Billiards was the company's original product line. The segment expanded to include other table games such as table tennis, air hockey, and foosball. The billiard operations were placed in the fitness equipment division, which was spun-off into Life Fitness in 2019. In 2022, the Brunswick Billiards line was sold to Escalade Sports
Bowling equipment and products, which Brunswick began manufacturing in the 1880s. The bowling equipment line was sold to BlueArc Capital Management in 2015, which continues to use the Brunswick name among other brands.
Bowling centers, which Brunswick began to directly operate in the mid 1960s. In 2014 they were sold to Bowlero Corporation, which phased out the Brunswick name by 2020.
Billiards
Logo used by Brunswick Billiards
The billiards division was established in 1845 and was Brunswick Corporation's original business. Brunswick Billiards designs and/or markets billiards tables, table tennis tables, air powered table hockey games, and other gaming tables, as well as billiard balls, cues, game room furniture, and related accessories, under the Brunswick and Contender brands.[1] Consumer billiards equipment is predominantly sold in the United States and distributed primarily through dealers.[2]
John Brunswick built his first billiards table in 1845 at his woodworking shop in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a successful Chicago meatpacker. The popularity of billiards grew quickly, and by the late 1860s, the U.S. billiards market was dominated by Brunswick's firm and two others. In 1873 Brunswick merged with one of his competitors, Julius Balke's Cincinnati-based Great Western Billiard Manufactory, to form J.M. Brunswick & Balke Company. In 1884, the company merged with the other competitor, New York-based Phelan & Collender, to form the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company. (The company name was changed to Brunswick Corporation in 1960.) The company grew quickly and added new product lines to its business in the 1880s. Brunswick began selling functional and decorative wooden backs for bars. Prohibition prompted a drastic change in the products offered by the company. And while the Depression was a difficult period for Brunswick, World War II brought a great deal of new business. The company's billiard products were popular in the United Service Organizations (USO) centers.[3]
More than 13,000 billiards tables were installed at military bases by 1945. In 1972 Brunswick Billiards began the design and manufacture air hockey tables. In 2008 the company introduced a line of game room furniture.[4]
Brunswick Billiards dabbled in retail at two times in its history. In 1947 the company opened "Cue and Cushion" establishments, family-friendly billiards establishments that include a lounge and soda fountain. In 2003 the company opened its first “Home & Billiards Store” in the Chicago area, and went on to open one other store in Boston and two in Denver. All of these establishments were later closed, and the company returned to selling its products exclusively through dealers.[4]
Brunswick announced in July 2014 its intention to leave the bowling business by the end of 2014, retaining its heritage billiards business as part of the fitness segment.
In 2018, the company announced it would be spinning-off its fitness equipment business, including its Brunswick Billiards division, as Life Fitness Holdings in 2019.[5][6] In May 2019, Brunswick announced its intention to sell Life Fitness Holdings to KPS Capital Partners.[7] The sale was completed in June 2019.
In 2022, Life Fitness agreed to sell its Brunswick Billiards business unit to Escalade Sports for $32 million.[8]
Brunswick began production of wooden lanes, bowling balls, and bowling pins in the 1880s as taverns began to install bowling lanes. John Brunswick's son-in-law Moses Bensinger, who was then directing Brunswick's day-to-day operations, actively promoted bowling as a participatory sport and was instrumental in organizing the American Bowling Congress in 1895.[4][9]
In 1906 Bensinger opened a large manufacturing plant in Muskegon, Michigan. The plant became the cornerstone of the firm's manufacturing, producing such products as the revolutionary $20 Mineralite (hard rubber) bowling ball, and grew to over one million square feet by the 1940s. During World War II, United Service Organizations (USO) centers and military bases eagerly purchased bowling equipment, leading to more than 3,000 bowling lanes being installed at military bases by 1945.[4]
At the time, Brunswick manufactured “spotting tables” which were manually operated to place bowling pins in their proper places on a lane before a bowling ball was thrown at them. The company had toyed with the idea of an automatic pinsetter since 1911, when inventor Ernest Hedenskoog joined the company. Many of his patents provided the basis for the automatic pinsetter later introduced.[4]
It was not until the American Machine and Foundry Company (AMF) introduced the first fully automatic pinsetter in 1952 that Brunswick scrambled to get its own machine to market. In 1954 Brunswick formed the Brunswick-Murray Pinsetter Corporation with Murray Corporation of America, a manufacturer of components for autos and aircraft. By the time Brunswick's “Model A” pinsetters were in full production in 1955, Brunswick had bought out Murray.[9]
Brunswick's policy of selling pinsetters on credit, suburban expansion, and an aggressive advertising campaign all combined to make bowling centers enormously popular in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, however, overexpansion led to a period of decline. Brunswick had begun assembling bowling equipment in Dublin in 1959, but it closed its Italian factory in 1966 and the Dublin facility in 1972. Then, in 1973, it entered into a manufacturing joint venture with Fuji Kikai-Hiroshima. In 2005 Brunswick moved its bowling ball production to Reynosa, Mexico, and in 2006 it closed the Muskegon plant.[9]
In 1967 Brunswick introduced the automatic scorer. In 1984, Brunswick acquired the Schmid Company of Scherzenbach, Switzerland, and with it the rights to manufacture and sell its GS pinsetter.[9] The GS is Brunswick's current pinsetter series. The mechanical portion of the pinsetter was originally manufactured in the Brunswick plant located in Stockach, Germany. In 1999 the mechanical manufacturing was relocated to Hungary.[10]
Brunswick completed its exit from the bowling business in May 2015 with the sale of the bowling equipment and products division to BlueArc Capital Management, a private investment firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. BlueArc completed the acquisition with investments from Gladstone Investment Corporation, a publicly traded business development company in McLean, Virginia, and Capitala Finance Corp., a business development company in Charlotte, North Carolina.[11] On November 15, 2019, Brunswick acquired Ebonite International and all of its bowling product brands.[12]
The division's products for bowling centers include capital equipment, such as Sync, a scoring and management system, Spark, an immersive interactive bowling experience, automatic pinsetters, bowling pins, "house" bowling balls, ball returns, lane surfaces, and bowling center furniture, as well as aftermarket products such as pinsetter parts, lane conditioning machines, and conditioners and cleaners for lane machines. The company's current pinsetter model is in the GS Series, but many A Series models remain in active service. Similarly, many centers still use Brunswick AS-80, AS-90, 2000, Classic, Frameworx, Vector, and Vector Plus scoring systems. Brunswick lane surfaces include the Anvilane and Pro Lane brands.[1]
The division's consumer products include its bowling balls, as well as, through licensing arrangements, bowling shoes, bags and accessories. Products are marketed under the Brunswick, DV8, Radical, Ebonite, Columbia 300, Hammer, and Track brands.
Products are manufactured or sourced mainly from facilities located in Michigan and Wisconsin in the United States, as well as in Hungary and Mexico. Bowling products are sold through a direct sales force or distributors in the United States and through distributors in non-U.S. markets.[2]
Bowling centers
By 1905—earlier than some sources say—the Mineralite ball had been introduced. An Oregon bowler won a tournament using a Mineralite ball that had been given to him.[13]
A 1909 newspaper advertisement for a Brunswick bowling alley in Fort Wayne, Indiana, promotes "New Mineralite and wooden balls".[14]
Logo used by Brunswick bowling centers
Before its acquisition by Bowlmor AMF (now known as Bowlero Corporation) in October 2014, the Brunswick bowling center division was the second largest operator of bowling centers in the United States, with 88 centers in the US and Canada. Brunswick centers offered bowling and, depending on size and location, in-house restaurants, taverns, outdoor patios, billiards, video and redemption games, laser tag, pro shops, and meeting and party rooms.[1][15]
In 1965, facing a decline in business after a period of rapid expansion, many privately owned centers found it difficult to pay the bills, and Brunswick took physical possession of 131 of these centers as payment for bowling equipment. In 1966, still suffering from the decline, Brunswick closed many European bowling centers.[4]
In 2007 the company opened its first Brunswick Zone XL centers, large, smoke-free facilities aimed at families, bowling leagues, parties, corporate meetings and group events, offering bowling, laser tag, bumper cars, video game arcades, Brunswick billiards tables, large screen TVs, and spacious meeting rooms.[4]
During 2013 Brunswick Bowling divested its seven remaining European bowling centers.[1]
In July 2014 as part of its exit from the bowling business, Brunswick announced that it had agreed to sell the bowling center business, which brought in $187 million in revenue in the prior year, to its much larger competitor Bowlmor AMF (now known as Bowlero Corporation) for $270 million.[16] The sale of the bowling center division to Bowlmor AMF was completed in September 2014.[17]
By January 2020, all remaining Brunswick Zone locations were rebranded with either the either Bowlero or AMF names.[18]
Related Research Articles
The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States and Canada, and the regional member organization of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). It was established under this name in 1948 as a non-profit trade organization in order to promote the sport and organize its players via tournaments at various levels. The BCA is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The voting members of the organization are mostly equipment manufacturers.
A bowling alley is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a clubhouse or dwelling house.
A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient, and resilience are important to accuracy.
Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Brunswick has more than 13,000 employees operating in 24 countries. Brunswick owns major boating brands, including Sea Ray, Boston Whaler, Bayliner, Mercury Marine, Attwood, Lund, Crestliner, Mastervolt, MotorGuide, Harris Pontoons, Freedom Boat Club, Princecraft, Heyday, Lowe, Uttern, Quicksilver and CZone, among many others. In 2021, Brunswick reported sales of US$5.8 billion. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Mettawa, Illinois.
AMF Bowling is a major operator of bowling centers and major manufacturer of bowling equipment.
American Machine and Foundry was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors, and yachts.
In bowling, a pinsetter or pinspotter is an automated mechanical device that sets bowling pins back in their original positions, returns bowling balls to the front of the alley, and clears fallen pins on the pin deck. Prior to the machine's invention, pinsetters were boys or young men hired at bowling alleys to manually reset pins and returned balls to the player. The first mechanical pinsetter was invented by Gottfried (Fred) Schmidt, who sold the patent in 1941 to AMF. Pinsetting machines have largely done away with pinsetting as a manual profession, although a small number of bowling alleys still uses human pinsetters. While humans usually no longer set the pins, a pinchaser is often stationed near the equipment to ensure it is clean and working properly, and to clear minor jams.
Ebonite International was a parent company that oversaw the manufacture of bowling balls and bowling equipment. Their headquarters and primary manufacturing facility was located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky before closing on November 15, 2019.
Hammer Bowling is a company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls and bowling-related accessories.
Columbia Industries is a company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls and ten-pin bowling-related accessories. Their most notable brand name is Columbia 300, which has produced some of the most well-known balls in the sport. Beginning in 1960 in Ephrata, Washington, Columbia Industries was the first manufacturer to successfully use polyester resin ("plastic") in bowling balls. Prior to this, nearly all bowling balls were made of a hard rubber material. The company later moved to San Antonio, Texas.
An automatic scorer is the computerized scoring system to keep track of scoring in ten-pin bowling. It was introduced en masse in bowling alleys in the 1970s and combined with mechanical pinsetters to detect overturned pins.
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins or another target. The term bowling usually refers to pin bowling, though in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, bowling could also refer to target bowling, such as lawn bowls.
American snooker is a cue sport played almost exclusively in the United States, and strictly on a recreational, amateur basis. Diverging from the original game of snooker, rules for American snooker date back to at least 1925, and have been promulgated by the Billiard Congress of America (BCA) since the mid-20th century. The game is in decline, as the standardized international rules have largely supplanted it.
Bowlmor Lanes is the upscale brand of ten-pin bowling and entertainment centers operated by Bowlero Corporation. There are currently 18 Bowlmor Lanes centers, nine of which are former AMF 300 centers and three are former AMF Bowling Centers.
Roadmaster is an American bicycle brand currently owned by Pacific Cycle, which in turn is owned by Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings.
Life Fitness is an American fitness company specializing in the production and distribution of cardiovascular and strength training equipment under several brands including Life Fitness, Cybex and Hammer Strength. It is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois and is a portfolio company of KPS Capital Partners.
Bowlero Corporation is an American bowling center operator. It is the largest ten-pin bowling center operator in the world with over 325 centers, almost all of which are located in the United States. The centers have an average of 40 lanes compared to the U.S. bowling center average of 21 lanes.
QubicaAMF Worldwide or QubicaAMF is a bowling equipment provider. The company has U.S. headquarters in Richmond, Virginia and European headquarters in Bologna, Italy.
Zone Bowling is a group of bowling centers in Australia and New Zealand currently owned and operated by The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG). Zone Bowling has 34 locations across Australia, and three locations across New Zealand.
Escalade Inc., known as Escalade Sports, is a sporting goods manufacturer, distributor, and retailer based in Evansville, Indiana. It trades on NASDAQ as ESCA.
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