While Bob Biernat will tell you the success of the family swimming pool business is about passion and drive, his wife Rona will tell you it’s about family.
They’re actually both right, because the local, national and international success of Freedom Pools has taken a good dose of both.
Now the multi-million-dollar business is celebrating 50 years in business and is still run by the couple who started it.
“It has always been passion and drive for me, since I was young,” admitted Mr Biernat about the secret to his success. “I always wanted to do more exciting things.”
In 1972, inspired by the seemingly limitless potential of fibreglass, a young Mr Biernat unwittingly set the stage to become a global leader in swimming pool manufacturing. Mr Biernat and his brother-in-law John, started by launching Narrogin Fibreglass two years later. Their initial focus was crafting fibreglass water tanks for farmers in the Wheatbelt. A venture that proved successful and paved the way for the diversification of their business.
Living in Bunbury they also started selling pools to farmers in surrounding country areas and later opened an outdoor centre called Outdoor Freedom Pools. By 1980, John and his wife Gill Buist sold their half of the company to Bob and Rona. Though they lamented losing family, the couple embarked on a new chapter of growth, marked by expansion and powered by Mr Biernat’s relentless pursuit of quality and ingenuity. They also changed the company’s name to the well-known and loved moniker, Freedom Pools.
While Mr Biernat has always been more of a fisherman than a swimmer, he always liked the way swimming pools in a backyard had a way of bringing a family together.
“I was very hands-on and we were making a product which was better than anyone else’s,”he says.
While delivering tanks to a business on Albany Highway in Kenwick in 1984, Mr Biernat spotted a vacant factory. It would make the perfect location for a swimming pool manufacturing division, while the tank manufacturing remained in Narrogin. They moved in, and despite a recession, business boomed. The Kenwick showroom has been their home ever since and this year celebrates its own anniversary of 40 years.
So determined was Mr Biernat, that when he saw the showroom, he called his wife and told her he was moving to Perth to start making swimming pools. She sold up in Narrogin and moved the family. Soon after employees of the tank business bought it.
Before the Biernat’s knew it, they had sold their first 500 fibreglass pools overseas – customers loving Freedom’s colours, designs and shapes. Very quickly, Freedom started making its mark internationally, exporting pools to countries such as England, Singapore, Japan, Myanmar and Malaysia.
They employed their first manager in 1990 and in April that year bought a swimming pool business in South Australia and built a factory there. They eventually expanded in Victoria and New South Wales, added a manufacturing facility in Brisbane and today have display centres and agents all over the country.
They also started manufacturing in Spain to service the European market. One of Mr Biernat’s innovations has been creating Marble Tech, a pool finish that gives the appearance of marble, is resistant to fading and comes in a variety of colours and finishes. They’ve been winning awards since 1992, most recently the Biernats received a gold medal for their 50 years of service to the pool industry at the 2023 Swimming Pool & Spa Association WA awards. Freedom was also crowned WA Fibreglass Builder of the Year.
Though a lot of the travel has been to national and international pool shows, the business has given the Biernats the freedom to see the world, something they hope to continue. They have also raised two daughters, both of whom have spent time working in the business.
For Insight Advisory Group, working with a client for almost 35 years is almost as rare as a business celebrating 50 years.
During that time, Insight’s Stewart Blizard, group managing director and Principal of Tax and Advisory has helped guide Freedom Pools and the Biernats. Through expanding nationally and overseas, weathering 17% interest rates, COVID, recessions and a change in the corporate tax rate, Insight have been there as a steady partner.
Two years ago when there was a fire in the Kenwick plant, Insight was at the Biernat’s side to help rebuild.
“You can spend a lot of time building a brand up and when things change around you, we can help a client push through,” says Mr Blizard. “As the business has expanded and grown – like going overseas – that adds a level of complexity to our work with them.
“We’ve had challenging times together. We’ve had to find solutions and make decisions for the ongoing success of the company. What we love about working with family businesses is that we get to know the family. You can lay a solid foundation for a relationship and we love seeing them become successful, like Freedom Pools.”
Freedom Pools now has about 100 staff Australia-wide, with 25 staff locally.
“We love our people,” said Mrs Biernat. “They come first before anything and that’s been hard when things are tough.
“I’m proud of our longevity and all the hard work and everything that goes with it to survive.”
