The City Wire Business of the Month: Van Buren-based Thor Global Defense Group

Editor’s note: The City Wire will highlight each month a business operating in the Fort Smith region. Business struggles, accomplishments, philanthropic support and many factors are considered when selecting a business to profile. Input from The City Wire readers also will be considered. The inaugural honoree was Neumeier’s Rib Room and Beer Garden.

story and photos by Roy Hill

While sister companies Knesek Guns and Thor Industries are both fairly new themselves, they’ll be sharing one new name in the near future: Thor Global Defense Group.

Owned by Larry Knesek and located at 1206 Knesek Lane in Van Buren, the soon-to-be Thor Global Defense Group employs eight, but has plans to expand its training operations, firearms sales, and security contracting.

According to Marketing Director Max Rodriguez, Thor Global Defense Group grew out of Knesek Guns, which Larry Knesek began in 2003, primarily selling guns on the Web sites GunsAmerica.com and Gunbroker.com.

“[Knesek] started this as a personal hobby, because he saw he could get better deals on guns as an FFL [Federal Firearms Licensee],” Rodriguez explained. “It just grew from there.”

That growth has included more than $5 million dollars of investment that has produced a central building with classroom spaces for training, a 100-yard outdoor range, and within the next month, 10 more rifle bays of 100 yards each, and five more pistol bays of 50 yards each. There are plans for an 800 yard rifle range, an indoor shoot house, and a 2000-yard range on another piece of land not far from the central location.

Training Director Roger Holland has more than six years active duty in the U.S. Army, where he trained other soldiers, and is an Iraq War veteran. Holland will oversee the Thor Global Defense Group’s course offerings for military, law enforcement, and civilians.

“Our niche is we’re a lot more flexible. Some of the training for military personnel contains restricted material, but civilians are not necessarily going to get lesser training,” Rodriguez said. “Roger’s classes are pretty even for all groups, and go from the basics to advanced shooting. We’re going to have quality classes.”

Among clients investigating the training opportunities at Thor Global Defense is the Van Buren Police Department.

“Our attraction is the availability of specialized training dealing with anything tactical, such as our SWAT team,” said Van Buren police Lt. Brent Grill. “Much of the training we are seeking is not offered in Arkansas, and we’ve had to go to other states. With Thor being based here, that training is available to us at any time.”

In addition to training and classes, Thor Global Defense Group will offer security contracting services.

“On the security side, we’ll offer various contract work,” Rodriguez said. “We’re working on a roster of people we want to be contractors. Different jobs will require different skill sets.”

Thor Global Defense Group is already working with another security contractor to improve the skills of their personnel, including Paladin Intellects, an IT security contractor. Working with Paladin will also allow Thor to offer computer security as part of their services.

“We’re doing firearms training for their employees so they can operate as dual purpose contractors,” Rodriguez said.

At its heart, Thor Global Defense Group is still a firearms dealer, which is how the business started. The guns sold will reflect the military and tactical bent of the training and the contracting, with the centerpiece being AR-15 style rifles. AR platform rifles are the civilian version of the M-16 rifles and M-4 carbines, and are some of the hottest selling firearms in the United States.

“Right now, we’re mainly focusing on the AR,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll have some [receivers] machined out of billet, and offer custom AR platform rifles” including models that will bear the Thor name and logo on their receivers. There are also plans to offer the Nemesis .50, which is a rifle chambered in .50 BMG and manufactured in Switzerland.

Rodriguez sees Thor Global Defense as positioned to compete in the constantly-growing firearms training and retail business.

“Our location is great, in town basically, and lots of other places are way out in the middle of nowhere,” Rodriguez noted. “We went up to Cheyenne Tactical near Idaho Falls, and we had to drive for an hour through desert to get there. We really have something going for us with our location.”