Table top: Entrepreneur revs up his operation to deal with unexpected success

Costco has come calling for an area company’s unique product. Will it be able to meet the wholesale club’s big production demands?

  • By Brian Hartz
  • | 6:00 a.m. September 28, 2018
  • | 0 Free Articles Remaining!
Mark Wemple. Tony Utegaard is the co-founder and co-owner of Car Pool Tables, a Safety Harbor company that makes — you guessed it — billiards tables built atop authentic replicas of classic car bodies.
Mark Wemple. Tony Utegaard is the co-founder and co-owner of Car Pool Tables, a Safety Harbor company that makes — you guessed it — billiards tables built atop authentic replicas of classic car bodies.
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When Tony Utegaard’s construction business slowed down amid the recession of the late 2000s, he built, on a whim, a pool table on top of a 1965 Ford Mustang body. He and his business partner, Ben Mallah, sold just one of the car pool tables in 2009.

 

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