SIG SAUER - Never Settle

Kevin Brittingham To Launch Q, A New Brand, On 1 March

Right before SHOT Show, we told you Kevin Brittingham planned to form a new company after recently leaving SIG SAUER. Now it’s happening, and quickly.

Kevin Brittingham doesn’t mess around, announcing a 1 March launch of his new brand. Named simply Q, they’ll start out with just 10 employees, but it’s quite the lineup. If you’ve known Brittingham for any length of time, these names will come as no surprise. There’s Robby Johnson as overall VP, Ethan Lessard to VP of Engineering, Lindsay Bunch VP of Operations, and Jessica Gauvin as VP of Business Development.

Brittingham sees his own role at Q as recruiting, steering the boat, funding and to a certain degree, marketing. But even then, his concept of marketing isn’t traditional. It’s really more of keeping the brand true to his vision and making sure people are aware of that fact.

Another interesting thing is the ages of the company’s members. At 42 years, Kevin Brittingham is the second oldest in the company. One of his goals is to give young people a shot and he’ll be looking for promising talent. He said, “You don’t have to be somewhere for 20 years to show everyone you are deserving.”  

While it’s a small company and people are going to be wearing a lot of hats, ambitions are high. The goal is Silencers, Accessories and Firearms by SHOT Show 2017. He said he plans to conduct live fire demos of three preproduction firearms at SHOT, although he wouldn’t get into specifics.

As part of Q’s 12 and 36 month plans, Brittingham has built in incremental growth and team building as crucial to success. He sees it as “knowing what we’re doing and giving people the right opportunities.” Although he doesn’t want to grow too fast, he knows exactly where he wants to be. Envisioning an “AAC 2.0” he’s determined to apply lessons learned (both good and bad) from previous companies. His business inspirations aren’t gun companies but rather business giants like Amazon and Red Bull who have changed the rules. However, one thing he won’t change is focus. To generate sales, the concept is initially to concentrate on government customers and then work toward commercial sales of those products.

img_2534.jpg

Q is primarily self-funded by proceeds from Brittingham’s sale of AAC to Remington, but he has also brought in some investors who are reportedly participating solely for the returns. In fact, he was amazed at the confidence, not only from investors, but also from those who’ve joined him as employees at Q.

The company is located in New Hampshire. Brittingham loves the area and has put down roots. In addition to a new personal home, the Q factory is just a mile from his former office at SIG. He told me that it’s where talent is located and he didn’t want his employees to have to move.

If I could describe Q in one word it would be ambitious, but it’s not as if he’s starting from scratch. This isn’t Kevin Brittingham’s first trip to the rodeo and he’s already started to assemble a team of rock stars. Q definitely has a leg up. 

It’s going to be an exciting ride, so hold on.

Tags: ,

17 Responses to “Kevin Brittingham To Launch Q, A New Brand, On 1 March”

  1. jellydonut says:

    Q as in Q branch, I guess their aim is to make cool shit.

  2. Jeremy says:

    Investors participating solely for the returns worked out pretty well for OSS.

    • 18Derp says:

      That whole statement is confusing. What investor isn’t in it for returns? That’s the entire issue. They don’t care about you or the customer or the product, they only care about the returns.

      Apparently didn’t have enough money to do it himself, I’m a little surprised at the direction they’re already going.

      Let’s just see how a new company comes in to immediately snag a military contract I guess?

      • SSD says:

        It wasn’t a statement, it was a story. A statement is written by the company. I spoke with Kevin on the phone.

        I’ll clear up your confusion.

        Investors generally want to make decisions.

        Why use your money when you can use someone else’s?

        He’s got the team to do it.

  3. Dave says:

    Part of his growth plan should include brining all of the current/former loyal AAC fans back to and in line with the AAC/Q brand

    To right what Remington had tarnished – support and QS to legacy AAC products w/in the Q business model

  4. Thomas says:

    I want to design for that guy.

  5. JS says:

    wish him well, I’m sure he’ll do great!!

  6. txJM says:

    Holy crap, he’s yanking the carpet from under Sig.

    • 18Derp says:

      He was with them a year, pretty much brough AAC 2.0 designs with him, they made like three models out of twelve. I can definitely see how he felt they were wasting his time. I’m sure there are two sides to that story though.

  7. Invictus says:

    Look forward to seeing where he goes with this.

  8. Dave says:

    Looking for great things out of that shop.

  9. JR says:

    I assume the Q stands for Quickly, as in wow, this guy keeps getting fired from the companies he works for rather quickly.

  10. CWG says:

    Looking forward to more that can’t be kept caged up under career management. Best of luck.

  11. Rob Garrett says:

    It will be interesting to watch. I think the potential is unlimited.

  12. Q says:

    Q Concepts was already taken… Or maybe they just like my name. 😉