BUILDING A REPUTATION

Prestige Billiards is owned and operated by Henderson and Tenille Brice, his partner in business and life. A big step for the business came in 2016, when Brunswick approached Henderson and Brice about the store offering Brunswick tables.

“Once we got the Brunswick name, I felt like all the other brands wanted to be part of it too,” Henderson says. “We were approached by everybody at that moment. Brunswick also gives us exclusives in Arizona, so instead of having multiple dealers for the same product, they gave us a product line in Arizona because they felt we were the best choice. We’ve still kept our numbers up, so we’re not favoring one brand over another, that way we keep our goodwill with all of our vendors.”

Today, Prestige Billiards sells an array of pool tables from leading brands including Brunswick, Legacy, Imperial, American Heritage, Plank and Hyde, and A.E. Schmidt.

Another key moment that underscores Prestige Billiards’ reputation is when Imperial hired Henderson to work on tables for its first Mosconi Cup.

“That was a big deal for Imperial,” Henderson says. “It was nerve-racking to do a big event without having experience in events, but I was able to pull through that. Then, as soon as I got that done, I was doing all the Mosconi Cups, pool halls, and The World Games. They definitely appreciate my workmanship on that end because they trust it’s going to be right at the end of the day. But the Mosconi Cup was a big deal for us, it really put us on the map—it’s not just the state of Arizona, pretty much the world knows about us as a company because vendors pass our name along. We have good relationships, not just with sales people, but with owners of companies, as well. They help build our brand just through referrals.”

Growing The Product Line

Over the years, Henderson and Brice have expanded their offerings to include shuffleboards, poker tables, darts, and foosball. And they continue to add to Prestige Billiards’ product line and expand their offerings.

“Recently we took on barbecues and massage chairs, so we’re diversifying,” Henderson says.

Tenille says that even as Prestige Billiards offers more games and product lines, pool tables remain the store’s most popular items.

“What I have found is that pool tables are definitely becoming more of a furniture item, now that they don’t look like just pool tables,” she says. “Our trends that have been super-popular right now are still tables with that modern rustic look, I have a feeling that’s going to be sticking around for a while. And then also that mid-century modern look is making a huge comeback.”

Henderson is a lifelong Arizonian, and Brice is a longtime resident of the state, so they both know their stuff when it comes to the Copper state. When talking about the Arizona market, Brice says there is demand for any game that has a dining top.

“Arizona is notorious for having this useless dining room in your house that is not off your kitchen, it’s a couple of rooms away,” she says. “So everyone converts that.”

She adds that Prestige Billiards has also seen a huge uptick in shuffleboard sales.

“We sell a ton of shuffleboards, and I think that’s because they don’t take up a lot of room,” Brice says. “We also do a lot of outdoor furniture—pool tables, game room items, just because of the weather. It gets brutally hot here for three months, but nine months out of the year it’s so nice here. Our winter here is 70 degrees.”

The Great Outdoors

The last 10 years or so have also seen the growth of the outdoor living room trend, which in many ways is ideal for Arizona.

“We’ve picked up some really good brands for that, we just brought in RR by Olhausen, so I think those are going to kill it here, we’ve already sold a few of those,” Brice says.

According to Tenille, despite the ideal weather that Arizona offers for much of the year, outdoor products in Ar- izona need to be able to withstand some extraordinary hot temperatures in June, July and August. Tenille says that means products need to be made of steels and aluminums.

“Our seasons are different from other states,” she says. “I learned this when we were at BCA, because I sit on the next gen advisory committee and we were talking about it. It’s very different for us because Arizona is such a hodgepodge of people. Everyone comes here.”

Succeeding In Arizona

Henderson and Brice said their busy season starts in the fall, right when football season starts to kick in, and that their stores stay busy through May. Summer is active, but slower, and online sales also get a boost during the hot months.

“That was one of the big things during COVID,” Brice says of online sales. “We had been test piloting a lot of online stuff for vendors. Kevin is always pushing the envelope, so we are usually ahead of the curve, and we had a good online presence before COVID hit, and that kept us going. We were shipping out so many tables a week. People would say, ‘Oh, you have that? It’s not exactly what I wanted, but I’ll take it because I know my kids are going to be home for the next year.’

“I think that was a huge thing, that we had such a good online presence. Even though people couldn’t come into the stores, they were already familiar with our site; we already had so many sales on there, so people were comfortable with us and we were a trusted website. I think that’s helped us as well.”

Prestige Billiards began to see a significant increase in cue sales after the owner of one of Arizona’s largest cue distributors passed away during the pandemic.

“We are selling cues like there’s no tomorrow right now,” says Brice. “And