower than our historical average due to cost-saving measures implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last five years, capital expenditures have averaged roughly 1.0% of net sales.

Our capital spending primarily relates to leasehold improvements, delivery and service vehicles and information technology. We focus our capital expenditure plans on the needs of our sales centers. For 2021, based on management’s current plans, we project capital expenditures will continue to approximate the historical average.

As of December 31, 2020, our average total leverage ratio was 0.86, which was below our target range of between 1.5 and 2.0 and below our average total leverage ratio of 1.61 as of December 31, 2019. Our strong operating results and cash flow from operations enabled us to reduce our debt balances in 2020. We expect our average total leverage ratio through the first half of 2021 will continue to be below our target range.

We believe we have adequate availability of capital to fund present operations and the current capacity to finance any working capital needs that may arise.  We continually evaluate potential acquisitions and hold discussions with acquisition candidates. If suitable acquisition opportunities arise that would require financing, we believe that we have the ability to finance any such transactions.

As of February 19, 2021, $172.0 million of the current Board authorized amount under our authorized share repurchase plan remained available. We expect to repurchase additional shares in the open market from time to time depending on market conditions. We plan to fund these repurchases with cash provided by operations and borrowings under the credit and receivables facilities.

40


Sources and Uses of Cash

The following table summarizes our cash flows (in thousands):

 Year Ended December 31,
 20202019
Operating activities$397,581 $298,776 
Investing activities(146,289)(42,263)
Financing activities(244,371)(244,486)

Cash provided by operations of $397.6 million for 2020 increased $98.8 million compared to 2019, primarily reflecting the $105.2 million improvement in net income.

Cash used in investing activities increased in 2020 due to an increase of $115.7 million in payments for acquisitions compared to 2019, which was partially offset by an $11.7 million decrease in net capital expenditures between years.

Cash used in financing activities was $244.4 million in 2020, consistent with $244.5 million in 2019, which primarily reflects a $59.6 million decrease in net debt payments, offset by additional share repurchases of $53.0 million and an increase in dividends paid of $8.2 million.

For a discussion of our sources and uses of cash in 2018, see the Liquidity and Capital Resources – Sources and Uses of Cash section of Management’s Discussion and Analysis included in Part II, Item 7 of our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Future Sources and Uses of Cash

To supplement cash from operations as our primary source of working capital, we will continue to utilize our three major credit facilities, which are the Amended and Restated Revolving Credit Facility (the Credit Facility), the Term Facility (the Term Facility) and the Receivables Securitization Facility (the Receivables Facility). For additional details regarding these facilities, see Note 5 of our “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

Revolving Credit Facility

Our Credit Facility provides for $750.0 million in borrowing capacity under a five-year unsecured revolving credit facility and includes sublimits for the issuance of swingline loans and standby letters of credit.  Pursuant to an accordion feature, the aggregate maximum principal amount of the commitments under the Credit Facility may be increased at our request and with agreement by the lenders by up to $75.0 million, to a total of $825.0 million.  The Credit Facility matures on September 29, 2022. We intend to use the Credit Facility for general corporate purposes, for future share repurchases and to fund future growth initiatives.
At December 31, 2020, there was $109.0 million outstanding, a $4.8 million standby letter of credit outstanding and $636.2 million available for borrowing under the Credit Facility. The weighted average effective interest rate for the Credit Facility as of December 31, 2020 was approximately 1.2%, excluding commitment fees.

Term Facility

Our Term Facility provides for $185.0 million in borrowing capacity and matures on December 30, 2026. Proceeds from the Term Facility were used to pay down the Credit Facility, adding capacity for future share repurchases, acquisitions and growth-oriented working capital expansion. The Term Facility is repaid in quarterly installments of 1.250% of the Term Facility on the last business day of each quarter beginning in the first quarter of 2020. We classify the entire outstanding balance as Long-term debt on our Consolidated Balance Sheets as we intend and have the ability to refinance the obligations on a long-term basis. The total of the quarterly payments will be equal to 33.75% of the Term Facility with the final principal repayment, equal to 66.25% of the Term Facility, due on the maturity date. We may prepay amounts outstanding under the Term Facility without penalty other than interest breakage costs.

At December 31, 2020, the Term Facility had an outstanding balance of $175.8 million at a weighted average effective interest rate of 2.7%.
41



Financial Covenants

Financial covenants of the Credit Facility and the Term Facility include maintenance of a maximum average total leverage ratio and a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio, which are our most restrictive financial covenants.  As of December 31, 2020, the calculations of these two covenants are detailed below:

Maximum Average Total Leverage Ratio. On the last day of each fiscal quarter, our average total leverage ratio must be less than 3.25 to 1.00.  Average Total Leverage Ratio is the ratio of the trailing twelve months (TTM) Average Total Funded Indebtedness plus the TTM Average Accounts Securitization Proceeds divided by the TTM EBITDA (as those terms are defined in the Credit Facility).  As of December 31, 2020, our average total leverage ratio equaled 0.86 (compared to 1.61 as of December 31, 2019) and the TTM average total debt amount used in this calculation was $439.3 million.

Minimum Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio. On the last day of each fiscal quarter, our fixed charge ratio must be greater than or equal to 2.25 to 1.00. Fixed Charge Ratio is the ratio of the TTM EBITDAR divided by TTM Interest Expense paid or payable in cash plus TTM Rental Expense (as those terms are defined in the Credit Facility).  As of December 31, 2020, our fixed charge ratio equaled 7.81 (compared to 5.38 as of December 31, 2019) and TTM Rental Expense was $63.2 million.

The Credit Facility and the Term Facility also limit the declaration and payment of dividends on our common stock to no more than 50% of the preceding year’s Net Income (as defined in the Credit Facility and the Term Facility), provided no default or event of default has occurred and is continuing, or would result from the payment of dividends.  Additionally, we may declare and pay quarterly dividends notwithstanding that the aggregate amount of dividends paid would be in excess of the 50% limit described above so long as (i) the amount per share of such dividends does not exceed the amount per share paid during the most recent fiscal year in which we were in compliance with the 50% limit and (ii) our Average Total Leverage Ratio is less than 3.00 to 1.00 both immediately before and after giving pro forma effect to such dividends. Further, dividends must be declared and paid in a manner consistent with our past practice.

Under the Credit Facility and the Term Facility, we may repurchase shares of our common stock provided no default or event of default has occurred and is continuing, or would result from the repurchase of shares, and our maximum average total leverage ratio (determined on a pro forma basis) is less than 2.50 to 1.00.  Other covenants include restrictions on our ability to grant liens, incur indebtedness, make investments, merge or consolidate, and sell or transfer assets.  Failure to comply with any of our financial covenants or any other terms of the Credit Facility and the Term Facility could result in higher interest rates on our borrowings or the acceleration of the maturities of our outstanding debt.

Receivables Securitization Facility

Our two-year accounts receivable securitization facility (the Receivables Facility) offers us a lower-cost form of financing, with a peak funding capacity of up to $295.0 million between May 1 and May 31, which includes an additional seasonal funding capacity that is available between March 1 and July 31. Other funding capacities range from $120.0 million to $275.0 million throughout the remaining months of the year. The Receivables Facility matures on November 1, 2021. We classify the entire outstanding balance as Long-term debt on our Consolidated Balance Sheets as we intend and have the ability to refinance the obligations on a long-term basis.
The Receivables Facility provides for the sale of certain of our receivables to a wholly-owned subsidiary (the Securitization Subsidiary). The Securitization Subsidiary transfers variable undivided percentage interests in the receivables and related rights to certain third-party financial institutions in exchange for cash proceeds, limited to the applicable funding capacities. Upon payment of the receivables by customers, rather than remitting to the financial institutions the amounts collected, we retain such collections as proceeds for the sale of new receivables until payments become due.
The Receivables Facility contains terms and conditions (including representations, covenants and conditions precedent) customary for transactions of this type. Additionally, an amortization event will occur if we fail to maintain a maximum average total leverage ratio (average total funded debt/EBITDA) of 3.25 to 1.00 and a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio (EBITDAR/cash interest expense plus rental expense) of 2.25 to 1.00.
At December 31, 2020, there was $120.0 million outstanding under the Receivables Facility at a weighted average effective interest rate of 0.9%, excluding commitment fees.

42


Interest Rate Swaps
We utilize interest rate swap contracts and forward-starting interest rate swap contracts to reduce our exposure to fluctuations in variable interest rates for future interest payments on our variable rate borrowings. Interest expense related to the notional amounts under all swap contracts is based on the fixed rates plus the applicable margin on the respective borrowings.
In 2020, we had one interest rate swap in place, which became effective on November 20, 2019 and terminated on November 20, 2020. This swap contract was previously forward-looking and converted the variable interest rate on our variable rate borrowings to a fixed rate of 1.1425% on a notional amount of $150.0 million.
As of December 31, 2020, we had two interest rate swap contracts in place, which became effective on November 20, 2020 and terminate on September 29, 2022. These swap contracts were previously forward-starting and convert the variable interest rates on our variable rate borrowings to fixed interest rates of 2.0925% and 1.5500%, respectively, on notional amounts of $75.0 million each.
We have entered into forward-starting interest rate swap contracts to extend the hedged period for future interest payments on our variable rate borrowings. These swap contracts will convert the variable interest rate to a fixed interest rate on our variable rate borrowings.

The following table provides details related to each of our forward-starting interest rate swap contracts:

DerivativeInception DateEffective DateTermination DateNotional Amount (in millions)Fixed Interest Rate
Forward-starting interest rate swap 1February 5, 2020February 26, 2021February 28, 2025$150.01.3800%
Forward-starting interest rate swap 2March 9, 2020September 29, 2022February 26, 2027$150.00.7400%
Forward-starting interest rate swap 3March 9, 2020February 28, 2025February 26, 2027$150.00.8130%


Compliance and Future Availability
As of December 31, 2020, we were in compliance with all covenants and financial ratio requirements under our Credit Facility, our Term Facility and our Receivables Facility.  We believe we will remain in compliance with all covenants and financial ratio requirements throughout 2021.  For additional information regarding our debt arrangements, see Note 5 of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.


43


Contractual Obligations

At December 31, 2020, our contractual obligations for long-term debt, operating leases and purchase obligations were as follows (in thousands):

  Payments Due by Period
TotalLess than
1 year
1-3 years3-5 yearsMore than
5 years
Long-term debt$416,643 $141,119 $127,524 $18,500 $129,500 
Operating leases223,715 56,443 92,403 47,121 27,748 
Purchase obligations (1)
106,357 36,369 69,988 — — 
 $746,715 $233,931 $289,915 $65,621 $157,248 
(1)    Purchase obligations include all legally binding contracts such as firm minimum commitments for inventory purchases and software commitments. We issue inventory purchase orders in the normal course of business, which represent authorizations to purchase that are cancellable by their terms. We do not consider purchase orders to be firm inventory commitments; therefore, they are excluded from the table above.


The table below contains estimated interest payments (in thousands) related to our long-term debt obligations presented in the table above.  We calculated estimates of future interest payments based on the December 31, 2020 outstanding debt balances, using the fixed rates under our interest rate swap agreements for the applicable notional amounts and the weighted average effective interest rates as of December 31, 2020 for the remaining outstanding balances not covered by our swap contracts.  To project the estimated interest expense to coincide with the time periods used in the table above, we projected the estimated debt balances for future years based on the scheduled maturity dates of the Credit Facility, the Term Facility and the Receivables Facility. For certain of our contractual obligations, such as unrecognized tax benefits, uncertainties exist regarding the timing of future payments and the amount by which these potential obligations will increase or decrease over time. As such, we have excluded unrecognized tax benefits from our contractual obligations table. See Notes 5 and 7 of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K for additional discussion related to our debt and more information related to our unrecognized tax benefits.  

  Estimated Interest Payments Due by Period
TotalLess than
1 year
1-3 years3-5 yearsMore than
5 years
Interest$23,659 $6,793 $8,497 $5,651 $2,718 

44


Item 7A.  Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

We are exposed to market risks, including interest rate risk and foreign currency risk. The adverse effects of potential changes in these market risks are discussed below. The following discussion does not consider the effects of the reduced level of overall economic activity that could exist following such changes. Further, in the event of changes of such magnitude, we would likely take actions to mitigate our exposure to such changes.

Interest Rate Risk

Our earnings are exposed to changes in short-term interest rates because of the variable interest rates on our debt. However, we have entered into interest rate swap contracts to reduce our exposure to market fluctuations. For information about our debt arrangements and interest rate swaps, see Note 5 of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” included in Item 8 of this Form 10‑K.

In 2020, there was no interest rate risk related to the notional amounts under our interest rate swap contracts. The portions of our outstanding balances under the Credit Facility, Term Facility and the Receivables Facility that were not covered by our interest rate swap contracts were subject to variable interest rates. To calculate the potential impact in 2020 related to interest rate risk, we performed a sensitivity analysis assuming that we borrowed the maximum available amount under the Credit Facility, excluding the accordion feature, and the off-season maximum amount available under the Receivables Facility. Our Term Facility, entered into on December 30, 2019, was fully drawn as of that date. In this analysis, we assumed that the variable interest rates for the Credit Facility and the Receivables Facility increased by 1.0%. Based on this calculation, our pretax income would have decreased by approximately $7.8 million and earnings per share would have decreased by approximately $0.14 per diluted share (based on the number of weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the year ended December 31, 2020). The maximum amount available under the Credit Facility is $750.0 million, excluding the $75.0 million accordion feature, and the maximum amount available under the Receivables Facility is $255.0 million, excluding the $40.0 million seasonal increase in capacity available from March 1 to July 31.

Failure of our swap counterparties would result in the loss of any potential benefit to us under our swap agreements. In this case, we would still be obligated to pay the variable interest payments underlying our debt agreements. Additionally, failure of our swap counterparties would not eliminate our obligation to continue to make payments under our existing swap agreements if we continue to be in a net pay position.

Currency Risk

Changes in the exchange rates for the functional currencies of our international subsidiaries, as shown in the table below, may positively or negatively impact our sales, operating expenses and earnings. Historically, we have not hedged our currency exposure and fluctuations in exchange rates have not materially affected our operating results. While our international operations accounted for only 9% of total net sales in 2020, our exposure to currency rate fluctuations could be material in 2021 and future years to the extent that either currency rate changes are significant or that our international operations comprise a larger percentage of our consolidated results.

Functional Currencies
CanadaCanadian Dollar
United KingdomBritish Pound
BelgiumEuro
CroatiaKuna
FranceEuro
GermanyEuro
ItalyEuro
PortugalEuro
SpainEuro
MexicoMexican Peso
AustraliaAustralian Dollar


45



Item 8.  Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 Page
  
  
  
  
  

46


Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

The Board of Directors and Stockholders
Pool Corporation

Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Pool Corporation (the Company) as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, and the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2020 and 2019, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), and our report dated February 25, 2021 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the account or disclosures to which it relates.


Valuation of Goodwill
Description of the Matter
At December 31, 2020, the Company’s goodwill was $268.2 million. As discussed in Note 3 of the consolidated financial statements, goodwill is tested for impairment at least annually at the reporting unit level. The Company’s goodwill is assigned to reporting units as of the acquisition date.

Auditing management’s annual goodwill impairment test was complex and highly judgmental due to the estimation required to determine the fair value of the reporting units. In particular, the fair value estimate is sensitive to certain assumptions, such as changes in the weighted average cost of capital, revenue growth rate, operating margin, and terminal growth rate which are affected by expectations about future market or economic conditions.
47


How We Addressed the Matter in Our AuditWe obtained an understanding, evaluated the design, and tested the operating effectiveness of controls over the Company’s goodwill impairment review process, including controls over management’s review of the significant assumptions described above.

To test the estimated fair value of the Company’s reporting units, we performed audit procedures that included, among others, assessing methodologies and testing the significant assumptions discussed above and the underlying data used by the Company in its analysis. We compared the significant assumptions used by management to current industry and economic trends and other relevant factors, such as historical results. We assessed the historical accuracy of management’s estimates and performed sensitivity analyses of significant assumptions to evaluate the changes in the fair value of the reporting units that would result from changes in the assumptions. We also involved a specialist to assist in our evaluation of the valuation methodology applied by the Company and the significant assumptions used in estimating the fair value of the Company. In addition, we reviewed the allocation of the Company’s fair value to its reporting units and the comparison of the Company’s fair value to its market capitalization.



/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1994.

New Orleans, Louisiana
February 25, 2021



48


POOL CORPORATION
Consolidated Statements of Income
(In thousands, except per share data)

 Year Ended December 31,
  202020192018
Net sales$3,936,623 $3,199,517 $2,998,097 
Cost of sales2,805,721 2,274,592 2,127,924 
Gross profit1,130,902 924,925 870,173 
Selling and administrative expenses659,931 583,679 556,284 
Impairment of goodwill and other assets6,944   
Operating income464,027 341,246 313,889 
Interest and other non-operating expenses, net12,353 23,772 20,896 
Income before income taxes and equity earnings451,674 317,474 292,993 
Provision for income taxes85,231 56,161 58,774 
Equity earnings in unconsolidated investments, net295 262 242 
Net income$366,738 $261,575 $234,461 
Earnings per share:   
Basic$9.14 $6.57 $5.82 
Diluted$8.97 $6.40 $5.62 
Weighted average shares outstanding:   
Basic40,106 39,833 40,311 
Diluted40,865 40,865 41,693 
Cash dividends declared per common share$2.29 $2.10 $1.72 

The accompanying Notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements.


49


POOL CORPORATION
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income
(In thousands)

 Year Ended December 31,
  202020192018
Net income$366,738 $261,575 $234,461 
Other comprehensive (loss) income:
Foreign currency translation adjustments5,210 2,295 (4,945)
Change in unrealized losses and gains on interest rate swaps,
net of the change in taxes of $2,957, $552 and $(425)
(8,870)(1,657)1,276 
Total other comprehensive (loss) income(3,660)638 (3,669)
Comprehensive income$363,078 $262,213 $230,792 

The accompanying Notes are an integral part of the Consolidated Financial Statements.


50


POOL CORPORATION
Consolidated Balance Sheets
(In thousands, except share data)

 December 31,
 20202019
Assets  
Current assets:  
Cash and cash equivalents$34,128 $28,583 
Receivables, net122,252 76,648 
Receivables pledged under receivables facility166,948 149,891 
Product inventories, net780,989 702,274 
Prepaid expenses and other current assets17,610 16,172 
Total current assets1,121,927 973,568 
Property and equipment, net108,241 112,246 
Goodwill268,167 188,596 
Other intangible assets, net12,181 11,038 
Equity interest investments1,292 1,227 
Operating lease assets205,875 176,689 
Other assets21,987 19,902 
Total assets$1,739,670 $1,483,266 
Liabilities and stockholders’ equity  
Current liabilities:  
Accounts payable$266,753 $261,963 
Accrued expenses and other current liabilities143,694