About Us

Mark grew up in Swan Hill, but had moved away after school where he found himself working at another irrigation shop. Then in 2001, the current owners of Waterplan approached him to see if he wanted to move back home and run his own store. “The Waterplan team knew who I was from my previous role and working in the industry for a long time. It was a great offer that I couldn’t refuse, so I headed back to my hometown and we built the business from scratch, it was a great challenge,” Mark says. But, in 2003, the store was completely destroyed by fire, and Mark found himself having to start from scratch again.

In 2007 Waterplan, along with many other irrigation businesses in Australia became foundation members of the Think Water Franchise and the store was rebranded Think Water Swan Hill. Mark says that 60 percent of the business looks after agricultural customers, while the other 40 percent is split between commercial turf farms and domestic customers, but they are always looking at other ways to grow their business. “Our residential and commercial pump supply business is pretty steady, but in the last 12 months we’ve started to branch out into mobile pool maintenance and water testing. We’ve always offered this service from the shop, but offering it as a mobile service was an obvious next step.” “It’s been a good expansion for the business to help our customers who might be time poor and can’t make it to the shop, they now have the option of having the experts come to them.” Mark was also instrumental in bringing Davey Water products across to Think Water Swan Hill. “When we opened, another competitor was the major pump supplier in town using a different brand of product. I knew I wanted to supply Davey products because of their quality, and as a different alternative to build our customer base, therefore setting ourselves apart in the local market. I knew the brand from my previous role, and that they would be a good fit for the different types of customers in the region.” “Now, Davey is the top pump product used in the region. Davey don’t see us as just one of their dealers, but rather as a partner, which is so valuable to us. They’ve been with us since the beginning and we enjoy a two-way relationship where we know we can support and rely on each other,” Mark says.