About Us

BioGuard Poolside stores are experts in the pool and spa industry, stocking the largest range of premium products including brands like BioGuard, BioLab and Hayward; some of the best products on the market.

Leading edge BioGuard Poolside stores also boast innovative technology and the fastest, most accurate computerised water analysis methods. Since 2004, BioGuard Poolside has been voted best pool and spa shop by the Swimming Pool and Spa Association (SPASA). This means you can expect the best products, service and shopping experience in every BioGuard Poolside store.

about-poolside

Happy 40th Birthday BioLab

This year, BioLab is celebrating 40 years in the pool and spa industry in Australia and 30 years in New Zealand. During this time, Biolab has become one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of pool and spa care chemicals in Australia and New Zealand.

Leon Bloom, founder of BioLab and widely considered the godfather of modern pool care, is credited with ushering in a number of industry innovations, including computerised water testing and shock, packaged for proper dosing. But it was his programmed approach to water treatment that revolutionised the pool industry.

Leon Bloom and his wife, Dorothy

When Bloom began exploring avenues for his algaecide, he discovered a ripe market in swimming pools, an industry growing so rapidly that Bloom sold his agricultural interests to a managing partner.

As early as 1962, Bloom firmly cemented his place in the pool industry with the advent of BioGuard®. No longer pushing algaecide as a stand-alone, he instead marketed a treatment program that combined products, including bags of shock — a novel approach at the time — to deliver optimum water quality and balance. Bloom sold the company to Swedish chemical supplier Lonza in 1979 and retired to Florida shortly thereafter.

BioLab is a trailblazer in retail best practice, introducing BioGuard Poolside stores in 2004. Product innovation is also core to BioLab’s success. The BioGuard brand is sold throughout Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, South Africa and under the Bayrol brand, in Europe – a truly global business. BioLab is part of KIK Consumer Products, one of North America’s largest independent manufacturers of consumer products including pool chemicals, household cleaners and automotive cleaners.

Constant research and development has led to a better program geared to the maintenance of healthy pools and spas. And now BioGuard products are sold in over 500 stores across Australia and New Zealand, making us the largest retail network in pool and spa chemicals in Australasia.

True then, still true today
Alex Chandler, Michael Van Der Haar and Dennis Grey

Key Milestones


1955       Self-taught chemist, Leon Bloom, founds BioLab Inc in Georgia, Atlanta USA, creating quaternary ammonium algaecide.
1950s     Bloom targets burgeoning USA poultry industry, developing a system to use his algaecide to cleanse eggs and sanitise chicks’ drinking and bathing water.
1962       Bloom establishes BioGuard range of swimming pool and spa chemicals, creating the 3-step system (sanitise, oxidise, algaecide) to optimise water chemistry.
1979       Bloom sells his pool chemical business to Swedish chemical supplier, Lonza Group.
1980       BioLab becomes the leading manufacturer and marketer of pool and spa chemicals throughout the world.
1983      Swim Chem (BioGuard) launches in Australia.
1993       BioGuard brand launches in New Zealand.
1996       Great Lakes Chemical Corporation purchases BioLab from Lonza Group.
2004       BioGuard Poolside retail stores launched.
2005       Great Lakes Chemical Corporation merges with Crompton Corporation to form Chemtura.
2007       Biolab office moves from Melbourne to Adelaide
2013       KIK Consumer Products (Canada) acquires BioLab from Chemtura, expanding its pool and spa treatment business within the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
2015       BioLab Founder, Leon Bloom, dies aged 96.
2019       KIK Consumer Products (Canada) acquires Natural Chemistry Brands, pioneers of naturally-based enzyme technology.
2020       BioGuard Retail Lynx launched – pool store platform comprising instore water testing, pool servicing app, point of sale and accounting
2023       Celebrating 40 years in Australia and 30 years in New Zealand.