19th century Brunswick was founded by
J. M. Brunswick who came to the US from
Switzerland at the age of 15. The
J. M. Brunswick Manufacturing Company opened for business on September 15, 1845, in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally J. M. Brunswick intended his company to be mainly in the business of making
carriages, but soon after opening his machine shop, he became fascinated with
billiards and decided that making billiard tables would be more lucrative, as the better tables then in use in the US were imported from
England. Brunswick billiard tables were a commercial success, and the business expanded and opened the first of what would become many branch offices in
Chicago in 1848. It was later renamed
J. M. Brunswick & Brother by 1860, after a family member came on board, and the company's slogan at this time was: "The oldest and most extensive billiard table manufacturers in the United States". In 1874, the Brunswick company merged with competitor
Great Western Billiard Manufactory owned by Julius Balke to become the
J. M. Brunswick & Balke Company. It was incorporated in 1879 with a capital stock of $275,000, the same year it merged with another competitor,
H. W. Collender Company of
New York City (founded by Hugh W. Collender), to acquire Collender's patented billiard cushions. In 1884, the partners formed the
Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company (or
B.B.C. Company for short). automatic
pinsetter, US patent 2973204. The company expanded into making a number of other products. Large ornate
neo-classical style bars for
saloons were a popular product.
Bowling balls, pins, and equipment led a growing line of sporting equipment. It popularized
bowling balls of manufactured materials, vulcanized
rubber at first; earlier bowling balls had been solid wood.
20th century 1900–1949 In the early 20th century, Brunswick expanded the product line to include such diverse products as
toilet seats, automobile
tires, and
phonographs. In the late 1910s, they introduced a quickly popular line of
disc phonograph records, under the name
Brunswick Records. In 1930, Brunswick sold the control of the record company to
Warner Brothers and came out with a line of
refrigerators. During
World War II, Brunswick-Balke-Collender made small target-drone aircraft for the
US military. After the war, Brunswick introduced a line of school furniture. In 1949, the Brunswick "Model A" Mechanical
Pinsetter fully automated unit premiered, for the purpose of handling bowling pins for
ten-pin bowling, in competition with
American Machine and Foundry (AMF). Previously, Brunswick had made two models of semi-automated, manually operated "spotting tables" for the tenpin sport, that the "Model A" unit replaced. A historical marker at 623 S. Wabash Ave. in Chicago was dedicated by the
Illinois State Historical Society in 1995 at the site of Brunswick's headquarters from 1913 to 1964. The building today is used by
Columbia College Chicago.
1950–1999 (originally "Brunswick Building"), where the company relocated its headquarters in the 1960s light machine gun, US patent 4066000A The 1950s also saw the introduction of a line of
golfing equipment to compete with AMF in the leisure-products and sporting-goods markets. The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company officially changed its name to the Brunswick Corporation on April 10, 1960. The following year the company reported sales of $422 million. Brunswick acquired Mercury Marine in 1961. In the 1970s, Brunswick introduced the
automatic scorer, which electronically tallied the score instead of the bowler doing it by hand. With the company experiencing substantial revenue growth in the 1950s, it began considering relocating its corporate headquarters. In the 1960s, it moved its corporate headquarters from the South Wabash Avenue location that it had occupied for six decades to a new
modernist-style
skyscraper engineered by
Fazlur Khan of
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and developed by
Arthur Rubloff's firm. The
new Brunswick Building was built in the
Chicago Loop, next to the new
Chicago Civic Center (today known as Richard J. Daley Center). and is today known as the "George W. Dunne Cook County Administration Building". The Brunswick Corporation patented a machine gun using a delayed blowback operation via a fluted chamber as part of the weapon's operation. Another platform was the
Rifleman's Assault Weapon, an unusual grenade launcher that used a spherical rocket propelled grenade. In the 1980s, Brunswick became a major maker of
yachts and pleasure boats, under brands including
Bayliner,
Boston Whaler,
Maxum,
Sea Ray and Trophy. During the
Gulf War, Brunswick supplied the military with
camouflage nets. They also made
radomes for the
Patriot missile. In 1997, Brunswick purchased the
Roadmaster bicycle division, one of the last US manufacturers of low-cost, mass-market bicycles. However, it became apparent that continued US manufacture of such products was not viable in the presence of surging low-priced imports from overseas producers, primarily
China. In 1999, Brunswick sold its Roadmaster bicycle division and brand to
Pacific Cycle.
21st century 2000s As of the early 21st century, the Brunswick Corporation still manufactured sporting and fitness equipment (
Life Fitness, Hammer Strength, Parabody) in addition to boats (
Sea Ray,
Bayliner,
Maxum, etc.) and marine
engines under the
Mercury Marine brand name. In 2001, Brunswick acquired Hatteras Yachts from Genmar Industries for approximately $80 million in cash. Brunswick sold its Hatteras/Cabo brand in 2013 to Versa Capital Management. In 2004, Brunswick acquired
Lowe Boats. The same year, the company also purchased Northstar Technologies, a leading marine electronics provider based in Acton, Massachusetts, from Canadian Marconi Corporation (now
CMC Electronics, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Esterline Technologies Corporation). Brunswick then merged Navman, based in Auckland, New Zealand, with Northstar to make Northstar/Navman a supplier to the Brunswick Boat Groups. Brunswick also acquired Mx-Marine. When George Buckley, CEO at the time, left to join
3M in 2006, new leadership decided to sell Northstar, Navman and Mx-Marine to
Navico. Brunswick has established regional headquarters in
Verviers, Belgium;
Monterrey, Mexico;
Dandenong, Australia; and
Dubai, UAE, to better serve its customers by designing, engineering, manufacturing and distributing products based on local needs, using local talent.
2010s On July 17, 2014, Brunswick announced plans to leave the bowling business by the end of 2014. The company disclosed that it had agreed to sell its
bowling center business, which brought in $187 million in revenue in the prior year, to competitor Bowlmor AMF (now known as
Bowlero Corporation) for $270 million. It also disclosed that it had retained
Lazard to find a buyer for its bowling equipment and products business. The company said it was making these changes to focus on its “core” Marine and Fitness businesses, which provided 92% of company net revenues in 2013. It would retain its heritage billiards business and report billiards financial results as part of the Fitness segment. The sale of the bowling center business to Bowlmor AMF (Bowlero) was completed in September 2014. Brunswick completed its exit from the bowling business in May 2015 with the sale of its
bowling equipment and products division to BlueArc Capital Management, a private investment firm. BlueArc completed the acquisition with investments from Gladstone Investment Corporation, and Capitala Finance Corp. BlueArc continues to produce bowling balls under the Brunswick and DV8 brand names, and on November 15, 2019, it acquired
Ebonite International and all of its bowling product brands. In August 2018, Brunswick Corporation acquired Power Products – Global Marine & Mobile business, which includes the global marine, specialty vehicle, mobile, industrial power, and transportation aftermarket products businesses of Power Products, for $910 million in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Genstar Capital. Also in 2018, the company announced it would be separating the fitness business as Life Fitness Holdings in 2019. In May 2019, Brunswick announced the sale of
Brunswick Billiards,
Life Fitness,
Cybex, Hammer Strength, Indoor Cycling Group, and SCIFIT for $490 million to
KPS Capital Partners. The sale was completed in June 2019. In May 2019, Brunswick announced it would be purchasing
Freedom Boat Club, the largest marine franchisor in the US. Also in 2019, Brunswick announced a new business structure, Advanced Systems Group (ASG) and named Brett Dibkey as president. ASG is composed of 11 Power Products brands combined with the Attwood Group of businesses including Attwood, Garelick, MotorGuide, and Whale, as well as NAUTIC-ON.
2020s On October 4, 2021, Brunswick Corporation announced that it has completed its acquisition of Navico, a manufacturer of marine electronics and sensors for $1.05 billion, adding back to Brunswick the industry sector it had
earlier divested. ==See also==