Spokane-based hot tub accessory manufacturer Leisure Concepts Inc. says it plans to ramp up production by spring of a newly designed hard-plastic spa cover with a lift mechanism.

Leisure Concepts, which makes about 30 accessory products—mainly for the spa industry but also for motorcycles—has introduced the new hot tub cover, called Smartop, in prototype form at recent spa industry trade shows.

When production begins later this year, the company plans to add at least eight employees to its base of 40 workers, says Leisure Concepts owner Mike Genova.

Its new type of spa cover is expected to sell for $1,195 retail and to be marketed as a design that lasts longer and offers the convenience of a gas shock-assisted lift, Genova says.

He says most spa covers that are made of foam wrapped in Naugahyde have to be replaced every few years at a cost of about $500 each.

"We're introducing what we think is a revolutionary new plastic hard cover called a Smartop; it comes standard with a manual lifting mechanism," Genova says. "We plan to bring the product into the market available to the consumer probably in the first quarter of 2012 or by early spring."

The company has two facilities, its main 80,000-square-foot building at 5324 N. Florida and a 40,000-square-foot building at 5304 N. Florida that was built about four years ago, mainly to house a plastic injection-molding division, called Leisure Plastics.

Genova says the company owns a separate, 4-acre lot in Hillyard, about three blocks south of Leisure Concepts' main location, and if the new spa cover product sells well, the company could build a facility there to expand production.

Spa accessories the company manufactures include other covers, decking, safety features, and umbrellas. More than 3,000 retailers internationally sell Leisure Concepts' items in their stores, Genova says.

Leisure Concepts also has a division called Moto Concepts that makes a line of motorcycle goggles and a product called MotoPad, which is a rigid plastic pad that provides a hard surface on which riders can clean, repair, and display their motorcycles.

Overall, Genova says the company has had slight revenue growth in 2010 and 2011 since a downturn in 2009.

"The spa industry is down about 60 percent nationally," Genova says. "I think the feeling is the dealers are becoming healthier. There are less of them, and although spa sales are down, they're healthier. In terms of how many (customers) are walking in to buy consumer products, the feeling we're getting from dealers is it's on the upswing from the 2008 to 2009 timeframe."