Lyons. A start-up is betting on reconditioning swimming pool robots –
Text: Eva Bourgin. Founded by Clément Barrioz and César Traverse, “Le Local Piscine” offers refurbished swimming pool robots, guaranteed for one year. Based in Craponne, their young company has already sold around forty products, the duo now wants to expand in France!
To achieve success, the path does not always seem obvious. If some do not dare to jump into the water, others like Clement Barrioz and Cesar Traverse have already taken the plunge. Since September 2021, the two young Tassilunois have been alternating between a master’s degree at the ESDES business school and their own company, Local Piscine.
Specialized in refurbished swimming pool robots, the start-up offers products half the price of the market, the purchase of equipment and the rental of robots… an innovative concept, imagined for the very first time in 2020.
From the start, the project is supported by their school ESDES
“We both did summer jobs in the pool, we were affiliated with the cleaning robots. We said to ourselves that there was potential in the defective equipment, in particular swimming pool robots, ”they say. An ecological reflection, appreciated from the beginning by their school. Both enrolled in the Grande École Program, the duo unveiled their project within the CAP ESDES internal competition in 2021… and won first place. “We received a bonus of 5,000 euros, it helped us a lot. We were supported by our director and our project manager,” adds the founder.
If these two enthusiasts find themselves within the same company, their respective paths remain different. “César was a good student, he immediately joined the Grandes Ecoles Program. I was pretty mediocre,” he says. After having repeated his second, he enters STMG then integrates the bachelor ESDES. During confinement, the latter takes the competition to access this same master’s program… an objective which he successfully achieves. Registered in the same class, the duo develops their project and proposes a first point of sale in Craponne, within a reconditioned container. “It was a lot of fun, and this year we want to go even further,” confirms the latter.
To aim for the national scale, the company collaborates with SCP Pool Corporation
Based on a simple concept, the company harvests the robot, repairs it and then resells it at an average price of 550 euros. “Since September, we have welcomed a full-time technical manager, Louis Bonnet Eymard, he takes care of the testing phase of the robots. It takes an hour,” he says. Using a box, it performs a series of tests to determine if the product is reusable. If the robot seems too defective, it is then turned into spare parts. “It can always be useful for those who like to tinker, we also collaborate with the Katekhon CSR cabinet that helps us address these issues,” he adds.
A team whose youth is an added value, necessary for the development of the brand. Thus, three other members joined the Local Piscine, including Anais, their classmate. In order to improve the harvesting process, the company is working with the American group SCP Pool Company and is aiming for 250 robots marketed by 2022. “The most difficult thing is to change habits. People refurbish their iPhone, but robots it’s harder,” revealed the founder. To impose itself further, the structure wishes to ally itself with ephemeral stores in Lyon.
A next step for this start-up, closer to national success than an entrepreneurial drowning!