The City Wire Business of the Month: Umarex USA

Editor’s note: The City Wire highlights 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.

story and photos by Roy Hill

Air guns are big business, and will soon be getting even bigger in Fort Smith.


Umarex USA, a major importer and distributor of air guns and rimfire firearms, plans to move from its present location at 6007 S. 29th St., to a new facility under construction  in Chaffee Crossing during Spring 2010.


The new location will be five times the size of the old location, and Umarex plans to increase the manufacturing component and add more employees.


“It’s tough to say exactly how many jobs,” said CEO Adam Blalock. “It all depends on the size of the manufacturing operation. It looks like it could be from 60 to 100 more jobs over the next three years.”

Umarex USA currently employs 36 in Fort Smith and has more than 80 independent sales representatives in the U.S. and Canada.

FORT SMITH MOVES
Blalock, a Fort Smith native and graduate of Southside High School, served as the president and CEO of Daisy, the airgun and BB gun manufacturer in Rogers from 1997 to 2001. He left Daisy to return to Fort Smith and a position with PRADCO. Over the years, Blalock kept in contact with a man he met while at Daisy, Wulf-Heinz Pflaumer, an owner and top executive with Carl Walther Sportwaffen, a German gun maker. Blalock eventually partnered with Pflaumer and opened Umarex USA in May 2006 in Fort Smith.

Besides his family roots in the area, Blalock saw plenty of other reasons to choose Fort Smith as the corporate headquarters for Umarex USA.

“The number one reason is the people,” Blalock explained. “The quality of the people and the workforce around here is great. After that, it made a lot of sense logistically. Fort Smith is a good hub to provide service to our customers.”

Umarex USA distributes its products to many well-known national retailers, and sporting goods chains, such as Academy, Bass Pro, Cabelas, Gander Mountain, K-Mart, Big Five and Sports Authority. Umarex also services local stores The Tackle Box and Gelco.

Blalock sees the move to Chaffee Crossing as beneficial to both Umarex and Fort Smith.

“We really like being in Fort Smith,” said Blalock. “We’re very grateful to the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority and the Fort Smith Chamber, and Glidewell Construction is building us a really fine building. We’re exceptionally proud of our people.”

‘STEADY AND STRONG’ INDUSTRY
Blalock says the air gun industry benefitted from the rush on firearms and ammunition since last November, and hasn’t seen the recent contraction of that market.

“The air gun market is steady and strong,” Blalock said, “and has been the last several years. We’re somewhat insulated from all the things in the firearms market, but our stuff is sold in the same stores and in the same areas, so the rush on guns and ammo was good for us. Those customers tend to walk by our products in those stores.”

Umarex USA recently expanded its reach into the firearms market, with its Tactical Rimfire line of full-sized .22 caliber versions of popular center fire rifles like the AR-15.

“That’s really a boom item,” Blalock said. “We licensed the Colt name and the rifles are made by Carl Walther GmbH. The neat thing about this product is that you spend one day at the range with it, and it pays for itself in ammo costs.”

The retail price on the licensed Colt rimfire AR-15s is around $600, depending on the variant. The lineup includes two M4 copies — the Carbine and the flattop Ops version, and variants of the full-sized M16.

NEW WEAPONS
New this year are rimfire copies of Heckler and Koch firearms, such the MP5 and the HK416 — the centerfire 416 being Heckler and Koch’s gas-piston version of an AR-style rifle. There is also a pistol version of the HK416 in the Tactical Rimfire catalog.

“The HK licensed guns are due to deliver around April,” Blalock said.

Umarex partners with many well known firearms makers to develop licensed/branded airguns and 22 rimfire guns. These licensing partnerships include Beretta, Hammerli, Smith and Wesson, and Magnum Research.

“We partnered with Ruger to develop a $99.95 air rifle called the Ruger Airhawk. It’s been one of the most successful airgun introductions in the industry,” he said.

Another recently added product line is the RAM, or Real Action Markers, which are very realistic copies of firearms that shoot .43 caliber paintballs or rubber balls. Models vary from AR-15 and AK-47 copies, to several types of modern handguns. They are used for both recreation, and as realistic training aids for law enforcement and military personnel.