Ebonite Sells Vantage Parts to QubicaAMF

Ebonite International has sold its Vantage Bowling Corp. parts division to Qubica/AMF.

Ebonite had owned Vantage since 2001. Along with the Vantage name, the sale includes Qubica/AMF, AMF and Brunswick A and GS parts made by Vantage.

Bob Reid, Ebonite’s vice president for marketing, said the sale of Vantage was motivated by economic conditions. “Particularly in the kind of times we’re having right now, what is important for every company to do is to stick to its knitting,” he explained.

“Our knitting and our core competence has to do with consumer products--balls, bags and accessories--and not necessarily commercial products, particularly something as complex as parts. When it became obvious in the tea leaves that things were going to become pretty high-pressure in this industry, we did make the decision to stick to our core competence. When the opportunity came along for us to divest ourselves [of Vantage], we did.”

John Walker, QubicaAMF president and CEO, said in a release, “We expect that this acquisition will position our company for continued success in the aftermarket parts business.”

QubicaAMF and Vantage parts lines will be managed separately, with the goal of maintaining current distribution networks, according to the QubicaAMF announcement.