SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS

Leslie's Poolmart expanded nationwide by taking advantage of every trend in financing a company you could imagine. But financial engineering comes with a price.

- Brian Contreras

UNDER WATER Andy Leslie, son of the founder of Leslie's Poolmart, has seen various investors use financial engineering to squeeze value out of the company.

AT the end of last year, the publicly traded pool-supply giant Leslie’s Poolmart made a painful announcement: It would close at least 80 of its roughly 1,000 stores. CEO Jason McDonell called the move part of a “strategic transformation” meant to shore up the struggling company’s finances and win back shareholders. To the shrinking number of analysts who track the company, the news was hardly surprising—and possibly overdue. Despite $1.25 billion in sales and $440 million in gross profit during the most recent fiscal year, the company was carrying $750 million in long-term debt. Over the past five years, as a quarantine-era pool boom evaporated, Leslie’s Poolmart’s share price plummeted from a peak of almost $33 in 2021 to less than a dollar in February 2026. At that price, the company was ripe for a takeover.

It wouldn’t be the first time. Over several decades, Leslie’s has been a case study in financial engineering, bounced around by different investment groups like a beach ball. Now, in the comedown from its pandemic-era high, it may need a new buyer to keep it afloat.

Private equity firms, bankers, and career executives have tried to shore up the company’s balance sheet and position Leslie’s for future growth, using every financial maneuver at their disposal. But you can look at the company and question whether this frenzy of borrowing and issuing stock stopped being a means to an end a long time ago, and became an end itself.