Brunswick Reborn Under Escalade

The Gold Crown VI Billiards Table

At Brunswick Billiards, things are very rapidly changing, again. Up until the mid 1990’s, Brunswick had been the undisputed King of the Hill. Brunswick was everywhere you looked. Their tables were the ones you played on in the poolrooms, they were the ones that you found at tournaments, and they promoted the game heavily. They were the basis of the success that the WPBA had in the early 90’s with regular television appearances of their events. Their marketing was everywhere and effective.

Then they simply disappeared, due to their own success. In a nut shell, Brunswick was so successful at expanding into other areas of recreation that they eventually turned the billiards business into a step-child. Brunswick had begun expanding out of billiards and bowling when they purchased Mercury Marine in the late 50’s. They even invented recreational pastimes. It was Brunswick, in 1972, that invented Air Hockey. But in the early 90’s, they really grew their boat lines by purchasing Sea Ray and Bayliner. With these two gems in their portfolio they went on to dominate the pleasure craft industry.

And billiards suffered. The marine division had become so important to Brunswick that they pushed the billiards division basically over into a corner and ignored it. There were no fresh funds for expansion and the power marketing went away. They had to withdraw their sponsorship of the WPBA and most ad dollars went only to local newspapers in markets where they had large dealers.  They even quit going to the trade show in recent years, denying buyers a prime opportunity to purchase their tables.

The GCC (Gold Crown Coin)

But now, a new light is shining on the company. Since the acquisition by Escalade, the folks at Brunswick are looking at a large future opportunity. Once again they can  make new marketing plans and do all the other things that had been taken off their to-do lists for over fifteen years. Roger Blank, long time sales manager for Brunswick, was going to retire. He announced that last year and was basically wrapping up a long career, but since he heard the plans from Escalade he has decided to stay on and direct sales for a while longer. 

New projects are once again encouraged, and plans are being made for future change. As manufacturing costs overseas continue to increase, Brunswick is now looking at how long it might be before they can economically justify the return of some of the table lines to being made in America. Escalade has seen the promise of billiards and likes what they are seeing. They bought Cue and Case (Lucasi) back in 2014 and American Heritage tables in 2020, so Brunswick is not their first foray into the genre. In fact, after their multi-year experience in the field, this marks a major expansion for Escalade. 

Escalade is excited about the design of the new line. Their Bar-Box now sports the same design as the Gold Crown and is therefor called the Gold Crown Coin, or the GCC for short. Brunswick fans can now look forward to new designs and products. It may take a few months to turn the ship around, but the crew is all ready to sail back into the sunlight.

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