Bowl America Inc.

6446 Edsall Rd.

Year founded: 1958

Industry: Hospitality/travel

Post 200 Category: Top 125 Companies

Revenue: $28.43 Million

Net Income/Loss: $4.70 Million

Earnings per share: $0.91

Dividend: $0.52

Stockholder equity: $34.90 Million

Auditor: Deloitte & Touche LLP

Stock: BWL/A

Assets: $40.58 Million

Market capitalization: $71.47 Million

52-week high: 14.6 9/17/2004

52-week low: 13.55 1/24/2005

President and CEO: Leslie H. Goldberg

SVP and Treasurer: Ruth Macklin

Employees: 600

Local employees: 350

Description: Bowl America owns 18 bowling centers in Virginia, Maryland and Florida.

Developments: According to the company's latest filing, Bowl America spent about $1 million on new equipment to modernize its facilities. It is also finishing a $5 million, 40-lane center in Richmond, which the company expects to open by the end of the year. The company said that during the second quarter of its fiscal year, which ended in June, it was adversely affected by higher gasoline prices, which cut into its customers' discretionary income. During that quarter, its food and beverage sales were down 5 percent, compared with the same period in 2003. That decline was mostly because it closed its full-service restaurant at its bowling center in Gaithersburg in 2003. Second-quarter revenue dropped 2.7 percent to $7.2 million. But the company's earnings during that period increased 4 percent to $950,028, compared with $911,860 in 2003. Earnings were boosted largely by corporate investments. Edward Goldberg, Sollie Katzman, Samuel Sobkov and Samuel Higger founded Bowl America in 1958. Forty-six years later, their heirs control the company. Goldberg is still on the company's board, which is dominated by relatives of the founders, including Goldberg's sister, Merle Fabian, his cousin Ruth Macklin, Stanley Katzman and Joseph Levy. Family members own 33 percent of the outstanding shares of common stock and 79 percent of the company's Class B stock, which carries most of the voting rights.