Daisy Outdoor to expand Rogers headquarters, add jobs

Daisy Outdoor Products will expand its Rogers facility and add about two dozen jobs in the next two years, company leaders announced on Wednesday (Jan. 18) alongside Gov. Asa Hutchinson at the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) in Las Vegas.

The company that owns Daisy also owns Gamo Outdoor USA, and it plans to consolidate operations for the two air gun makers into the Rogers facility, relocating Gamo Outdoor’s headquarters from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Key management from Gamo Outdoor will move to Rogers, the company said, as will several warehouse and customer service managers from a Missouri-based distribution facility.

In addition to that, 25 new manufacturing jobs will be added to the staff of 65 now employed at the Rogers plant.

“This relocation, consolidation and expansion is a positive move for our family of outdoor sports companies,” Keith Higginbotham, president of Gamo Outdoor USA and Daisy, said in a press release. “Having our management team, warehouse and shipping operations under one roof will bring efficiencies to our operation and strengthen our ability to better serve our retail customers and consumers.”

Daisy and Gamo Outdoor are air gun and airsoft manufacturers, but Daisy is geared more toward the youth market, while Gamo Outdoor mostly makes products for adults, distributing its projects in 85 countries, according to the company.

Arkansas offered several incentives for Daisy to expand within the state, including a $50,000 workforce training grant, 3.9% cash rebate on payroll tied to the expansion over the next three years and sales tax refunds on building materials and some equipment associated with the expansion, according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

“The team at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Rogers Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce understood not only our desire to keep Daisy in Rogers but our need to relocate people and inventory, and invest in a facility that will best accommodate our growing operations,” Higginbotham said.

The Daisy brand was founded about 130 years ago in Michigan and has been housed in Rogers since 1958. It was purchased last June by Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. (BRS), a private equity firm in New York City, and Higginbotham, formerly only president of Gamo Outdoor, joined Daisy. Ray Hobbs stepped down as president of Daisy after 15 years with the company, as part of the deal. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Before that, a Connective investment group had owned Daisy for 23 years.

Gov. Hutchinson also attended the SHOT Show in 2016, taking the opportunity to make announcements regarding Remington Outdoor and SIG Sauer. Remington planned to add 84 jobs with the expansion of its Lonoke ammunition plant, and ammunition manufacturer SIG Sauer would relocate its headquarters from Kentucky to Jacksonville, adding 50 jobs.

“Last year I was honored to be the first Arkansas Governor to attend the SHOT Show to share the many reasons we are a perfect fit for the firearms-ammunition sector,” Hutchinson said in the Daisy press release.

Hutchinson said his first BB gun was Daisy brand, and he’s given Daisy air guns to his grandchildren.

In the U.S., the majority air gun and airsoft makers are located in the southeast region, because that’s where most of the customer base is, according to IBISWorld research.

Airsoft and air gun manufacturing is a $300 million industry, and most of the guns are made outside the U.S., according to the research. IBISWorld predicts this trend will reverse eventually, as most manufacturing industries make moves to bring operations back to the U.S., but that the industry will still be largely manufactured abroad through 2021.

Daisy operates its distribution center and corporate offices in Rogers, while most of its guns are manufactured abroad, Joe Murfin, corporate spokesman for Daisy, said in a previous interview with Talk Business & Politics.