ISSUE NO.1, MARCH 2010
COVER STORY
Niche is nice
Good for Customers, Too Daroll Frewing deems it “pretty rare” that fathers
and sons get along as well as he and David. “We can separate this from our personal life, although for the most part it’s pretty business-y,” insists the father. “We play off one another. If I have an idea and David thinks it’s bad, we will oppose each other as business people and he’ll tell me all the reasons it’s bad. I’ll tell him all the reasons it’s good. We can go 10 minutes doing that and then we’ll reverse the roles. The guy who had the ‘bad’ idea might come out the winner because we’ve discussed all the elements and facets of the idea.” That has been the pattern—strong personalities, fast thinking, creative ideas—behind their company, US Bowling, since it got off the ground in 1994. Says David, “Mom and Dad Proprietor were complaining, ‘We’re just making a living; we’re struggling.’ Maybe they had been in the business 30 or 40 years and they hadn’t upgraded the center since it was new. It was still orange and brown, a traditional, smoke-infested bowling alley. It wasn’t a place people were going to bring families.
“The answer was: these bowling centers need to become FECs—family entertainment centers. What a natural concept! Our eyes opened to the modernization business.” The timing was fortunate, says Daroll. “When Qubica and AMF joined forces, we could not come to a working arrangement for the Qubica scorer. We had to look at something else.” Across the pond, in Italy, the Frewings found what they story continues on page 3 needed. Steltronic Automatic Scoring
Daroll and David Frewing.
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Cover Story.........................1, 3, 6 Product Info.......................2
Bowling Institute..............3 Center of the Month........4
Toll-free 877-858-2695 www.usbowling.com
1