{"id":110830,"date":"2025-06-20T17:58:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T22:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=110830"},"modified":"2025-06-20T17:58:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T22:58:18","slug":"110830","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=110830","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Gun Business: Indicators of Industry Unease Moving Toward Full-Blown<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, I wrote that there was\u00a0a climate of unease<\/a>\u00a0through the industry. Since then, that unease has become full-blown concern. That concern is reflected in Ruger\u2019s quiet announcement of a reduction in headcount sent to employees last week from recently-appointed CEO and President Todd Seyfert (it was also disclosed in a filing with the SEC which is how we learned of it). Seyfert\u2019s letter indicated a coming \u201corganizational realignment\u201d that would come with \u201cseverance and separation-related costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those costs were estimated at about three million dollars this year, but would produce \u201cabout $4 million in annual savings when fully implemented.\u201d Translation: more to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn support of our new structure\u2014 which is designed to improve alignment, efficiency and effectiveness \u2014 we made difficult but necessary personnel changes,\u201d Seyfert wrote, \u201cThese moves were necessary for us to move forward with clarity and momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Included in the changes: \u201ca leadership transition,\u201d \u201cinventory rationalization,\u201d and \u201cproduct repositioning.\u201d Writing about the leadership changes, Seyfert referred to \u201cright-sizing\u201d Ruger\u2019s Connecticut operations. In any business climate, especially today\u2019s slowing one, \u201cright-sizing\u201d is generally considered a corporate euphemism for either layoffs of workers or termination of managers\u2026or both.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The changes, Seyfert wrote, were strategically made \u201cthoughtfully and intentionally\u201d to position Ruger for consistency, stability and profitable growth in 2026 and beyond.\u201d That having been said, Seyfert said there would be a \u201ccost to the company in 2025.\u201d Those costs were expected to total approximately $15 to $20 million over the remainder of the year.<\/p>\n

Additionally, he indicated \u201cprice repositioning\u201d would move to impact the overall bottom line over that same period.<\/p>\n

\"Sturm
Google<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wall Street wasn\u2019t shocked. After all, earnings across the industry, including Ruger have indicated trouble on the horizon. For the first quarter, Ruger\u2019s sales were flat, and showed a nearly 10% year-over-year industrywide decline in quarterly retail unit sales.<\/p>\n

Other companies have quietly reduced staffing, slashed expenditures, and made preparations for what increasingly appears to be a change in fortunes from the past three years of good times. The industry has been roiled by recent layoffs of familiar faces at other companies along with the cancellation of events generally held to announce new products. Those cancellations seen as another indication of harder times ahead and decreasing consumer spending.<\/p>\n

Speaking with manufacturers, distributors, and dealers this week, I\u2019m being told that while every company or industry category is down, consumer purchasing patterns indicate very deliberate buying. As one executive told me, \u201cwe are seeing people make smaller more targeted\u00a0intentional<\/em>\u00a0purchases.\u201d Amplifying, he explained that impulse items weren\u2019t being added to purchases.<\/p>\n

For manufacturers, the \u201cprice positioning\u201d referred to by Ruger\u2019s Seyfert generally means markdowns and blowout pricing on slow-moving inventory. While pushing out aging inventory reduces profits, it turns aging inventory into working capital. In slow times, capital availability not only means the ability to weather slowed sales, it offers cash that can either be used to bolster a company\u2019s bottom line or position it to go bargain hunting as unprepared companies get into money trouble.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not terribly different for distributors. They\u2019re going to be blowing out slow-moving inventory across all categories. Inventory blowouts, unfortunately, leave dealers holding the short end of the proverbial stick. While new inventory may be coming to their shelves at lower prices, any of their existing products\u2019 value is reduced accordingly. With firearms \u2014 not high-margin items \u2014 that can leave dealers essentially under water on existing inventory. Some prudent retailers began slowing their orders some time ago. Others have stepped up customer service, increased outreach and tried to engage newcomers to the outdoor community.<\/p>\n

Ruger, as a longtime advocate and champion of the three-legged stool of the manufacturer-distributor-dealer business model, has taken pride in not doing \u201cdeep discounts\u201d that leave dealers and distributors feeling hung out to dry. Instead they\u2019ve done incentive offers that encourage customer buying.<\/p>\n

Today, it appears slow times are the new reality across the industry. Today\u2019s customer bases, especially in the shooting sports, aren\u2019t as large as the sales through COVID and beyond seem to have indicated.<\/p>\n

While millions of new customers bought guns, it appears they didn\u2019t buy into the shooting sports community. Consequently the sales projections that drove manufacturing, distribution, and retail are looking overly optimistic.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gun Business: Indicators of Industry Unease Moving Toward Full-Blown Earlier this week, I wrote that there was\u00a0a climate of unease\u00a0through the industry. Since then, that unease has become full-blown concern. That concern is reflected in Ruger\u2019s quiet announcement of a reduction in headcount sent to employees last week from recently-appointed CEO and President Todd Seyfert … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-gun-schtuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110831,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110830\/revisions\/110831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}