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Why are
these tables so popular? How did they take over the market? What do they mean
to amusement operators? To answer these questions, let’s take a short look at
the histories of both companies. The Valley® company was born about 55 years
ago in Bay City, Michigan under the auspices of one Earl Feddick. Mr. Feddick
was in the wooden toy and furniture business when he decided to build a new product,
coin-operated bumper pool. The demand for his new game was tremendous and in the
early years his production could not keep up with the demand. Then, as often happens
with successful products, other companies began manufacturing similar games. Earl
then decided to try something else new. He decided to build pool tables that operated
on coin play. Thus, were born the first Valley pool tables, in 6-foot size only.
Over the years, the tables evolved into various styles, colors, and sizes
to become what they are today. But, one thing Mr. Feddick’s tables were always
known for was quality. To the amusement operators that used his tables, this was
of utmost importance. Not only had he provided them with a new revenue source
for their locations, but also one that was reliable and long lasting. This reputation
has followed Valley for all of these years, and they are still known as the highest
quality coin-op tables available. Operators know that when they buy Valley products,
they will give them reliable service year after year after year. It is not unusual
to see 20-year-old Valley tables still in use. Because of this success over the
years, Valley has won more industry and association awards for quality, reliability,
and support than any other coin-machine manufacturer.
In most industries,
this would be enough, but as the years went by, the leaders of the Valley company,
people like Chuck Milhem, and Emil Marcet to name a few, realized that the operators
needed something else. They needed something that would not only drive their revenues,
but would also ‘lock’ them into locations. Thus, with the brilliant foresight
of Chuck Milhem and very sizeable investments by the Valley company, the VNEA
was born in 1979. The Valley National Eightball Association today is the largest
pool league in the world with over 75,000 sanctioned weekly players. Of course,
it started quite small and continued to grow every year. In fact, it still grows
even today as we continue to reach new operators in new places that still have
not realized the advantages the VNEA has to offer. However, this article is about
Valley-Dynamo™, and the VNEA is only one part of the story. There is also
the Valley International Foosball Association and the United States Table Soccer
Association. All
of these associations were developed for the purpose of helping operators and
promoting the games of pool and table soccer. The most important difference between
Valley tables and all the other brands has always been two things: Quality and
Support. No other coin machine manufacturer supports their customers like Valley
does. There are programs for leagues, and there are programs for state, regional,
and provincial tournaments. There is an annual charter-holder workshop where operators
have an opportunity to learn everything they need to know about leagues from other
operators with an abundance of experience. There are operator-training programs.
There are the International Championship tournaments in Las Vegas. And more. Valley
entered the international market place in the mid 80’s when Mr. Milhem hired his
old friend away from the Brunswick company. That man, James Griffiths, who had
a wealth of international experience under his belt already, set up Valley’s International
Division and then set out to find distributors all over the world. The results
of his hard work became obvious, especially when Valley won the President’s “E”
Award for excellence in exporting in 1990. Six years later, Valley again won,
but this time they won the prestigious “E Star” Award, which is only awarded to
one U.S. corporation each year. Though the International Division is still growing
at a very steady pace, Valley products are already well known the world over.
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