GOLDEN!
J&J Amusements Hits Special 50-Year Mark; IAAPA Celebration Planned
From humble mini-golf beginnings back in 1957 to a global go-kart and bumper boat innovator founded in 1975, J&J Amusements has had a long and winding journey.
Twin brothers Jim and John Huish started up that mini-golf business and expanded it successfully, with locations in Utah and Southern California. (Today, both of them are in the IAAPA Hall of Fame for their long careers in the industry.)
As Dan Hansen, the current-day general manager of J&J Amusements, explained, “They needed a water attraction for their parks and pretty much made a bumper boat.” It was created with a truck tube, 2x4s and a Suzuki motor. That basic framework was later patented.
By 1977, the bumper boat building began in earnest. At their height, known as J&J Recreation at the time, the San Diego-based company was making 1,000 bumper boats a year. With the demand for water attractions surging, their bumper boats became fixtures at amusement parks and fun centers across the country.
In 1990, J&J Recreation became J&J Amusements when it was sold to a new group of owners who also had fun centers around the country. Like the Huish brothers before them, the new principals were interested in adding attractions to their own facilities. That’s when the company started building go-karts, an expansion that would redefine their history.
Shortly after, they introduced their Can-AM go-kart to the industry at IAAPA. That’s also when Hansen said he was hired on as a service manager. “With the addition of go-karts, they needed someone full-time to visit facilities to do on-site training,” he explained.
Hansen said their popular, single-seat Indy Racer go-kart body was introduced in 1993, which is also when the company relocated from SoCal to their current HQ in Salem, Oregon.
In 2001, an Employee Stock Ownership Plan was formed, allowing the employees to purchase 30% of the company; the ESOP purchased the remaining 70% in 2006 and it was paid off by 2013 among the couple dozen employees. The transition to employee ownership fostered a sense of greater accountability with the team having a direct stake in the company’s future success.
And in 2016, after decades developing bumper boats and go-karts, Automated Batting Cages came into the fold, further diversifying the business.
Today, J&J has product in 63 different countries. They produce electric and gasoline bumper boats, and 20 different go-karts – 12 gasoline models and eight electric models. Their catalog is constantly evolving, with new products coming out each year that focus on safety and quality.
Hansen said when he came aboard in ’91, there were probably a dozen or so go-kart manufacturers but only a few remain in the U.S. He’s seen sweeping changes to the industry in that time.
His path to J&J began while he was in trade school – the Motorcycle Mechanic School in Phoenix, Arizona. There, he met Tom Childs, who worked for the Huish family and recommended Hansen for a job.
After a fun center tour in California and getting hands-on with the bumper boats, “I gave my two-weeks’ notice at Denny’s and moved to SoCal. Since then, I’ve worked service, parts, purchasing, accounting, sales – I’ve done all the different jobs here.”
Hansen has been general manager of J&J Amusements for about five years. Under his leadership, the company is crossing the 50-year mark, and they excitedly have planned a customer appreciation event at the upcoming IAAPA Expo in Orlando.
“The big thing with the anniversary is our customers,” Hansen said. “We’ve had a lot of great people here in the company and our main objective has always been customer service.”
Marking the milestone in their booth #2662, at noon on Nov. 18 they’ll celebrate with tacos and drinks and premiere a video that details their 50 years in business and appreciation for the customers who made it happen.
Among those many key customers are Rick Iceberg of C.J. Barrymore’s, Tim Sorge of Swings-N-Things, Jeff Gebhart of Five Star Parks and Attractions, the teams at Lucky Strike and Bowlero, and cousins Scott and Dyke Huish, the sons of Jim and John, who have their own fun centers.
On display at IAAPA Expo will be the single-seat electric go-kart that debuted last year and is now in production – the Phantom. They are also unveiling a new go-kart that features a “different propulsion system that no one’s seen yet.”
Of the company’s long history, Hansen concluded: “We were strong then and we’re strong now and we’ll be strong in the future.”
Visit them at jjamusements.com.