RGR
#Let me take this one, <UNK>.
First off, Gander is a valued partner even though we don't sell them directly.
They've made a significant commitment to firearms, and I think it's ---+ you know, our sort of channel checks would indicate that they did well with firearms in the fourth quarter that perhaps it was other product lines that have slowed them down a bit.
And we certainly wish them the very best.
David Pratt and his team are a really good one, and we hope they pull through this well.
That being said, I doubt there are too many towns where Gander is the only gun store in the whole town.
And I think if one retailer slows down a little bit, the others pick up the slack in that community.
I think that's kind of a pretty harsh one to say that the levels will resort back to 2008.
You might be right.
My personal belief would be different because for the reasons I enumerated earlier.
Firearms ownership is much more socially acceptable; it's much wider than it was before.
There are more states that have adopted laws enabling concealed carry.
There's just a whole raft of reasons including many, many, many new shooters have come on in the last eight years that are now buying their 2nd or 3rd or their 10th gun.
And I think that the market really is substantially different than it was pre-Obama.
<UNK>, <UNK> here.
As you know, one of the primary focuses for our entire Company is on new product development coupled with the folks on new manufacturing and continuous improvement.
But when it comes to new product development, I mean, there's absolutely no let up.
As you saw from the prepared remarks and our release, our CapEx estimate for this year is about $40 million.
The bulk of that is focused on new product development.
And we've got some great teams of engineers working, and we've got some great new products teed up.
So we know that's going to be our future, and that's the strength of our Company.
So there's no let up there.
As things ---+ you asked before as things ---+ if there's a softening of demand.
You know, it also allows us, in addition of potentially moving product lines, it lets us repurpose some of that CapEx.
Some of the capital dollars we spend are specific to a product line, hard fixtures, tools, and gauges, but then other things are relatively generic.
CNC, equipment, they can be redeployed, and so that gives is some flexibility there on the shop floor.
And one of the things as you've been to some of our facilities, there's constant reorganization as we're moving machines from cell to cell to try to capitalize on where an uptick in demand might be, and where we might free up some machines as a certain product line slows down.
And that's what one of the strengths of being a full-line producer of products, covering so many categories, that's really one of the strengths we can leverage regardless of the market going forward.
I think since the last time you were down there, <UNK>, obviously, we ramped up some of those product lines.
We've got a couple more that are coming in, coming online later this year.
Not prepared to talk about yet, but they're doing a great job for us getting this new products up and running both brand-new product lines as well as things that we move in from either Prescott or Newport.
We've got great demand, as you likely know, on the Ruger Precision Rifle.
We added another SKU in January.
That was a 6 millimeter Creedmoor.
So very strong demand there.
Still trying to keep of there.
The other one was the LCP II made out in Prescott.
So we still have the LCP I at a lower price point.
The LCP II has been ---+ really done extremely well.
And then the whole line of the Mark IV Pistols is still unfolding.
We're still adding.
Every couple of months, we're adding to that mix of product and heavily back-ordered there as well.
<UNK>, it's significantly changed since then that most items are being made on single piece flow.
There more super cells than before.
You don't see the huge amount of ---+ with inventory throughout the plan.
But having said that, we actually think we've got a long way to go, a lot of opportunity ahead of us.
And should there be any lessening of demand if they've got ---+ working two shifts instead of three, that gives a real opportunity to double down on lean efforts that we all have during the crazy periods.
<UNK>, <UNK> here.
Those are up and running.
We're not planning to add a third one right now, but we've incorporated the lessons learned from those two mini foundries into our legacy foundry.
And that's paying dividends throughout Pine Tree right now.
But right now, not a plan to open a third one.
Well, <UNK>, that's a tough one to answer because we don't have any idea who's going to come up for sale or how the environment will change in the future.
We're always paying attention.
Because of our strong balance sheet and growth, I think anybody who's selling or looking for a partner, we get a look at it.
We just haven't chosen to bite on any of these and have managed to avoid destroying any shareholder value in the process.
But we always keep our eyes and ears open and are paying attention.
And should the right thing come along, even though it hasn't in the last 10 years, should the right thing come along, I'm sure we'll pay a lot of attention to it.
<UNK>, <UNK> here.
We've got 18 and, of course, some of those are multiple location operations.
So again, we don't plan ---+ things could change, but right now, no new additions on the horizon.
We've got good interest, as you know, on ---+ Ruger product lines for off-duty carry and backup guns remains extremely high within the law enforcement community, LCP, LCR, LC9, et cetera.
We're also seeing very good interest in the Precision Rifle, and we do have a small LE effort, law enforcement effort, that's focused on that.
So we see some opportunity with both the AR 556 Precision Rifle.
And now that the American Pistol Line is fleshed out with the compact models, we see that as an opportunity as well for the process of duty weapon business.
But again, that's a very small part of our business and not a real large focus.
As you know, our focus is on the commercial sporting side of the business, and so I don't see a big push on the LE and military side.
We have absolutely sold some of those products into law enforcement and tactical teams.
So again, a small part of our business, but we have several folks in our organization that are dedicated to that effort.
And again, while not a needle mover for us, we've got some of those products in some of those higher end tactical organizations.
It hasn't gone through yet to our knowledge.
Both Bass Pro and Cabela's are fantastic customers of ours.
We work very closely with their buying teams and their merchandising teams.
So we're optimistic that regardless of the outcome, that we're going to continue to have great success in those stores.
Because as consumers, we know we like visiting them, they do a great job for us, and they really represent the entire firearms category in a positive light.
Well, the shows that our distributors host for retailers are typically in January and February.
There are one or two that do them in the summer.
There are buying group shows that are done twice a year, typically in February and August, September.
We don't participate in those as we don't sell to those binders.
We sell only through the wholesalers.
So most of the retail ---+ the retailers attending a show are in the January, February time period, just finishing up now.
It wasn't as much of a show.
There were one or two distributors that had summer shows, but we did have a round of summer programs.
So we had the retailer programs that we typically do in January, February.
We have done those in the summer as well, and that started a few years ago.
So those may be what you're thinking about.
We did have those promotional programs offered to retailers outside of shows, but we did indeed do those typically in a May, June, July time period.
Yes.
Buy X, get one free, those type of packages and programs.
We're still looking at that and obviously it's a little forward-looking and we don't want to tip our hand from a competitive standpoint, but we're always looking at the tools we have in our arsenal to make sure we grow our market share.
Thank you.
In closing, I'd like to thank you for your continued interest in Ruger, and I'd like to thank our loyal customers and the 2,400 plus hard-working members of the Ruger team who design and manufacture wonderful firearm products everyday in our American factories.
I look forward to seeing many of you at our 2017 annual meeting on Tuesday, May 9, in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Thank you.
