Virginia Beach-based pool repair and maintenance company Pool Scouts recently opened its first location in Naples, Florida. While the brand currently has 15 locations across the U.S., six of those territories are located in Florida. Pool Scouts now aims to leverage the success they’ve seen so far to strengthen its existing foothold in The Sunshine State.

“Florida has proven to be a lucrative market for our brand, which makes sense when you look at the sheer number of cities in the state with a large number of residential pools,” said Pool Scouts President Michael Wagner. “While we have a great initial presence, there are a number of territories still available. This most recent opening in Naples will help promote our future growth by continuing to strengthen our brand recognition in the state.”

Military veteran Alex Weatherholt is the owner operator of the Naples location. After serving in the armed forces for nearly 14 years, he was forced to retire due to a medical injury, but he wasn’t done helping his fellow brethren. Soon after, Weatherholt decided to get involved with Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit that provides aids to injured veterans.

“I’m from Fort Lauderdale originally, so when I got involved with Operation Homefront and they awarded me the house in Naples, it was a great opportunity to be closer to family and help ease into transitioning back into civilian life,” he said.

After moving to Naples, Weatherholt began to look into business ownership opportunities through franchising. He was specifically looking for a franchise in the home services industry due to its recurring revenue model. When Weatherholt found Buzz Franchise Brands, he knew it was a great opportunity and reached out to learn more.

“I spoke to the recruiter about Pool Scouts, and had actually done some work with pool cleaning and maintenance in my past. I figured it’d be a good fit for not only me but the market as a whole since there are a lot of retirees and elderly residents in the area who would benefit from a pool maintenance company coming to town,” said Weatherholt.

While Weatherholt’s Pool Scouts location just opened on September 3rd, the veteran franchisee is already looking at expanding with the brand in the future, eyeing a territory in Marco Island and other markets further south in Florida.

“We are constantly looking for ambitious franchisees like Alex to join our system, and we’re fortunate to have him on board,” said Wagner. “We have a number of veterans in our organization who have found success using the skills they gained during their time in the military to run their business. They know how to work hard, how to lead a team and how to follow a proven model. We have no doubt that Alex will see similar results.”

As Pool Scouts continues to define new growth markets in Florida, the brand will be looking for more qualified candidates like Weatherholt to join the system. For more information on the territories that are currently available, visit https://poolscoutsfranchise.com/.