Bowling
Big Al's Receives Brunswick Center of Excellence Award
MUSKEGON, Mich., Oct. 29, 2007 – Brunswick Bowling & Billiards recently recognized Big Al's Family Entertainment Center in Vancouver, Wash., by presenting its owners with the 2007 Brunswick Center of Excellence Award.
Owners Al and Sandee Kirkwood, Daniel and Melissa Kirkwood, and Dean and Kelly Gaylor were chosen for outstanding business development, strategy and implementation of their world-class, bowling-based entertainment facility.
“We are honored to receive the Center of Excellence Award from Brunswick,” said Daniel Kirkwood, vice president of Kirkwood and Kirkwood. “Prior to opening Big Al's, our family had no experience in the bowling, arcade and food and beverage business. Fortunately, Brunswick was always available to lend a helping hand, answer our questions and point us in the right direction. We opened our doors in September of 2006 and it's been a great year. We are now expanding our business, and will open a second facility in Beaverton, Ore. in 2008. We'd like to have about three or four locations in the next five years.”
The award is given annually to a single, bowling-based entertainment center, which illustrates the exemplary blending of cutting-edge planning and design, business critical general management and operations, effective marketing and sales strategies, and superior customer service.
Brunswick partners with customers such as Big Al's to help build their businesses and maximize performance and profits in all key areas of center development and operations through Brunswick's Center of Excellence program. Brunswick, through its Center of Excellence consulting services, provides industry veterans in the following areas: Brunswick Build-to-Bowl™ the single-source solution for new center design and construction, general management, bowling operations, marketing, customer service and food and beverage training.
Big Al's is recognized as the 2007 Center of Excellence award winner for its superior integration of the spirit and practices of the Brunswick Center of Excellence concept.
About Big Al's
The 60,000-square-foot entertainment facility features two distinct areas of Brunswick equipped bowling: Powerhouse, 30 lanes in a traditional, yet upscale, bowling environment and Slider Alley, 12 lanes in a chic, modern, lounge setting, which is connected to three private party rooms.
Big Al's also offers an arcade, six Brunswick Metro billiards tables, and a championship shuffleboard table. Big Al's Sports Bar and Grill provides a full service menu from casual dining fare to full service catering for events. Available for groups of up to 25 people, its Skybox sits high above the Sports Bar and Grill, offering guests a private party room with a dining table, custom viewing seats, a dartboard, two 42-inch plasma TV's and a Brunswick Manhattan billiards table.
About Brunswick
Headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., Brunswick Corporation has been a leader in the recreation business for more than 160 years. Founded in 1845 to make billiards tables, Brunswick Corporation today is a Fortune 500 company and the leader in bringing Genuine Ingenuity™ to everything it makes. Brunswick Bowling & Billiards is one of the largest operators of full-service bowling and family recreation centers in North America; is a full-line supplier of bowling equipment, supplies and consumer products, and designs billiards tables and accessories.
Contact: Kristin Filz
Manager, Marketing Services
Phone: (231) 725-4652
