June 12, 2006
Turning the tables | Skillful Home Recreation says goodbye to the barroom and hawks billiards, poker and arcade games for the home
By Taylor Smith
Poker chips, says Ross Furman, are an entrepreneur's best friend. Leave them on a restaurant table with your tip, or press one into the hand of the guy helping you pick out two-by-fours at the lumberyard. Guaranteed, it'll make an impression ˆ especially if your company's name is embossed in the center of the chip. "You've got to make your mark," says Furman, a custom chip spinning in the palm of his hand.
As owner and self-proclaimed Fun Master (seriously, it's on his business cards) of Skillful Home Recreation in Portland, Furman's mission is to spread the gospel of good times. The Skillful showroom, located in the city's burgeoning Bayside neighborhood, is packed with diversion upon sweet diversion ˆ card tables and billiards packages, bar stools and pinball machines. From dart flights to neon lights, Furman says Skillful offers everything to get a good game going.
In his office above the showroom on a recent day, Furman eyes a stack of poker chips on his desk. The chips are stamped with Skillful Poker Showdown, the name of a local poker tournament that recently aired over 10 episodes on WPXT/WPME in Westbrook. Furman shelled out an undisclosed sum to sponsor the show, and outfitted the set with accoutrements such as a poker-themed pinball machine, a bar and an upscale card table from his showroom.
In return, the Skillful name was plastered all over the show's set, from the poker chips to the theme song, which was put together by Skillful Marketing Director Jeff Gonzalez and Portland musician Haakon Kallweit. In short, it was just what Furman and the rest of the Skillful staff had in mind.
That's because Skillful during the past year or so has made a dramatic shift in its business plan, largely letting go of the commercial clients that sustained the company for decades in favor of a growing consumer market. Supplying offices with snack machines and bars with jukeboxes is an old man's game, says Furman. These days, the real play is the home market, in which a growing number of consumers are outfitting their homes with personal arcades and game rooms. "We were a regular vending company, but it's a transition over time," says Furman. "Skillful was founded in 1978 and here I am in 2006 and I'm still making changes. Life changes, people change, their needs and desires change."
But making the switch from the commercial market to the consumer market has been a challenge for Furman and the rest of the Skillful staff. The company's new direction has meant trying to shed its image as a commercial vending company. And though Skillful's squat, blocky headquarters sits in the middle of what for years has been a largely ignored industrial section of the city ˆ not exactly the dream location for a retailer trying to bolster its consumer business. (For more on how Bayside is changing, see "Bayside ho!," on page 17.)
That's where the Skillful Poker Challenge comes into play. Through events like the poker show ˆ as well as other marketing moves and additions to the store's product lines ˆ Furman aims to get the Skillful name on the lips of consumers. If someone is looking for a case of poker chips or a billiard ball emblazoned with the Boston Red Sox logo, Furman wants them to think of Skillful. "We're committed to being the place to go for quality stuff," says Eric Moynihan, general manager at Skillful. "It's working. It's creating a niche."
Twilight of the coin-op era
Jeff Gonzalez says the consumer strategy was kicked into high gear in late 2005 when Skillful hired Portland-based marketing firm KempGoldberg to oversee a corporate rebranding. Among the first steps was to change the company's name from Skillful Vending to Skillful Home Recreation ˆ a move designed to position the company's showroom as the place for home recreation goods like pool cues and poker chips.
That strategy shift comes on the heels of changes Furman has seen in the company's business. Since founding the company in 1978 with one product ˆ a Tap-a-Coin arcade game he installed in a local restaurant ˆ Furman burnished Skillful's reputation as the complete source for vending machines. Whether you wanted to offer customers a Pepsi, a pack of Lucky Strikes or a game of Galaga, Skillful was the place to go.
But during the last decade or so, that commercial business has dwindled. Factories shutting down meant less need for industrial coffee machines or snack dispensers. Bars didn't want as many Ms. Pac Man games, and pinball wizards were fewer and farther between. The 300 or so pay phones Skillful operated in southern Maine faded into obsolescence by the late 90s as more people turned to cell phones, and Maine's ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in 2004 decimated Skillful's cigarette machine business. (An asthmatic, Furman was all too happy to let the machines go, and even made a show of busting one up in public after the ban was enacted.) "The commercial market has fallen apart," says Gonzalez. "And more people have more money and can afford to have this kind of stuff in their homes."
The trend, says Furman, began in the 90s as people started buying the arcade games and jukeboxes bars no longer wanted. Once the games were wheeled out of the warehouse and into customers' living rooms, the phones at Skillful continued to ring from buyers asking the company to service the games.
Those service calls kept his repairmen busy, and the pace quickened when he started selling retrofitted coin-op pool tables for home use. There was plenty of work for Furman's staff setting up the tables in customers' houses, and then from the inevitable follow-up calls to have Skillful fix a broken piece of slate or re-felt the rails. "It's the same theory as selling the pinball machines," says Furman. "It creates more service."
For the companies in the home recreation market, the tide really began turning after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In the following months and years, much was made in the media about families "cocooning" and "burrowing" ˆ buzzwords to describe peoples' inclination to stick around at home with loved ones. Penelope Daborn, an interior designer in Portland, says she's seen an increase in the number of people adding game rooms to new homes or residential additions. "I guess they just think its fun to have access to that stuff in their home," she says. "If you have your own little movie theater, you don't have to go to the movies, or if you have your own billiard table, you don't have to go down to the pub."
While the pool halls and arcades of the world may have suffered from such cocooning, companies like Skillful saw their stocks rise. "The uptick? It was phenomenal," says Furman, who notes that Skillful's sales rose 40% in 2002. "People really hunkered down."
Rise of the man cave
The trend that started in 2001 is still going. Sales of poker chips and related merchandise are strong, says Furman, and billiards tables anchor his bottom line. Though he declines to disclose Skillful's revenues, he says the company is profitable and that sales are growing each year. Furman also is adding new items outside the company's parlor-game niche to grow a new crop of customers. (See "Swing shift," page 18.)
The size of the market for home arcade games and pool tables is largely anecdotal. Newspapers around the country have documented the rise of home-based game rooms and the evolution of so-called "man caves" ˆ places for guys to be guys that usually include pool tables, big-screen TVs and the like. And thanks to an explosion in popularity for poker driven by televised tournaments, more neighborhood buddies are getting together for weekly games. And forget the rickety card tables and plastic chips ˆ these days, consumers aren't worried about spending hundreds of dollars for a specially made poker table and casino-quality chips.
Those familiar with the industry say there's plenty of opportunity for companies like Skillful. The Billiards Congress of America pegs the market for pool tables and accessories like cues and balls at more than $1 billion. And Stephen Young, president and CEO of BMIGaming.com, an arcade-game retailer in Boca Raton, Fla., says sales of pinball and video games are growing each year. "We don't even see it close to peaking," says Young, who notes that his company sold $10 million worth of such games last year. "You're going to see a lot of baby boomers with a lot of bucks."
Meanwhile, game room tastes are expanding: The Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group in Alexandria, Va., estimates consumers will spend $3.7 billion this year on PC and console-based game rooms. Although a mint-condition Ms. Pac Man arcade game or Harley-Davidson pinball machine ˆ which might run as much as $6,000 ˆ doesn't have the mass-market appeal of Microsoft's Xbox 360, Skillful still does a brisk business in stand-up arcade games. "Ten years ago, rumor was we sold two or three video games and pinball machines a year for people's homes," says Moynihan, who joined Skillful two years ago. "Last Christmas, we sold 20 or 25 during the holiday season."
But where there's a retail trend, there's retail competition. NAMCO, a national chain with a store in Westbrook, sells billiard tables and accessories alongside swimming pools and patio furniture. "Now you've got Filene's carrying the silver cases of poker chips for $39.95," says Furman.
The solution for Skillful, he says, is quality. Instead of no-name pool tables for cut-rate prices, Skillful sells Brunswick and Olhausen tables that cost $2,000-$4,000. Eric Moynihan also points out that Skillful will deliver and assemble a customer's table, laying the slate on its bed and wrapping the playing surface in the customer's choice of felts. "That's where we battle the big stores," he says. "I mean, you can pull into Wal-Mart and load 18 boxes into your pickup truck and read the directions, but we've kind of created a niche for being ˆ and I hate to use the upscale word ˆ but being higher quality."
Mark and Cindy Anastasoff were just the customers Skillful hoped to attract. The couple recently completed a $55,000 game room in their house in Scarborough. The room, which was built over the Anastasoff's garage, included an eight-foot Olhausen pool table, specialized lighting and pub furniture from Skillful. "We were impressed by their quality ˆ really impressed," says Mark Anastasoff. "We felt like they'd back up their quality, and they have. The pool bed cloth was coming out and they fixed it for us."
Furman admits that the move towards the consumer market isn't a sure bet, and that nothing is static in the retail world. A hot new product could reinvigorate the commercial market, or people will tire of their home game rooms and move onto the next household luxury. The jury's out on whether the resurgence of poker means cards are here to stay, but a growing number of pundits say that poker's popularity has crested. And it's doubtful future generations will have much reverence for pinball and Ms. Pac Man games.
But for now, Furman sees the home consumer market as one that's growing and stable. He's placing his bets the way any good gambler does ˆ where he figures the odds are in his favor. "Small business is a gamble today," he says. "Business is never solid. You fight it every week. But you have to keep taking risks."
As owner and self-proclaimed Fun Master (seriously, it's on his business cards) of Skillful Home Recreation in Portland, Furman's mission is to spread the gospel of good times. The Skillful showroom, located in the city's burgeoning Bayside neighborhood, is packed with diversion upon sweet diversion ˆ card tables and billiards packages, bar stools and pinball machines. From dart flights to neon lights, Furman says Skillful offers everything to get a good game going.
In his office above the showroom on a recent day, Furman eyes a stack of poker chips on his desk. The chips are stamped with Skillful Poker Showdown, the name of a local poker tournament that recently aired over 10 episodes on WPXT/WPME in Westbrook. Furman shelled out an undisclosed sum to sponsor the show, and outfitted the set with accoutrements such as a poker-themed pinball machine, a bar and an upscale card table from his showroom.
In return, the Skillful name was plastered all over the show's set, from the poker chips to the theme song, which was put together by Skillful Marketing Director Jeff Gonzalez and Portland musician Haakon Kallweit. In short, it was just what Furman and the rest of the Skillful staff had in mind.
That's because Skillful during the past year or so has made a dramatic shift in its business plan, largely letting go of the commercial clients that sustained the company for decades in favor of a growing consumer market. Supplying offices with snack machines and bars with jukeboxes is an old man's game, says Furman. These days, the real play is the home market, in which a growing number of consumers are outfitting their homes with personal arcades and game rooms. "We were a regular vending company, but it's a transition over time," says Furman. "Skillful was founded in 1978 and here I am in 2006 and I'm still making changes. Life changes, people change, their needs and desires change."
But making the switch from the commercial market to the consumer market has been a challenge for Furman and the rest of the Skillful staff. The company's new direction has meant trying to shed its image as a commercial vending company. And though Skillful's squat, blocky headquarters sits in the middle of what for years has been a largely ignored industrial section of the city ˆ not exactly the dream location for a retailer trying to bolster its consumer business. (For more on how Bayside is changing, see "Bayside ho!," on page 17.)
That's where the Skillful Poker Challenge comes into play. Through events like the poker show ˆ as well as other marketing moves and additions to the store's product lines ˆ Furman aims to get the Skillful name on the lips of consumers. If someone is looking for a case of poker chips or a billiard ball emblazoned with the Boston Red Sox logo, Furman wants them to think of Skillful. "We're committed to being the place to go for quality stuff," says Eric Moynihan, general manager at Skillful. "It's working. It's creating a niche."
Twilight of the coin-op era
Jeff Gonzalez says the consumer strategy was kicked into high gear in late 2005 when Skillful hired Portland-based marketing firm KempGoldberg to oversee a corporate rebranding. Among the first steps was to change the company's name from Skillful Vending to Skillful Home Recreation ˆ a move designed to position the company's showroom as the place for home recreation goods like pool cues and poker chips.
That strategy shift comes on the heels of changes Furman has seen in the company's business. Since founding the company in 1978 with one product ˆ a Tap-a-Coin arcade game he installed in a local restaurant ˆ Furman burnished Skillful's reputation as the complete source for vending machines. Whether you wanted to offer customers a Pepsi, a pack of Lucky Strikes or a game of Galaga, Skillful was the place to go.
But during the last decade or so, that commercial business has dwindled. Factories shutting down meant less need for industrial coffee machines or snack dispensers. Bars didn't want as many Ms. Pac Man games, and pinball wizards were fewer and farther between. The 300 or so pay phones Skillful operated in southern Maine faded into obsolescence by the late 90s as more people turned to cell phones, and Maine's ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in 2004 decimated Skillful's cigarette machine business. (An asthmatic, Furman was all too happy to let the machines go, and even made a show of busting one up in public after the ban was enacted.) "The commercial market has fallen apart," says Gonzalez. "And more people have more money and can afford to have this kind of stuff in their homes."
The trend, says Furman, began in the 90s as people started buying the arcade games and jukeboxes bars no longer wanted. Once the games were wheeled out of the warehouse and into customers' living rooms, the phones at Skillful continued to ring from buyers asking the company to service the games.
Those service calls kept his repairmen busy, and the pace quickened when he started selling retrofitted coin-op pool tables for home use. There was plenty of work for Furman's staff setting up the tables in customers' houses, and then from the inevitable follow-up calls to have Skillful fix a broken piece of slate or re-felt the rails. "It's the same theory as selling the pinball machines," says Furman. "It creates more service."
For the companies in the home recreation market, the tide really began turning after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In the following months and years, much was made in the media about families "cocooning" and "burrowing" ˆ buzzwords to describe peoples' inclination to stick around at home with loved ones. Penelope Daborn, an interior designer in Portland, says she's seen an increase in the number of people adding game rooms to new homes or residential additions. "I guess they just think its fun to have access to that stuff in their home," she says. "If you have your own little movie theater, you don't have to go to the movies, or if you have your own billiard table, you don't have to go down to the pub."
While the pool halls and arcades of the world may have suffered from such cocooning, companies like Skillful saw their stocks rise. "The uptick? It was phenomenal," says Furman, who notes that Skillful's sales rose 40% in 2002. "People really hunkered down."
Rise of the man cave
The trend that started in 2001 is still going. Sales of poker chips and related merchandise are strong, says Furman, and billiards tables anchor his bottom line. Though he declines to disclose Skillful's revenues, he says the company is profitable and that sales are growing each year. Furman also is adding new items outside the company's parlor-game niche to grow a new crop of customers. (See "Swing shift," page 18.)
The size of the market for home arcade games and pool tables is largely anecdotal. Newspapers around the country have documented the rise of home-based game rooms and the evolution of so-called "man caves" ˆ places for guys to be guys that usually include pool tables, big-screen TVs and the like. And thanks to an explosion in popularity for poker driven by televised tournaments, more neighborhood buddies are getting together for weekly games. And forget the rickety card tables and plastic chips ˆ these days, consumers aren't worried about spending hundreds of dollars for a specially made poker table and casino-quality chips.
Those familiar with the industry say there's plenty of opportunity for companies like Skillful. The Billiards Congress of America pegs the market for pool tables and accessories like cues and balls at more than $1 billion. And Stephen Young, president and CEO of BMIGaming.com, an arcade-game retailer in Boca Raton, Fla., says sales of pinball and video games are growing each year. "We don't even see it close to peaking," says Young, who notes that his company sold $10 million worth of such games last year. "You're going to see a lot of baby boomers with a lot of bucks."
Meanwhile, game room tastes are expanding: The Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group in Alexandria, Va., estimates consumers will spend $3.7 billion this year on PC and console-based game rooms. Although a mint-condition Ms. Pac Man arcade game or Harley-Davidson pinball machine ˆ which might run as much as $6,000 ˆ doesn't have the mass-market appeal of Microsoft's Xbox 360, Skillful still does a brisk business in stand-up arcade games. "Ten years ago, rumor was we sold two or three video games and pinball machines a year for people's homes," says Moynihan, who joined Skillful two years ago. "Last Christmas, we sold 20 or 25 during the holiday season."
But where there's a retail trend, there's retail competition. NAMCO, a national chain with a store in Westbrook, sells billiard tables and accessories alongside swimming pools and patio furniture. "Now you've got Filene's carrying the silver cases of poker chips for $39.95," says Furman.
The solution for Skillful, he says, is quality. Instead of no-name pool tables for cut-rate prices, Skillful sells Brunswick and Olhausen tables that cost $2,000-$4,000. Eric Moynihan also points out that Skillful will deliver and assemble a customer's table, laying the slate on its bed and wrapping the playing surface in the customer's choice of felts. "That's where we battle the big stores," he says. "I mean, you can pull into Wal-Mart and load 18 boxes into your pickup truck and read the directions, but we've kind of created a niche for being ˆ and I hate to use the upscale word ˆ but being higher quality."
Mark and Cindy Anastasoff were just the customers Skillful hoped to attract. The couple recently completed a $55,000 game room in their house in Scarborough. The room, which was built over the Anastasoff's garage, included an eight-foot Olhausen pool table, specialized lighting and pub furniture from Skillful. "We were impressed by their quality ˆ really impressed," says Mark Anastasoff. "We felt like they'd back up their quality, and they have. The pool bed cloth was coming out and they fixed it for us."
Furman admits that the move towards the consumer market isn't a sure bet, and that nothing is static in the retail world. A hot new product could reinvigorate the commercial market, or people will tire of their home game rooms and move onto the next household luxury. The jury's out on whether the resurgence of poker means cards are here to stay, but a growing number of pundits say that poker's popularity has crested. And it's doubtful future generations will have much reverence for pinball and Ms. Pac Man games.
But for now, Furman sees the home consumer market as one that's growing and stable. He's placing his bets the way any good gambler does ˆ where he figures the odds are in his favor. "Small business is a gamble today," he says. "Business is never solid. You fight it every week. But you have to keep taking risks."
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