Fluidra transforms product data for 200,000+ SKUs and accelerates global growth

At a glance:

• Industrial Manufacturing
• B2B/B2C
• Enterprise
• Barcelona, Spain

200,000

SKUs

7,000+

Employees

20+

Legacy ERP systems

Summary

Fluidra, a global leader in pool and wellness manufacturing and distribution, unified its complex network of brands, branch offices, and production centers with Inriver PIM—creating a flexible, centralized data model to power digital growth and operational efficiency worldwide. 

Previously, product data was scattered across 20+ legacy systems, creating inefficiencies, duplication, and compliance risks. Partnering with Ctac, Fluidra implemented Inriver as its single source of truth, connecting global teams across R&D, engineering, production, and marketing to manage and distribute product content more efficiently.

Outcomes: 

• Centralized 200,000+ SKUs across 160 branches and production centers
• Integrated data from 20+ legacy ERP systems into one unified model
• Automated data cleaning and removal of duplicates

The challenge

In the pool and wellness industry, Fluidra is an influential leader in designing, manufacturing, and distributing all components required to construct, refurbish, improve, and maintain residential and commercial pools.

Fluidra currently provides products and services to 5 million pools worldwide, with an aftermarket business (e.g., refurbishments and maintenance) accounting for 70% of total sales. In France alone, the company services 1.5 million residential ground pools and a further 1.2 million in Spain.

Fluidra’s previous product data management database was inflexible and unable to align with the company’s rapid expansion strategies. This hindered cross-functional teams’ ability to collaborate seamlessly on shared product data. Furthermore, since the legacy system lacked integration with ERP systems, employees had no choice but to manage manual data entry, leading to error-prone processes and compliance concerns.

“We manually created each SKU in our database because we had no connection with an ERP. We needed to reduce manual maintenance and connect with our ERP systems.”

Carolina de Rubertis Albarellos

PIM Product Owner, Fluidra

To support its multifaceted business operations, Fluidra needed a robust PIM solution that could support every department along the entire product journey, including:

• R&D: A constant focus on innovation meant continual product updates and evolving product designs
• Engineers: Quick access to compliance data and certificate guidance was essential to speed up time to market
• Production: A streamlined method for accessing product and technical data was critical

The implementation

Implementation partner Ctac brought in knowledge and many best practices from their previous experience of Inriver implementations.

They optimized the ways of working and helped Fluidra roll out global brand websites and B2B e-commerce. The integration with Magento is a good example: a generic, configurable setup of the Magento integrations enabled Fluidra to get every website and country live.

The implementation took one year in total. During that time, Ctac consultants worked closely with the Fluidra implementation and development team to promote synchronization at every stage of the process.

However, the implementation period did not impact Fluidra’s growth ambitions. According to Carolina, Fluidra was able to open new e-commerce channels throughout that time – while the PIM was being developed. This meant the company did not lose any momentum. In fact, Fluidra actually gained momentum during the implementation by opening new lanes of opportunity.

The solution

The Inriver PIM solution has given Fluidra a clear overview of all product information across its 160 branch offices and production centers—from R&D to aftersales, maintenance, and spare parts.

In addition to using the Inriver PIM for their global brand websites and B2B e-commerce, their factories now have a repository for inputting technical information necessary for product manuals, technical data sheets, and safety documentation.

The ability to customize products to customer needs has been optimized. And the marketing department has a dedicated PIM team to help them better use the system to ensure consistent handling, distribution, and communication of product information.

Across the company, the Inriver PIM has automated data cleaning and removal of duplicate data from the system. All Fluidra employees can now easily download a variety of product information files, including Excel sheets, technical manuals, product descriptions, features, and compliance data.

“The biggest achievements are the speed that PIM has provided us to put the products on the market on our different websites, as well as the good feedback we have from our customers for having a more robust product catalog in our e-commerce websites.”

Carolina de Rubertis Albarellos

PIM Product Owner, Fluidra

Another key benefit is the ability to digitally search a database of thousands of products and see which ones are pending, which certificates are about to expire, and what products can be sold in which countries due to different compliance regulations. Branch office staff also have an instant view of the spare parts inventory.

After-sales, maintenance, and spare parts data have been integrated directly within the new PIM system so the company also knows exactly what they have in stock and where. Providing customers with reliable and updated product and technical information has also resulted in fewer returns.

The results

With the Inriver implementation complete, Fluidra can experience the benefits of having a flexible data model. As Carolina notes, this flexibility allows the company to configure the data model to match workflow. She says she has also had great feedback about other capabilities such as distribution and syndication.

With innovation at the heart of Fluidra’s corporate values, another result of implementing the Inriver PIM is better collaboration between departments. “Before having a common database, everyone worked at their own pace on their own things. Now we can focus our efforts on key priorities as a company – such as coordinating product information and marketing efforts across borders,” she explains. “It also means that with many eyes on the same data, you catch mistakes much faster.”

“We can now access product images, technical features, and update manuals much faster and easier – shortening handling times for customer requests for documentation. The Inriver team has helped guide us through this process.”

Carolina de Rubertis Albarellos

PIM Product Owner, Fluidra

Having a centralized product information database with additional capabilities has enabled Fluidra to launch eight new stores in eight different countries, and open new e-commerce websites. According to Carolina, none of this would have been possible without the Inriver PIM solution.

What’s next?

With the aim of onboarding sustainability across business management, Fluidra has developed its second ESG Plan “Responsibility Blueprint 2020-2026” defining the core lines to work on around Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) issues.

The Inriver PIM solution allows the company to track its environmental footprint moving forward. This is one of Fluidra’s objectives once they have completed a company user review of the Inriver PIM – making sure everything is in place to ensure long-term use and success across the company.