Aquatico owners prepare new showroom

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After two and a half years of operating in a workshop at 358 Midway Circle in Nixa, Aquatico is gearing up for a move.|ret||ret||tab|

Feb. 8 marks the grand opening of Aquatico's new 3,000-square-foot showroom at 5539 S. Campbell. |ret||ret||tab|

Co-owners Scott Zimmerman and Blayk Michaels started Aquatico with six aquarium maintenance accounts. "That's pretty much all we had," Zimmerman said. "Now we've got close to 30, with more calling us every week."|ret||ret||tab|

Aquarium maintenance is still a major part of the business, he said, but since then the company has expanded into many areas, including water gardens, fish ponds, waterfalls, and reflecting pools. |ret||ret||tab|

Aquatico also sells aquariums, freshwater and saltwater fish, plants, food and equipment. |ret||ret||tab|

"Our first big project was the Warsaw Fish Hatchery," Zimmerman said. |ret||ret||tab|

The $50,000 job in-cluded installing an under-gravel filtration system and creating the aquarium's background. |ret||ret||tab|

This project, done for the Missouri Department of Conservation, came just eight months after Aquatico opened for business.|ret||ret||tab|

"Our business started off with these huge, once-in-a-lifetime projects," Mich-aels said. "Businesses work their whole careers to build these types of clients."|ret||ret||tab|

As time went on, he said, the company started acquiring more smaller and residential jobs.|ret||ret||tab|

Aquatico's major commercial clients include Bass Pro Shops, Dickerson Park Zoo and the Missouri Department of Conservation, as well as some local builders. |ret||ret||tab|

"Although our monetary volume comes from our commercial accounts like that, as far as actual project volume, it's on the residential side," Zimmerman said. "We don't want to forego one for the other."|ret||ret||tab|

Commercial projects are exciting because they're more visible, Zimmer-man added, "but residential keeps us sharp, as far as detail and creativity."|ret||ret||tab|

Michaels said Aquatico's diversity allows one area to slow down while another facet of the business takes off. |ret||ret||tab|

"It offers us a great amount of flexibility," he said. "That's important because the market does change."|ret||ret||tab|

Demand for products changes throughout the year. Water gardens, for instance, are seasonal, said Zimmerman, "but what we've found is that (around) October, when our outdoor water features start dropping off, we get more calls for aquarium maintenance and for new aquarium installations."|ret||ret||tab|

The company's growth has exceeded its owners' expectations. |ret||ret||tab|

"We're about a year ahead of schedule as far as our business plan," said Zimmerman. |ret||ret||tab|

"We didn't really expect to get into a showroom for another year."|ret||ret||tab|

Zimmerman and Michaels credit their Realtor, Barbara Beyer of Beyer Com-mercial Realtors, with helping them get into a showroom that meets their needs. Aquatico is leasing the space from Tri-Tex. |ret||ret||tab|

Beyer noted that space still is available in the building where Aquatico will relocate, and she added that Zimmerman and Michaels hope that the space will be leased to a tenant that complements their company.|ret||ret||tab|

The five acres behind the property will be used by Aquatico to display different types of water features. Besides using this as a showcase for potential customers, Zimmerman hopes to raise charitable funds by providing water garden tours in the summer. |ret||ret||tab|

"The community has been so good to us. If we can do anything now to give back a little bit, we really want to do that," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Zimmerman said the HBA Home Show is the only show the company attends, and Aquatico depends largely on word-of-mouth and customer referrals. |ret||ret||tab|

"We take extreme care in making sure everyone is happy, which is quite a daunting task," Zimmerman said.|ret||ret||tab|

Part of keeping everyone happy is providing maintenance for busy clients. |ret||ret||tab|

"We have maintenance programs for all of our water features," Zimmerman said. "Many of our clients are extremely busy, and don't have a lot of time."|ret||ret||tab|

Most maintenance programs consist of twice-monthly visits to check conditions and trim plants as needed. |ret||ret||tab|

"We give it that extra touch to keep it at its optimum. The ponds we build are very low-maintenance, but there's no water feature that is no-maintenance."|ret||ret||tab|

Customers may think of an aquarium or water garden as complex and difficult to maintain, said Michaels, but their initial experience with Aquatico can change that.|ret||ret||tab|

"When they see one go so smoothly, and they've got a great product at a great value, and great service, they often decide they want another one."|ret||ret||tab|

When he and Zimmerman first started Aquatico, Michaels said, they were re-peatedly warned about the potential hazards of forming a partnership. Because of their differing areas of expertise, however, they decided they could create a successful partnership.|ret||ret||tab|

Zimmerman's business background and Michaels' technical know-how combine to make the partnership work. Michaels gained experience and received training during his 12 years with Bass Pro Shops, taking advantage of opportunities offered by the company. Already a certified diver, he stepped in once to work as an aquarist, and things took off from there. He completed several fish management courses, including a Uni-versity of Florida graduate level course, "Diagnosis of Warm Water Fish Dis-eases."|ret||ret||tab|

Bass Pro provided seminars and personnel management training. |ret||ret||tab|

"Blayk has a tremendous amount of knowledge," Zimmerman said. "When it comes to aquariums, if somebody says, what type of filtration should we put on this thing?' well, I've got an idea, but Blayk is the expert, so I'm going to default to what he says."|ret||ret||tab|

On the other hand, business decisions are Zimmerman's strong suit. "It's been great for us, with our different backgrounds, bringing it together," he said. "That's been the key to our success."[[In-content Ad]]