As is the case with most success stories, the entrepreneurial growth of Al and Elizabeth Selinger's .family business began with serious risk-taking. In 1967, Al Selinger was an accountant, employed by Goderich Manufacturing Company, an Ontario hardwood lumber mill that was the world's leading supplier of maple wood for bowling lanes. He and his wife Elizabeth, determined to go into business for themselves, systematically searched for a woodrelated industry. Eventually they obtained a small Toronto company which manufactured and repaired billiard cues. Using quality Canadian hard white maple purchased from the Goderich firm, they set out to "build a better cue" the best cue value on the market. The Selingers refused to compromise their reputation for quality and, for several years experimented on ways to duplicate traditional handcraftsmanship with hightech processes. As a result of diversification, automation and creative management, Dufferin, one of the largest manufacturers of billiard cues in North America, now exports 65% of its production to over 30 countries including the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and even the Far East. To serve the expanding American market, the Selingers, in 1981, started a sales and distribution operation near Chicago named Dufferin Inc.

The Selingers also purchased their lumber supplier, renaming the 15-acre Goderich site, Selinger Wood Limited. While only 5% of its lumber output meets their quality standard for cues, most of the rest is exported in the form of piano parts, saw handles, furniture components, dowels and specialty flooring.
 

1. Al and Elizabeth Selinger using the cues that "started the ball rolling" at Dufferin Cue Ltd. 2. A tournament billiard table by Dufferin Leisure Ltd.

Realizing that Canadians are spending more and more time at home and more money than ever on home furnishings, the Selingers then purchased a billiard table factory in 1985, transforming it into Dufferin Leisure Limited. The recession had crippled the billiard distribution network so they bolstered their future markets by acquiring retailing enterprises in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg. Using non-traditional materials and colours, they immediately began to redesign tables for a changing market and greater price competitiveness. Additionally, the company branched out to include oak and mahogany bars, games tables and other accessories for the growing home recreation market.

Following creative employee suggestions, the Selingers developed a new retailing concept "Dufferin Game Room Stores" —opening the first outlet in 1986 in Mississauga's mega-shopping mall —Square One. Sales reached $1 million in its initial year! During the next two years, the chain opened twelve additional outlets across the country, half of which are franchise operations. Merchandise today ranges from darts and billiard tables to board games, puzzles, even bars and related accessories.

With three of their six children involved in their enterprises, Al and Elizabeth Selinger credit the success of their business to each other and to their close sense of family. While The Dufferin Group of Companies has grown from a small manufacturing plant to a consortium organizing billiard tournaments, exporting sawmill products, manufacturing billiard tables and cues and, most recently, opening a chain of franchised and company-owned retail outlets in major shopping malls across Canada, their impact on the leisure time of Canadian families is a growing phenomenon.