nyse bc industry conglomerate founded september 15 1845 founder john moses brunswick headquarters lake forest il u.s. area served worldwide key people dustan e. mccoy chairman of the board & ceo revenue 3.838 billion 2014 1 operating income 308.2 million 2014 1 net income 245.7 million 2014 1 total assets 3.130 billion 2014 1 total equity 1.171 billion 2014 1 number of employees 12 165 dec 2014 1 divisions list of divisions website brunswick.com the brunswick corporation formerly known as the brunswick balke collender company is an american corporation that specializes in developing manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845 . brunswick s global headquarters is in the northern chicago suburb of lake forest illinois . in 2014 it had sales of us 3.838 billion with net earnings of 245.7 million . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 historical logos 1.2 recent events 2 divisions 3 bibliography 4 references 5 external links history edit j. m. brunswick . delivery with horse carriage 1848 . company warehouse on state street chicago 1888 . bowling alley automatic pinsetter us patent 2973204 . brunswick was founded by john moses brunswick who came to the united states 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 united states were imported from england . brunswick billiard tables were a commercial success and the business expanded and opened up the first of what would become many branch offices in chicago illinois in 1848 . it was later renamed j. m. brunswick & brother by 1871 after a family member came on board and the company s rather hyperbolic slogan at this time was the oldest and most extensive billiard table manufacturers in the united states . 2 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 3 with capital of 1.5 million . 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 . 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 u.s. military . after the war brunswick introduced a line of school furniture . in 1955 the brunswick model a mechanical pinsetter fully automated unit premiered for the purpose of handling bowling pins for the sport of tenpins 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 . the decade 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 . in the 1980s brunswick became a major maker of yachts and pleasure boats whose brands include 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 u.s. manufacturers of low cost mass market bicycles . however it became apparent that continued u.s. 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 who went on to acquire several u.s. bicycle brands for use on bicycles imported from china . on nov 30 2001 brunswick corporation completed the acquisition of hatteras yachts inc. from genmar industries inc. for approximately 80 million in cash . 4 historical logos edit 1855 j.m. brunswick & bro 1874 j.m. brunswick & balke co. 1878 brunswick balke collender & co. 1862 emanuel brunswick & co. recent events edit as of the early 21st century the brunswick corporation still manufactures 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 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 . navico now owns those three brands in addition to the eagle lowrance b & g and simrad lines . on november 9 2006 the company announced that it was closing two plants and downsizing the workforce by 650 employees citing slow demand for new boats . numerous other layoffs occurred prior to this in the brunswick new technologies division . brunswick reports that in the past five years their international sales have grown at twice the rate of domestic sales . it has established regional headquarters in verviers belgium ; monterrey dandenong australia ; and dubai to better serve its customers by designing engineering manufacturing and distributing products based on local needs using local talent . 5 on july 17 2014 brunswick announced its intention to leave the bowling business by the end of 2014 . the company disclosed that it had agreed to sell the bowling center business which brought in 187 million in revenue in the prior year to competitor bowlmor amf 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 will retain its heritage billiards business and report billiards financial results as part of the fitness segment . 6 the sale of the bowling center business to bowlmor amf was completed in september 2014 . 7 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 ga. bluearc completed the acquisition with investments from gladstone investment corporation a publicly traded business development company in mclean va. and capitala finance corp. a business development company in charlotte n.c. 8 divisions edit brunswick bowling & billiards lake forest illinois life fitness schiller park illinois brunswick boat group knoxville tennessee mercury marine fond du lac wisconsin bibliography edit six rail artistry antique tables transform billiards and pool into games worthy of the grandest parlor references edit a b c d e f g thomson reuters . wallihan samuel s. ; bigney t. o. eds . 1871 . the rocky mountain directory and colorado gazetteer . denver s. s. wallihan & co. j. m. brunswick & brother advertisement . shamos mike 1999 . the new illustrated encyclopedia of billiards . new york city ny us lyons press . pp. 24 89 90 . isbn 1 55821 797 5 . brunswick completes acquisition of hatteras yachts . global presence . brunswick.com . lake forest il brunswick corporation . 2008 . retrieved 2008 06 26 . brunswick to sell retail bowling business to bowlmor amf . yahoo finance global newsire . july 18 2014 . bowlmor amf completes acquisition of brunswick corporation s bowling center business . marketwatch . september 18 2014 . bluearc capital management acquires brunswick bowling products . bowlers journal . may 26 2015 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to brunswick company . brunswick corporate website brunswick marine emea brunswick billiards brunswick bowling brunswick corporate sec filings automatic pinsetter at google patents brunswick video of early automatic pinsetter development on youtube v t e brunswick people john moses brunswick subsidiaries bayliner boston whaler brunswick boat group life fitness maxum mercury marine sea ray joint ventures tohatsu marine corporation with tohatsu corporation v t e illinois based corporations fortune 500 corporations by size 2013 walgreens boots alliance archer daniels midland boeing caterpillar inc. state farm insurance abbott laboratories sears holdings united continental holdings deere & company mondel z international allstate mcdonald s exelon kraft heinz illinois tool works baxter international navistar international rr donnelley cdw hillshire brands discover financial w. w. grainger motorola solutions dover corporation tenneco officemax ingredion anixter cf industries holdings telephone and data systems united stationers old republic international other major public companies alphabetically abbvie acco brands accretive health allscripts amcol international corporation arthur j. gallagher & co. beam inc. brookdale senior living brunswick corporation calamos career education corporation catamaran corporation cboe holdings cme group cna financial continental materials corporation equity residential fortune brands home & security general growth properties hospira hyatt hotels corp. integrys energy group jones lang lasalle kemper corporation nalco holding company nicor rli corp. rubicon technology stericycle titan international tribune media tronc tootsie roll industries ulta beauty usg corporation westell zebra technologies other major private companies alphabetically ace hardware baker & mckenzie blue cross blue shield association claire s country financial danfoss power solutions dot foods eby brown electro motive diesel flex n gate follett corporation gardner denver grant thornton llp health care service corporation heico cos. hendrickson international hub international jenner & block kirkland & ellis marmon group mayer brown medline industries molex nestl frozen pizza osi group pactiv reyes holdings ryerson inc. sidley austin skidmore owings & merrill solo cup company tellabs transunion true value us foods wirtz corporation related topics breweries in illinois companies in the chicago metropolitan area food manufacturers of chicago newspapers in illinois retailers on the magnificent mile wineries in illinois retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title brunswick corporation & oldid 738856861 categories brunswick corporationcompanies listed on the new york stock exchangemanufacturing companies established in 1845companies based in lake forest illinoissporting goods manufacturers of the united statescue sports equipment manufacturersbowling equipment manufacturersconglomerate companies of the united stateshidden categories commons category with local link different than on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata