STEVEComus
• point of impact
I don’t profess to know, but am
certain that recent trends will result in long-term, if not permanent,
change. Whether it is change we
want, or even change we need, will
be determined within the next year
or two as trends develop.
That’s the way of the shooting
sports industry these days as one
company gobbles another in what
seems to be an epidemic.
Although the odyssey of Cerberus has garnered a large share of
industry attention on the acquisition
front, ATK cannot be ignored when
it comes to turning diverse elements
of this more or less cottage industry
into a relatively few, but diversified,
behemoths. And to lesser degrees,
there are other consolidations going
on all over the place—on the manufacturing, distributing, and retail
sales fronts.
A few years ago when Cerberus
Capital Management began buying
companies in the shooting sports
industry, it was all the buzz. The
biggest splash then, of course, was
the acquisition of Remington Arms.
But overall, the Remington deal has
proven to be but a relatively small
part of the ongoing process that has
seen other companies come under
the Cerberus umbrella.
Cerberus owns the Freedom
Group including Remington, Marlin, H&R 1871, New England Firearms, Bushmaster, DPMS Panther,
L.C. Smith, Parker, Dakota and,
most recently, Barnes Bullets.
Of course, earlier Dakota had
taken on and brought with it names
like Nesika Bay Precision, Miller
Arms and Dan Walter Cases. And
back to the behemoth, don’t forget
EOTAC and INTC.
Alliant Tech Systems, though,
Cartridge, CCI, Speer, RCBS, Alliant
Powder (formerly Hercules), Cham-
pion, Weaver, Eagle Industries, and,
most recently, BLACKHAWK!
This kind of activity makes the
recent acquisition of Redfield by Leupold look pale by comparison.
As I look back over the four
decades during which I’ve been
involved in the industry, it is interesting that most of the consolidating has happened during periods
of economic stress. Makes sense, of
course, but I sense a difference this
time around that may well portend
a changing future for the industry.
Historically, there was a lot of
hand fitting involved in Winchester’s products like the Model 70
rifle and Model 12 shotgun. This
triggered a big change in 1964—a
change that was brought on because
of Remington’s successes with the
Model 700 rifles and Model 870
shotguns—both designed from the
get-go to be mass produced with
minimum fitting (if any).
For decades, the major gun companies had some form of “custom
shop,” where, at first, most, if not all,
of the guns produced were essentially fancied-up iterations of production models.
Then all of that began to change.
Most notable was the establishment
of Smith & Wesson’s “Performance
Center.” The name itself bore witness to a movement from fancy to
functional. In recent years, other
custom shops have moved away
from, or even eliminated, the fancy
business in favor of high performance, specialized products that are
made, one at a time, to specifications
that are above and beyond the regu-
Consolidating Guns
The number of bigger companies determining the look, feel and direction of products in the shooting sports industry is
shrinking. Is this good, bad, or indifferent?
lar production guns.
Meanwhile, technology driven
mostly by computer-controlled manufacturing equipment has changed
the look of most standard production firearms. Even traditional designs like bolt-action rifles now are
pretty much robotic products.
Dwindling supplies of good,
fancy grade wood followed by inability to get steady supplies of even
really serviceable grades of normal
wood have made it easier to make,
and sell, these products of technology.
Within the past decade, the overwhelming acceptance of the AR design in rifles and polymer-framed
pistols has defined quite differently
just what a gun looks like.
When these easily mass-produced designs can deliver reliability
that is as good as, or sometimes better than, the more traditional models, and when they also can deliver
accuracy as good as, or sometimes
better than, the more traditional
models, we have both significant
change and permanent change.
Certainly there always will be
the boutique corners in the industry
where upscale guns of more traditional design rule supreme. But that
segment is becoming more isolated
and farther from the ready reach of
most buyers.
Couple that with the reality of
the last few years where supply
shortfalls in several product categories have shown that the market
will adapt to such a scenario, and
the picture begins to get more interesting.
Ultimately, if product/brand
consolidation continues without
offsetting movement of some kind,
fewer and fewer manufacturers will
have more and more impact on what
we sell, how we sell it, at what price
point and margin we sell it. -SSR
Comment? Write to:
SSREditor@klapublishing.com
