Sun Pools’ newest product is geared

toward a different outdoors consumer

Sun Fiberglass Pools Inc. has made a home in Albany and for several years now, the company has manufactured and shipped pools from their plant in the Clinton County and installed them across the United States.

Recently, the team at Sun Fiberglass Pools came up with an idea that might get the attention of a different type of consumer, including more attention from the local market.

The company is in the process of producing camouflage fiberglass hunting structures called Camo Huts, again making the product entirely from their location in the centrally located Clinton County Industrial Park.

The fiberglass huts will be offered in one size, six feet wide by eight feet long and 80 inches tall inside. Each hut can be customized with windows, doors and a particular choice of camouflage pattern, one of four offered, for each individual hut.

The patterns offered are Corn Field, Reaper Buck, Fall and Digi Gili.

Some of the optional accessories for the huts are a 24” x 60” hut style door, 36” x 60” handicap opening, 18” x 48” side opening, 18” x 24” short opening and all openings are hinged on the long side.

Pricing structures for the Camo Huts are still in the finalizing stages.

Operation Manager Wendell Byrd said he wants to take one of the huts to several outdoor expos in order to get feedback on how they can make their product better for the consumer.

“It’s all going to be one piece, seamless, so you couldn’t blow it down,” Byrd said. “We figure you could take a pressure treated platform and put lag bolts in the lip of the hut … We’ve got it to about 350 pounds so four guys could move it if they had to.”

Byrd believes Sun Pools has made one of the largest hunting blinds on the market.

“I’ve been on-line and I’ve seen most of them and I think we have the biggest one out there,” Byrd said. “I think there are going to be some people out there who will set these huts on their farm and it’s a 40 year deal. You set it on a pressure treated platform and that fiberglass will be there from now on.”

Byrd said the idea for the Camo Huts came from the pool pump covers they make that goes with their swimming pool installation.

The Camo Hut angle was actually a third product that was inspired when the pool pump cover design was used to produce dog houses.

“We started building those a couple of years ago and then we started using the same molds for the dog houses. We have a small one and a large one,” Byrd said. “We are trying to diversify because in the winter, the pool business goes down, so if we add something to where we can be producing a product during those down months it would keep things moving.”

Even though the process of building the Camo Huts is still in the research and design phase, Byrd said if it goes well and they can get some positive feedback, it could possibly add a few more jobs in their plant in the future.

“That’s our goal … if we go to the show and get some orders then we will have to add some jobs for it,” Byrd said. “It could potentially add more jobs.”

Byrd said it doesn’t take long to produce a Camo Hut from start to finish. Once the customer picks out the window and door configuration, as well as the camo pattern, Sun Fiberglass Pools can have the hut ready in four to five days.

“I think it’s going to be a good thing to offer something different to customers,” Byrd said.

In addition to the Camo Huts, Sun Fiberglass Pools can also make fiberglass storage building, the same size as the camo huts, and they also made dog houses and can equip those with a camo pattern for hunters with hunting dogs.