Gun Trade World - April 2023

For an Australian company to purchase an American
manufacturer with the gravitas and history of Barrett
you’re going to see a big reaction across the global
marketplace. However, the deal seems to be the perfect
fit – a global alliance with benefits across civilian and
military markets. Barrett will be strengthened, allowing the
company to serve its US and global partners even better.
“We have got a strategic plan for our business and there are
two ways you can grow if you are in the geographic market of
Australia,” says Robert Nioa, speaking to Gun Trade World at
the recent SHOT Show.
“You can grow by trying to expand into adjacent products
– we are the largest supplier of sporting firearms in Australia,
and we are now also the largest private supplier of weapons
and ammunition for defence. So, one way of growing the
business from that would be to go left or right - maybe
autonomous vehicles or electronics. However, our core
expertise is with guns and ammunition so, if we want to stay
with our core principles, geographic dispersion is the key for
growth.
“We then looked at where we would want to grow and
defence and sporting needed to feature as well as guns and
ammunition,” continues Robert.
“So, we looked at the Five Eyes nations – Australia, New
Zealand, US, UK and Canada. Of those markets, the biggest
market in the world is the USA. Having determined that the
US was where we wanted to get to. We then kept our eye out
for opportunities.”
The ideal fit
It wasn’t long before the perfect opportunity showed itself
and Robert puts his existing personal relationship with the
Barrett team down as a key reason behind the deal.
“In America we have had good relationships with many
companies, we’ve kept our ear to the ground, and we
came across the Barrett opportunity due to our personal
connections there and personal discussions.
“The reason that Barrett appealed as opposed to just some
other gun company is that it also fits consistently with the
work we are doing in Australia. It supports what we are doing
in our home market as well as what we can achieve in the
American market.”
NIOA runs the Australian Department of Defence
LAND 159 Lethality System Program, which will eventually
replace every weapon a soldier carries over the next decade.
The company is contracted to fulfil the requirements of this
programme, at the first stage of that contract.
“The next stage of that contract will require us to establish
a sustainable, small arms weapons manufacturing capability
for both ammunition and guns,” continues Robert.
“Now we can do that in a number of ways. We can support
other companies to do that or contribute directly to it but
one of our strategies was to ensure that we have global
distribution and a global brand giving access to the biggest
markets in the world.
“If you combine those objectives, bringing Barrett on
board who has existing US military contracts, giving credible
capability, unique IP, great manufacturing capability, global
distribution, a proven supply chain and so on – all of that
made a pretty compelling argument as to why we strategically
wanted to do that.
“There’s still some movement to come in the L159
Program and there is no guarantee that that will go our way.
However, regardless of that, the Barrett strategy is sound to
the overall business strategy, which is growth in weapons and
ammunition in the Five Eyes nations.”
Trust in Barrett
“Barrett is a long way from home for me personally to
manage,” says Robert.
“I needed to make sure that if we were going to invest
in a company we have full confidence in the management
team, the people and the products. I was not looking for a
turnaround. I did not want to buy a company for it to be a
problem and what we’ve managed to achieve in the purchase
of Barrett is a market leader that’s got a full order book with
a really professional management team.
“A company that is very well run that I have had a 15-
year association with. I have a high level of confidence in
all of the individuals, from Ronnie (Barrett) and Chris
(Barrett), at a personal leadership level and the senior
leadership team that is in place – I know them well.
I have experienced them as a customer so all of that is
really important in the decision. We would not have bought
a turnaround business, and we would not have entered into
something risky – it was too big an investment and too far
away from home to invest in something risky.”
Boost for the sporting market
“My view is we do not want to run a business that is
exclusively military. We must have a mix of sporting and
military, in fact this provides the best value to military
customers, because they’re not paying all the overheads for
the facility, but also gives the best continuity for business
because you have got sales going ahead on a daily basis,
allowing for steady cash flow.
“Our view is that, firstly the sporting market will be
pivotal to the future business plan. Secondly, we have
already given thought to what additional civilian market
products we should look at and the easiest place to start was
to look at what Barrett was previously doing, which was
stopped because of its capacity constraints.
“The first one is the Barrett Fieldcraft, ultra-lightweight,
hunting rifle,” says Robert.
“It is our intention to restart production of that rifle with
a view that we should have product availability by this time
next year. Now that is going to be conditional upon a bunch
of planning. This is not just a thought bubble. We have
already acquired additional equipment and we have a body
of work that has been going on for about four months now
in preparing to get that production line back up and going.
“The orders for the core line of products, so the M107
etc were just so immense that they (Barrett) just could not
have machines devoted to much lower value items. Barrett
has to fulfil government contracts, so it just simply wasn’t an
option. We have now invested in new machinery.
“From NIOA’s point of view, we actually operate on
behalf of the Australian government undertaking the testing
for small arms weapons in Australia. This means we bring a
robust very sophisticated engineering approach to weapons
design, so we are certainly going to make sure that between
the organisations across the different continents that we will
maintain the highest standards of manufacturing.”
It is Gun Trade World’s view that Barrett Firearms will
be an even stronger presence in the US market and the
reintroduction of the Fieldcraft rifle to the US sporting
market will certainly be seen as a huge plus to US retailers
and consumers alike.
www.nioa.com.au
www.barrett.net
nioa
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