Bullfrog Spas is a home and furniture brand founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1996. It is headquartered in Herriman, Utah.
Bullfrog Spas, which builds hot tubs in the Salt Lake Valley, began on service calls. In 1989 David Ludlow, a pool builder's son, was fixing tubs for his father's business. After enough leaks, he started looking for a better design. His JetPak is a removable seat back holding the jets and, per a 2005 Deseret News profile, 90 percent of the plumbing. It is a hot tub designed by the guy who got the call when one leaked.
The first production spa came in 1996, and two employees built 24 spas that first production year. Thirty years on, the count is nearly 280,000 and the staff is about 590. With the jets in the seat backs, nobody drills holes in the shell to install them, and owners can move a JetPak to another seat or swap in a different massage.
Bullfrog is privately held, and Dan Sjoblom is its chief executive. In a 2018 state announcement, the company said it made 100 percent of its products in Utah and had a presence in 22 countries. Its tubs now sell as far away as New Zealand, and the jets still ride in a seat back you can lift out.
In 2005 Bullfrog was privately owned by 13 individual shareholders, and one of them was Alan Ashton, a cofounder of WordPerfect.
Great spas, and the jets are the best part.
Alex
