Pomona company bets Coleman brand will lift sales of its hot tubs

For hot tub manufacturers and the small retailers that sell the majority of the industry's goods, the recession arrived about six years ago, pushing sales down dramatically.

Hot tub sales are expected to tally only about 180,000, down from a high of 452,000 in 2004, said Lauren Stack, a spokeswoman for the Assn. of Pool & Spa Professionals.

The massive drop-off in sales has resulted in about 60 spa manufacturers closing over the last six years and many big-box retailers pulling hot tubs from the stores in favor of selling them online only or not at all.

But LMS Inc., a Pomona company known for its CalSpas brand and outdoor furniture, recently bought the rights to build a new line of hot tubs under the Coleman Spas name.

LMS is hoping the strength of the Coleman name -- known for camping gear such as coolers, lanterns and sleeping bags -- can get hot tubs back into mass retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart and win back sales among consumers, said Casey Loyd, LMS' president.

The new Coleman Spas, built by LMS, should be available by February, Loyd said.

Read more about the state of the hot tub industry and LMS' acquisition of the Coleman Spas brand in today's article.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Consumer Confidential: Sales, stuff and soda

Here's your whoopee-it's-Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Retail sales fell last month, but not really. They're only down because they were up by a lot because of the "cash for clunkers" program, which lured car buyers back into showrooms. Discounting the program's effects, retail sales were actually up by 0.5%, which is a bit better than what economists had been expecting. The betting line among the pocket-calculator crowd is that the economy's still crawling its way toward recovery.

--Some more upbeat news from the statistic front: Business inventories were down by 1.5% in August, the 13th straight month of declines. Why do you care? Because as companies clear stuff away from their shelves, that just makes it more likely they'll need to order more stuff as the economy improves. More stuff means more production, which means more jobs. At least that's the general idea.

--Our pals at PepsiCo are drawing heat for a new iPhone app designed to help guys score with women. Seriously. The app, called "Amp up before you score," is intended to push the company's Amp energy drink. It allows users to pick the type of women they prefer -- "foreign exchange student," say, or "cougar" -- and offers helpful pickup lines. Pepsi apologized via Twitter (natch) that it was just trying to be funny. Yeah, I love it when big companies show off their sense of humor.

-- David Lazarus

Consumer Confidential: Pocketbooks, protection and pups

Here's your thrilled-it's-Thursday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--We're shopping again. Consumer spending posted a 1.3% increase in August -- the largest jump in nearly eight years -- thanks mostly to the government's cash-for-clunkers program, which lured car buyers back into showrooms. Economists say we probably won't see another spending spree like that any time soon, but we've still logged four straight months of growth.

--Fedmeister Ben Bernanke told lawmakers it's "vitally important" that consumers are protected from "unfair and deceptive practices in their financial dealings." But he stopped short of endorsing President Obama's plan for a a new regulatory agency that would focus solely on doing just that. The banking industry says the Fed can handle all that watchdogging on its own (with help from a bunch of other agencies). Yeah, that's worked really well for consumers so far.

--Careful with that puppy chow. Nutro Products is pulling some of its puppy food from store shelves because a worker's hard hat was apparently sucked into the machinery, raising the possibility of bits of plastic getting into Fido's feast.

-- David Lazarus

Whole Foods Market switching to new forest-friendly recycled bags

When it comes to going green, Whole Foods says it has it in the bag.

Under an agreement between Whole Foods Market and the Forest Stewardship Council, recycled paper used to make the grocer's shopping bags will be tracked both coming and going. Starting in May, Whole Foods will be the first national grocer to offer paper shopping bags that are certified by the council as made of 100% post-consumer recycled material, the company announced today in a statement.

Paper used to make Whole Foods' new bags will be made of previously recycled paper fibers such as corrugated boxes that were already used for food products, the company said.

While many stores offer recycled paper bags, Whole Foods is the first to form an alliance with the Forest Stewardship Council, an international nonprofit group that certifies the environmental-friendliness of recycled products and promotes forest conservation.

In other words, you not only have to worry about making the right paper-versus-plastic choice, you have to worry about how green your recycled paper is.

The new recycled bags won't change Whole Foods' policy of offering a refund of 5 or 10 cents (depending on the store) to  customers receipts' for those who bring their own bags, and the grocer still encourages people to choose reusable canvas or burlap over paper or plastic, the company said.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles