Swimming pool industry voice: Anne-Cedrik Mayer-Klenk
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SWIMMING POOL INDUSTRY VOICE
Cedrik Mayer-Klenk
Cedrik Mayer-Klenk is an internationally experienced entrepreneur and Managing Director of CF Group. With a German-French background, he has spent more than three decades leading the development of the company and building its international presence.
A strong advocate for innovation and responsible growth in the swimming pool industry, he brings a long-term, international perspective to the challenges and opportunities shaping its future.
Cedrik, after more than three decades leading CF Group, what conviction about swimming pools has remained constant throughout your career?
One conviction has never changed: a swimming pool is not a luxury; it is a living space. It encourages physical activity, supports mental wellbeing, and creates moments of connection among families and across generations.
Over the years, technologies, consumer expectations and regulations have evolved considerably. Yet the fundamental role of the swimming pool has remained the same: it enhances quality of life.
As manufacturers, our responsibility is to ensure that this experience becomes increasingly safer, simpler and more sustainable.
Today, our challenge is no longer simply to build swimming pools or pool equipment. It is to demonstrate that they can contribute positively to some of society’s biggest challenges - from health and wellbeing to the responsible management of water and energy.
How do perceptions of swimming pools differ between countries and cultures? What can they learn from each other?
Perceptions vary considerably across countries.
In Northern Europe, swimming pools are often associated with wellness, health and quality of life. In Southern Europe, they are more closely linked to outdoor living, family time and hospitality. Other markets see them primarily as an investment that enhances property value or lifestyle.
These perspectives are different, but they are also complementary. They all demonstrate that swimming pools respond to universal human needs, even if the motivations differ.
I also believe that countries can learn a great deal from one another, particularly in areas such as energy efficiency, water management, digital technologies and sustainable design.
The challenges we face are global. Our solutions should be too.
How important are initiatives like Pool Horizons in changing the conversation around swimming pools?
They are absolutely essential.
For many years, our industry has focused its communication on products, aesthetics or leisure. While these aspects remain important, they are no longer enough.
Pool Horizons helps shift the conversation towards evidence, science and measurable impact. It brings together manufacturers and industry experts to explore how swimming pools can contribute to healthier lifestyles, climate adaptation, innovation and more responsible resource management.
Perhaps most importantly, this transformation cannot be driven by a single company. It requires an entire industry to adopt a new narrative based on facts rather than assumptions.
If we want to change perceptions, we need to explain, measure and demonstrate. That is precisely the role Pool Horizons is playing.
One of your most thought-provoking ideas is that a home with a pool could be more sustainable than one without. Can you explain how that could become a reality?
At first glance, that idea may seem counterintuitive. But that is only true if we think about yesterday’s swimming pool.
Tomorrow’s pool will be very different.
We increasingly see the swimming pool not as an isolated piece of leisure equipment, but as an integral part of the home’s environmental infrastructure. It can help store thermal energy, optimize energy exchanges, reduce evaporation, collect and manage rainwater, and continuously generate data that improves the efficiency of the entire system.
In other words, the pool becomes an active contributor to a smarter, more resilient and more resource-efficient home.
Our ambition is not simply to make swimming pools more sustainable. It is to rethink their role entirely.
We believe they can evolve into climate infrastructure - helping households manage water, energy and environmental performance in ways that were unimaginable only a few years ago.
What do you think will define the next chapter for the swimming pool industry? What excites you most about the future?
I believe our industry is entering a completely new chapter.
For decades, innovation focused on improving individual products: better filtration, more efficient heating, safer covers or smarter water treatment. Those innovations remain important, but the next transformation is much bigger.
The swimming pool will become part of a connected ecosystem, interacting with photovoltaic systems, heat pumps, rainwater harvesting, smart home platforms and intelligent energy management.
Rather than being viewed as a standalone leisure feature, it will become an active component of sustainable buildings and resilient communities.
What excites me most is that we now have the opportunity to redefine an entire category.
Our ambition should no longer be simply to manufacture better pool equipment. It should be to help create homes and buildings that are healthier, more efficient and better adapted to the environmental challenges ahead.
If our industry succeeds in making that transition, swimming pools will no longer be seen as symbols of consumption, but as contributors to a more sustainable way of living.
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