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Tenpin Strikes Big with EDGE String
With an unwavering focus on providing a fantastic family experience, Tenpin has become the second largest tenpin bowling operator in the UK with 45 centres and over 1,100 lanes. Bowling represents about 50% of their revenue on average. Along with casual and league bowling, Tenpin centres offer arcade games, table tennis, soft play, laser games, pool tables plus high-quality food and beverage service to over five million visitors every year.
Tenpin is the second largest bowling operator in the UK with 45 centres and over 1,100 lanes.
Tenpin’s Challenges with Free-Fall Machines
Tenpin worked hard to become the go-to place for UK families looking to have fun. Yet, in 2014 , Graham Blackwell, their chief commercial officer, was finding it increasingly difficult to deliver an exceptional bowling experience. Problem number one: their free-fall machines. Chief among many other issues, unreliable performance and downtime was becoming a source of frustration for players. Problem number two: finding and retaining experienced technicians to service those machines had become a huge challenge. “We were struggling,” says Graham, a 30-year bowling industry veteran. “Our guest experience, revenue and brand reputation were all suffering.” On top of that, maintenance of their free-fall machines had become an ever more significant operating expense. Plus, it was challenging to bring their older machines in line with current HSE workplace safety regulations. Something had to be done.
Tenpin’s Key Problems with their Free-Fall Machines:
- Finding technicians with the proper skill set
- Poor reliability hurting the bowling experience
- Lanes down resulting in missed revenue during peak times
- High maintenance costs
- Workplace safety challenges
Tenpin Chooses QubicaAMF String Pinspotters
With free-fall machines topping his list of major headaches, in 2014 Graham began seriously looking at ways to solve the problem. He’d heard of string machines but had no direct experience with them. So, in 2015 he embarked on a disciplined international quest. His goals: to experience bowling on string machines firsthand; to hear what players thought about them; and to understand reliability and maintenance needs.
QubicaAMF EDGE String Pinspotters provide:
- A pinspotter solution any member of your staff can easily operate
- An innovative app, Tech Wizard, that makes operation even easier
- A very authentic bowling experience
- An amazingly simple way to offer bowling!
After bowling his way across Europe—speaking with operators and players alike, Graham felt confident that string pinspotters were the way to go. “I did not find pin-fall to be meaningfully different,” he says. “Most customers either didn’t notice or mind that they were bowling on a string machine.”
“QubicaAMF’s use of innovative technology... smart design features and robust construction as compared to the string machine alternatives... were the deciding factors.” –Graham Blackwell
Energized by these discoveries, and after testing string machines in one centre, Graham presented a business case and a wider trial plan to the Tenpin Board of Directors. Soon, after researching options, Graham chose QubicaAMF to be the exclusive string pinspotter supplier for the Tenpin chain. QubicaAMF string machines were then installed across six Tenpin centres of varying size, performance, technical competency and league participation.
Three things became immediately clear:
1.String pinspotters delivered a better guest experience
2.Revenue was up
3.Centre managers and employees were happier and less stressed
Tenpin began installing QubicaAMF’s acclaimed TMS string pinspotter in 2016, then transitioned to the revolutionary new EDGE String in early 2019. To-date Tenpin has replaced over 800 of their 1,100 lanes of free-fall machines with QubicaAMF string pinspotters.
ABOUT QUBICAAMF WORLDWIDE
QubicaAMF is the largest and most innovative bowling equipment provider in the world with 600 employees worldwide. We build and modernize more bowling entertainment centres than any other company in the industry, and have an installed base of more than 10,000 centres in 90 countries. We have a sales and distribution network with worldwide reach and maintains the largest R&D team for electro-mechanical products, software, electronics and entertainment systems in the industry. The company has U.S. headquarters in Richmond, Virginia and European headquarters in Bologna, Italy.
QubicaAMF has over 100 years of experience and can provide the perfect combination of bowling equipment, products and services for new or existing bowling entertainment centres, FECs, Cinemas or any other facility in the hospitality, retail or restaurant industry.
Our ongoing mission is Making Bowling Amazing. We are convinced that bowling has so much more potential to attract and entertain even more people. With our products, we will help our customers fully unleash that potential.
QubicaAMF is the organizer of the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, the largest annual sporting event in terms of the number of participating countries, which promotes bowling on a global level. The company celebrated the historical 50th anniversary of the tournament in 2014.