Core Award

The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) in conjunction with the Council On Retail Excellence (C.O.R.E.), has announced that National Aquatic Service, Inc. is a recipient of one of the first "Excellence in Retailing" Awards. Established by C.O.R.E. to recognize and reward superior business acumen and customer service, National Aquatic Service was presented with its award at the DEMA Awards Party at DEMA Show 2005 in Las Vegas.

National Aquatic Service was one of just fifteen retailers from the more than 1,600 retailers in the U.S. to be selected to receive this prestigious award. Each winning store exemplifies a standard to which other retailers in the scuba diving industry should strive to achieve.

Winning stores were evaluated by field representatives of major diving certification agencies such as SSI, NAUI, PADI, SDI, and by world-renowned scuba equipment manufacturers such as Oceanic, Aqua Lung, and Diving Unlimited International, with which they are affiliated. Evaluations were then submitted to a third party administrator who tallied the evaluation scores independently of participating companies.

Field representatives used criteria established through C.O.R.E. and DEMA with evaluators asked to rate a variety of key areas including how well stores serve their local market; the appearance of outside and inside of store; cleanliness; personnel; inventory/product selection; and services offered including dive training and social activities, rental and repair. A score from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) was given for each category. Winners of the "Excellence in Retailing" Awards were each outstanding in their own way.

C.O.R.E., which operates in association with DEMA, is dedicated to the improvement of the overall productivity of the diving industry. Made up of manufacturers and training organizations, C.O.R.E. hopes to set the standard for how a dive retail store should operate, with an emphasis on customer service, the learning/buying experience and social opportunities, in order to raise awareness for and performance of all retail stores.

For more information on C.O.R.E. and DEMA visit http://www.dema.org