Leslie’s Poolmart to Purchase Smaller Rival : Management: The Chatsworth company has a tentative deal to buy Sandy’s Pool Supply, whose co-owner was ousted from the larger firm in 1988.

Ever since he was ousted as chief executive of Leslie’s Poolmart in 1988, Phil Leslie has been one of the company’s sharpest critics. Only a year ago he complained of the “nonexistence of top management” at Leslie’s Poolmart, which he co-founded nearly 30 years ago.

But now, Phil Leslie has decided that the company’s cash is as green as anyone else’s.

Last week, Leslie’s Poolmart, the nation’s largest specialty retailer of swimming pool supplies, tentatively agreed to buy Sandy’s Pool Supply Inc., a smaller rival in North Hollywood that’s half-owned by Phil Leslie. The price was not disclosed.

Phil Leslie bought into Sandy’s--the other half is owned by that company’s founder, Sander Bass--after he was fired by Leslie’s Poolmart in a bitter takeover fight that so split the Chatsworth-based company and its employees that the chain briefly had to shut down.

Today, Leslie’s Poolmart operates 130 stores in 26 states, along with a mail-order catalogue service, and last year its sales totaled $82.6 million. Sandy’s has 20 outlets in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and although the chain does not release financial results, Sandy’s sales are estimated at less than $20 million.

The normally outspoken Phil Leslie, on the advice of his lawyer, declined comment on the proposed sale. But Brian McDermott, president of Leslie’s Poolmart, said Phil Leslie would not remain with the company.

Phil Leslie’s feud with Leslie’s Poolmart began in the spring of 1988 when an investor group offered to buy the company from Phil Leslie and his partner, Raymond Cesmat, for about $17.5 million. Cesmat wanted to sell, Leslie did not.

So Cesmat got court approval to dissolve the company, which is allowed under an obscure California law affecting 50% owners. Cesmat and a court-appointed trustee then ousted Phil Leslie, which triggered chaos at the company. Many of its employees sided with Leslie and refused to show up for work, forcing most of the chain’s stores to close.

Eventually, Leslie’s Poolmart recovered and sold its first stock to the public in April, 1991. The company also has been on an aggressive growth track lately, opening 26 new stores so far this year. As for the Sandy’s deal, McDermott said Sandy’s initiated merger talks after a mutual supplier to the chains suggested that they join forces.

Separately, Leslie’s Poolmart said the store openings helped its second-quarter 1992 profit jump 53% from a year earlier, to $4.52 million from $2.96 million, while its sales rose 18%, to $42.2 million from $35.8 million. Leslie’s same-store sales--those stores open at least a year--rose 4% in the quarter ended June 30.

For the first half of this year, the company’s net income rose to $1.74 million from $234,000 a year earlier, when its earnings were hampered by a one-time, $1.8-million charge. Leslie’s six-month sales rose 14%, to $52.6 million from $46.1 million.