Bowling Bonanza: Billings business pins down contract

Even though the American Bowling Congress Tournament is long over, bowling is
still providing a business bonanza for at least one Billings company.
Employment Source, which handles hiring and payroll for other companies, just
landed a two-year contract with the national ABC Championships Tournament, the
bowling extravaganza that spent six months in Billings. The contract means a 25 percent jump in revenues for
the Billings company.

By JAN FALSTAD
Of The Gazette Staff

"It’s a big deal because we’ll be going to Knoxville with them. We go to Knoxville, then to Reno with the
possibility of doing it with them until the tournament might come back to Billings in 2010," said company
president Terry Mammenga.
Stroll through the West End offices of Employment Source and you’ll see the full-page ABC ad thanking
Billings for hosting its first bowling tournament.
Mammenga, regional sales manager Monte
LeMoine and salesman Jim Bassett all sport bowling
shirts.
When the trio first read about the ABC tournament
coming to Billings three years ago, they sent off a letter
to try to win a contract.
They didn’t hear back for a long time.
"Since April 1999, we’ve been talking to them
trying to get them to talk to us. It’s not an easy thing to
do," Mammenga said. "The people we needed to talk
to are on the road and they are rarely in the home
office."
The company even had MetraPark’s operations
director Bill Dutcher put in a good word with Hal
Kaminski, ABC’s Tournament director at the
Albuquerque tournament. But that contact was too late.
"Come to find out, that was Hal’s last year. He
retired," said Mammenga. So they started over with
current director, Brian Lewis, who debuted at the
Billings tournament.
Three weeks ago, the persistence paid off.

Setting up

Salesman Jim Bassett will have to move to Knoxville for six to seven months to hire 100 workers and set up
the payroll system. The workers do everything from setting lanes to tracking the brackets.
Bassett said he’s excited about the opportunity, even though it will be time away from his three high
school-age daughters.
"I’m going to miss some basketball games next winter, but the opportunity is too good to pass up," Bassett
said. "And I’ve never been to that part of the country. I’m looking forward to it."
Business connections and the good experience at the Billings tournament are paying off, said Fred White,
ABC’s tournament manager. White’s mother works for a Bozeman company, which runs a small, but effective
office. White saw the same characteristics at Employment Source.
"They are in the correct position by being small and agile, it gives them the flexibility to really move with us
around the country," White said. "Their being agile enabled them to come in with a very competitive bid."
He called the Billings businessmen "good guys, optimistic and personable," plus the price was right.
The Employment Source provides temporary staffing, payroll, hiring and executive recruitment services.
Sugar beet harvests have been the company’s top client.
Employment Source handles beet harvests in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and is bidding on similar
projects in North Dakota, Minnesota and Michigan.
In Nebraska last year, LeMoine hired 400 people to staff receiving stations and other jobs for the harvest.
The work is interesting, he said.
"You just deal with the people and when you deal with people one day it is not the same as the day before,"
LeMoine said.
The harvests are fall and winter events and the bowling tournament runs winter through spring, so they
complement each other, Mammenga said.
Mammenga said his company operates in seven states and employs more than 1,300 each year. He said
the first step is to learn employment law in Tennessee and get registered for programs like workers
compensation and liability insurance.
"We enjoy doing the big projects," Mammenga said. "We’d like to do more bowling, too."
ABC brought 10,806 teams with 54,000 bowlers to Billings over 135 days starting in February.

On the local level

He said his company can handle the bowling contract and continue to serve its local clients.
Mammenga and his wife, Sandie, started the company out of a home office in 1996 and now employs four
full-time people at 2040 Rosebud Dr. In addition to payroll and hiring, the company offers temporary workers
and career-placement services.
The Billings Chamber of Commerce gave the company its 2001 Industry Award for a Newer Business.

Jan Falstad can be contacted at (406) 657-1306 or at [email protected]

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/08/11/build/business/bowling.inc