Merlin Industries

Why Merlin is Your Best Choice: Merlin Industries Inc. was founded in 1988 with the idea that people shouldn't have to wait so long for a custom-made safety cover and that dealers who ordered custom made safety covers should be treated with first class service and dependability. In the first year, Merlin was small. There was no office, only a desk on the floor. There was one phone, and our price list was one page and our brochure was black and white. Sitting at that desk was the company founder and president Andrew Maggion. He didn't have much to do. Just answer the phone, process the orders, draft the orders and put them into production, along with all the other responsibilities of running a company. Our production department also was a little smaller back then. There was one cutting table and two sewing machines. With a total employee force of eight that year, we made 400 covers. Our goals at that time were to produce our covers with the highest standards of quality, fit and performance, while also providing our dealers excellence in delivery, communication and customer service. Since then, Merlin has been a pioneer in new products and services. In 1992, we were the first manufacturer to make a "solid" safety cover - in the style of a taut, form fitting, spring loaded design. Our goal was to provide our dealers with the same fit and look of the custom mesh cover, with the added benefit of perfectly clean, clear water in the spring. In 1993, Merlin's production had outgrown its original facility and we moved into our location at 70 Culbertson Avenue. One floor of this facility more than doubled our production space, but in 1998 our success demanded the need for even more space, so we purchased the entire building at that location, and again more than doubled our production space. Still not enough, in August of 2005 we moved our entire operation into our new state of the art 100,000 square foot location in Hamilton, NJ. Merlin now employs over 260 people. Many of our key personnel come from within the industry, giving us a first hand knowledge of what our customers want and need. Merlin has been responsible for many other innovations in our marketplace. In 1991 we wanted to expand our product line. We introduced our Safe n' Secure Safety Fence, which is an excellent complement to our safety cover line. In 1994, Merlin incorporated vinyl liners into its product line. By acquiring the machinery and hiring the workforce from the Heldor/Aqua-Fab liner divisions, we were able to immediately produce liners with the quality and dependability our dealers expect from Merlin Industries. In 1997, Merlin brought its customer focused manufacturing skills into Spa Cover manufacturing. With the launching of our newest division, Custom Spa Covers, Inc. Merlin continues to raise the grade in manufacturing and customer service. Over the years, Merlin Industries has continued to solicit dealer and distributor input in the design of new products and services offered. We now have the most extensive offering of material types available in the Safety Cover market today. In 1995, we added our Advanced-Grade Mesh cover material with a 20-year warranty. In 1996, we added Kaleidoscapes! an upgraded solid material available in twelve single colors or a mix and match of up to three colored stripes. Again Merlin raised the bar as an innovator in the industry. Our proprietary liner patterns continue to increase in number, fueled by today's consumer's need to transform their back-yard into their own private oasis. In the fall of 2001, Merlin Industries took our standard mesh safety cover material to the next level and introduced Dura-Mesh. A 33 percent stronger and more dense material than our competition's standard mesh. Merlin Dura-Mesh safety covers once again stood out as not just another ordinary mesh cover. Now, with more and more companies entering the safety cover market, Merlin Industries has once again blazed ahead of our competitors with the invention and patent approval of SmartMesh. After six years of research and testing, Merlin's SmartMesh safety covers are a true innovation combining the benefits of solid safety covers and the benefits of mesh safety covers. SmartMesh provides 100% shade and 40 micron filtration of debris in a mesh cover. NO other cover company can make this claim and we have the patent to prove it! SmartMesh™ weighs 40 percent less than our solid cover material and SmartMesh covered pools open significantly cleaner than standard mesh covered pools.