Frank May, president of A&M Distributors, stands in front of the Chattanooga retail store The Pool Place on Perimeter Drive. May is renaming the retailer to The Great Backyard Place.Frank May is a third-generation retailer of toys, pools and spas.
His business may be about leisure goods, but there's nothing leisurely about the business plans for the 40-year-old businessman over the next five years.
With a new name and focus, May plans to more than double the five stores he now operates in East Tennessee while building up a new outdoor furniture business he started in Chattanooga.
May ventures: Path to Great Backyard Place
* 1953: Frank May moves his gas station to Germantown and Ringgold roads in East Ridge and names the business A&M, where he sells everything from gas to tackle to toys. * 1955: Business evolves into A&M Toys and hobby store. * 1962: When Eastgate Mall opens, A&M Toys opens a store in the mall. Through the 1960s and '70s, A&M Toys grows to nine locations. * 1973: Frank May dies and his son, Tom, takes over the business. * 1979: K-B Toys buys A&M Toys. * 1980: Toy inventory is liquidated by the Mays and pool store opened at the end of Perimeter Road as A&M Backyard Fun Family center. * 1982: Knoxville store is added. The Pool Place name is adopted. * 1983: Maryville Pool Place is opened. * 1992: Tom May buys spa manufacturer and builds Artesian Spa into the nation's fifth largest spa maker. * 2011: Cleveland, Tenn., Pool Place is opened. * 2012: Inground pool manufacturer, Poolblue, is added by Frank May. * 2014: Knoxville distribution center opens. * 2015: The Hanging Bed Co. is started with outdoor furniture made in Lookout Valley. * 2015: Pool Place is renamed The Great Backyard Place. Asheville store is opened.
"I've got nine children, and I guess I figured I needed a store to help support each one of them," he quipped Monday in a telephone interview from Asheville, N.C., where he is preparing to open a new store this week.
May's expansion comes as he puts a new brand on his retail business.
After more than three decades as The Pool Place, the family-owned retail business will don a new name at its 30,000-square-foot warehouse on Perimeter Drive in Chattanooga on Feb. 18.
May is renaming the retailer to The Great Backyard Place to better reflect the diverse offerings at his stores in Chattanooga, Cleveland, Maryville and Knoxville.
On Friday, May will expand into North Carolina by opening The Great Backyard Place in Asheville - the first of six such stores he plans to open over the next five years in the Tar Heel state.
"When we decided to move into Asheville we found there already was a business called the Pool Place there," May said. "But we already knew we wanted to rebrand our store because our pools comprise less of our bottom line and we're positioning ourselves to become the superstore for backyard living."
"We want people to think of us when they think about their backyard," he said.
May insists his commitment to customer service and innovation remains the same that his family has demonstrated for more than 60 years.
"The Great Backyard Place is not a divorce from our past, but rather it's the natural evolution of our business," he said.
The business began in 1953 as an East Ridge filling station known as A&M and was run by May's grandfather Frank G. May. Transitioning from a pet shop to toys and hobbies, the business finally moved to Lee Highway where it focused on backyard living by selling pools and adopted the Pool Place name by 1982.
Three generations and four additional locations later, the business continues to grow and evolve. Still offering their swimming products, Great Backyard goes beyond pools and offers everything from outdoor kitchens and grills to backyard firepits.
"We want to make creating the ideal outdoor living area as painless and hassle-free as possible by combining the casual furniture store with the grill shop and the pool store," May said.
Over the years the May family has created other companies, including Artesian Spas in the 1990, Poolblue in 2012 and The Hanging Bed Company earlier this year.
"There's not a lot of innovation happening in the outdoor living industry and so I'm very committed to keeping our brand relevant and fresh and providing new reasons for keeping people to come back," May said. "Sometimes, it falls upon us to create the new products and to do it cheaper and better.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.