Public | |
Traded as | : BC S&P 400 Component |
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 | US$4.1 billion (2015) |
US$331.7 million (2015) | |
US$241.4 million (2015) | |
Total assets | US$3.15 billion (2015) |
Total equity | US$1.28 billion (2015) |
Number of employees
|
12,165 (Dec 2014) |
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 Corporation owns numerous leading lifestyle brands such as Mercury Marine, Life Fitness, and Hammer Strength. They also own many popular boating brands under the Brunswick Boat Group division including Sea Ray, Bayliner, Crestliner, Harris Boats, and Boston Whaler. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois. In 2015, it had sales of US$4.105 billion with net earnings of $241.4 million.
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".
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) with capital of $1.5 million.