Awards & Recognition

Jack Moore has been in the water business for almost 50 years, and is a long-term member of the CWQA. He shares some of his story in the water business:

“It all started when I rented a house in Elmira, Ontario. I walked down into the basement, and saw this machine hooked up to the plumping, called the landlord, and asked, “What is this thing?” He said, “It’s a water softener.” I asked again, “What does it do?” He said, “Go down to Aquasoft and they’ll explain it.” So they told me what to do to start it up: I threw some salt in it. I liked it so much, I asked them for a job, and they hired me. In the first two weeks I sold 11 water softeners. I was told the General Manager of Aquasoft in London wanted to have a meeting with me. I thought maybe I was going to be fired! They just wanted to know how I was doing it.  I was making my own literature, going door to door 5 days a week, 100 doors a day, and getting 1-2 sales calls per day, working on them at night after supper from 7-9pm.  After working there a few months, I realized I had sold 25 units on one street alone! I thought this would be the norm, but it never happened again! I did really well at Aquasoft, and was approached by Water Group Canada to work in their Econosoft store in Kitchener.

A funny aside, during my period at Econosoft, I had an opportunity to take my staff and my wife, Mary to see motivational speaker, Zig Zigler, in Toronto. At the time, Mary was working at Lazy Boy making $35K/year. I remember Zig saying, if you are trying to decide about something, write a line down the centre of the page, and on one side write the Pros, and the other, write the Cons. So when Mary did this, she decided to quit her $35K/year job and join me in my adventures!  The next time I saw Zig Zigler in Detroit (by myself), I said to him, “You cost me $35K a year!” Mary says it was the best thing we ever did.

Next I decided to go out on my own selling water distillers. Mary and I  had a small booth at the farmer’s market in Kitchener once a week, as well as going in local trade shows. One time I was at the Kitchener home show where I met a young guy, also selling water distillers of a different brand. I was surprised to find out Gary Eder was only 19 years old at the time. We got to know each other and became friends (“friendly competitors”), until we both decided we might become partners, and form our own company, Crystal Clear Water Distillers.

We had heard of a Canadian Manufacturer in Alberta, so we flew out to meet with Polar Bear Water Distillers. Over the course of that  weekend we secured the distributing rights to setup dealers in Ontario, and supply ourselves with Canadian product.  We also decided that with my experience selling water softeners, we should add them to our product offering., and sell them as well.  Eventually, we secured a dealership  with Water Group Canada to sell their water softeners,  providing total solutions for our customers.

In the early 80s, we heard of different way of providing purified drinking water through the process of  “reverse osmosis (RO).” To learn more about it, we flew out to Southern California to meet Robert Slovac, who was considered a “guru” in the industry, and eventually, we secured a dealership with his company, Water Factory Systems, to add reverse osmosis systems to our product offerings.

A couple funny stories. Gary and I would occasionally eat lunch at a pizza place in Waterloo. We noticed the water they put on the table tasted like chlorine. So we proposed water purification for their drinking water. I did some math, and figured they used about 12,000 glasses of water a year. So I put together a proposal for a commercial RO system, and when I called to see if they were going to go ahead, they said, “We were shocked to find out how much water we are putting out, so we’ve decided not to hand out water anymore…unless they ask!” So much for our first foray into commercial sales!

Another time, in Kitchener, the tap water became unsafe. Our commercial distiller only provided 45 gallons per day. Every morning people lined up  outside the door before we opened hoping to fill their jugs with purified water. One morning it was so crowded when I came in, I said to Gary, “Now I know how Elvis felt!” We ran out one day,  and a lady asked, “Do you not have any more water?” So, we asked Anita our secretary if she could give  up her coffee pot water, and she did!  I phoned California and told them we have a supply problem; we want a 200-gallon RO system. They asked, “How do you want to ship it?” I replied, “I don’t care if you have to put it on your lap and fly it here, just get it here!”

Gary and I worked well together. He was a good partner, a good friend, and still is.  Eventually I became interested in boating and wanted to move on. So, we sold our share of the business to Gary in 1988, bought a boat, semi-retired for a few months, and moved up to Barrie to start a new business: Aquamart. From November of 1990 until now, we have lived in Barrie, and our store Aquamart has done very well.

When we came to Barrie, it was just me and Mary. Eventually, my son Rick and his wife, Deanna, moved up from Kitchener. Rick helped in sales and Deanna helped in accounting (and is still doing it to this day). Deanna and Mary ended up running the store for 10 years, while Rick and I were selling. I discovered it’s all about teamwork to make a business succeed. We treat our employees well and look after our customers. Many of them are good friends today. As a result, most of our business is provided by referrals and testimonials.

There were times when I worried about things, but you have to have faith. Mary is fearless; she encouraged me a lot, and then I would go for it. She has always supported me. She wasn’t telling me it can’t be done, because we figured anything can be done if you put your mind to it. We never gave up. Mary and I are in a good place now, and we’re having a good time doing it.

If you don’t have the passion you’ll never be successful, because it’s not easy. But it’s not really work if you enjoy it. As Mark Twain said, “Find something you like to do, and you’ll never work a day in your life!”  I like doing it just as much now as when I started.