![]() The value and meaning of responsibility and completing tasks in a thorough and prompt manner.Īfter serving in the United States Air Force for over 4 years Don left to pursue his dream of ![]() Plenty of good players taught Don how to play pool and he became very proficient at playing the game.ĭon joined the Air Force, at the age of 18, during the Vietnam era. When finished he would pick up a pool cue and hit balls around the table. In the afternoon, after grammar school, Don’s job in the pool room was to brush and clean all of the pool Last year Brostoski’s Honda business grossed $2.2 million, and grew so successful that his wife now runs it full time.Golden West Billiards, an American company, was founded in 1964 by CEO Donald Brostoski.ĭon’s father owned a pool room in Santa Ana California and Don grew up loving pool. If the pool business ever goes completely sour, Brostoski has a cushion: In 1979, to take his mind off pool, he bought Sherman Oaks Honda, which sells Honda motorcycles and scooters. found that 21.5 million people played it at least once that year, 3 million for the first time. A 1984 survey by the National Sporting Goods Assn. Beneath the felt, they have flat, heavy slate slabs.Īlthough the pool table business isn’t what it used to be, millions of Americans still play the game. The regulation-size tables are big, roughly 50 inches by 100 inches, and heavy, about 1,500 pounds. ![]() Regulation-size pool tables have several qualities in common, although not necessarily green felt-the felt can be any color. Gandy’s, like Golden West, is a leader in the market for higher-priced, regulation-size tables, and Gandy’s has a big share of the coin-operated market. There are roughly a dozen companies that lead the pool-table industry, and total sales of tables and supplies are about $100 million a year, according to Kim Gandy, president of Gandy’s Industries in Macon, Ga. But it doesn’t make them anymore, it buys them from Wurlitzer. Brostoski said many of his tables also go into condominium developments and trailer parks.īrunswick Corp., which says it has been in the pool table business since 1845, appears to remain the overall industry leader, selling about $10 million of mostly smaller, less-expensive tables annually. The industry now focuses on sales to facilities such as suburban recreation centers, bowling alleys, bars, colleges and military bases. Pool halls aren’t what they once were, however. “I’ve been playing this game since I was 8 years old,” he said. He also learned to be a pretty fair pool player. Brostoski spent plenty of time in pool halls as a youth and learned the business from the inside. Pool comes naturally to the portly, cigarette-smoking Brostoski, who took his cue from his father, a former poolroom operator in Long Beach. Golden West, however, is certainly among the largest in the business. They sold well, Brostoski said, so Golden West eventually became a manufacturing company, now turning out 5,000 tables a year that retailers sell for $1,400 to $5,000.īrostoski asserted that his company is “by far” the nation’s largest maker of antique-style pool tables, a claim that is difficult to verify. Gradually it started manufacturing tables. For undetermined reasons, demand for antique-style tables has been stronger than for regular tables, according to several manufacturers.īrostoski started Golden West in 1966 as a business that bought, restored and sold antique pool tables. Its tables are all full-size, and nearly all are made in the ornate, antique style of tables used 100 years ago. Golden West doesn’t make just ordinary pool tables. Now the staff is down to 60, and sales are about $4.5 million, $1 million of which comes from the company’s retail store. About six years ago, Golden West had 90 workers and sales of $9 million. Golden West’s history mirrors the industry’s sufferings.
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