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ZRODelta Acquires War Sport Manufacturing

Tuesday, January 16th, 2018

For Immediate Release – Lubbock, TX – ZRODELTA is pleased to announce the acquisition of War Sport Manufacturing of Eagle Springs, NC.

ZRODELTA is a leader in the field of precision firearms and accessories, employing patented technologies that improve the modularity, accuracy, and performance of a wide spectrum of OEM products throughout the small arms industry. The Acquisition of War Sport Manufacturing increases ZRODelta’s capabilities in producing large quantities of high quality barrels and streamlines R&D through the use of their world-class metallurgy laboratory.
“Our motto is “The Foundation for Accuracy” and we don’t use the term ‘Accuracy’ casually” Said ZRO’s founding partner, John Birk, “To realize accuracy in a final product and to maintain consistency from product to product, a company must have unparalleled discipline, professionalism, and organizational control built into every aspect of its operational processes.”

ZRO’s recent acquisition with Critical Capabilities has increased the reach and breadth of the company’s capabilities within the OEM market space and the acquisition of War Sport Manufacturing ensures the demand of high quality products will be met. These acquisitions also support ZRODelta’s line of firearms including several models and calibers ranging from 9mm to 6.5 Creedmoor. Look for these new offerings to be on display at Shot Show 2018 in Booth #15834.

zrodelta.com

Tags: War Sport Manufacturing, ZRODelta
Posted in Industry, Press Release, weapons | 1 Comment »

Armor Express and KDH Defense Systems Merge, Creating one of the Largest Manufacturers and Distributors of Body Armor and Protective Solutions Worldwide

Thursday, January 11th, 2018

CENTRAL LAKE, MI, January 11, 2018 – Central Lake Armor Express, Inc. (“Armor Express“), a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance body armor solutions, is proud to announce that it has officially merged with KDH Defense Systems (“KDH”). By joining forces, the Companies now serve the U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense, Federal and Domestic law enforcement professionals, and various international agencies across the world.

Since Armor Express was founded in 2005, it has been one of the leading suppliers of concealable and tactical body armor systems to Law Enforcement, with a distribution network spanning the United States and select international markets. The Company has also expanded in recent years, becoming one of the largest providers of protective solutions to Federal Law Enforcement, on the heels of recent contract wins with the Department of Homeland Security and other prestigious Federal agencies. Similarly, KDH is one of the prime manufacturers of protective gear for the Department of Homeland Security and has several contracts with other Federal agencies, in addition to its long-standing heritage as one of the largest suppliers of body armor systems to the U.S. Armed Forces. Since KDH was founded in 2003, it has produced various versions of the Outer Tactical Vest (“OTV”), Improved Outer Tactical Vest (“IOTV”), Soldier Plate Carrier System, ATPC Spear system, Modular Scalable Vest (“MSV”), Light Air Warrior System (“LAWS”), Ultra Low Visibility Concealable Body Armor (“ULV-CBA”), and other related products and accessories. Today, KDH is believed to be the largest provider of body armor to the U.S. Armed Forces.

It was also announced today that James R. Henderson has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Praesidium, the Holding Company that owns both Armor Express and KDH Defense Systems. An industry veteran with over 30 years of operational and financial experience, Jim also served as Chief Executive Officer of Point Blank Enterprises, Inc. and was instrumental in the Company’s expansion and growth with the U.S. Armed Forces, Domestic and Federal Law Enforcement, and internationally. He also was responsible for fostering strategic partnerships with supply chain and technology leaders, while working with the industry to optimize performance and deliver the highest quality solutions to our protectors.

Commenting on today’s news, Mr. Henderson stated, “The combination of Armor Express and KDH is a win for the industry and the thousands of end-users who rely on both companies’ life-saving protective solutions. Manufacturing capacity, ballistic R&D and carrier design capabilities are significantly enhanced, and the platform for growth has never been stronger. The opportunities to continue to partner with leading fiber, fabric, material and component companies are limitless and together, Armor Express and KDH will drive innovation and deliver the highest-performing body armor systems in the industry. We look forward to working with our partners and exploring ways to improve further.”

Matt Davis, founder of Armor Express and Dave Herbener, founder of KDH, will both serve as President of their respective organizations, reporting to Mr. Henderson. Manufacturing of Domestic and Federal body armor will continue to be performed at Armor Express’ facility in Central Lake, MI and KDH will continue to produce on its Military, Government and Federal Law Enforcement contracts at its manufacturing facility in Eden, NC.

Tags: Armor Express, KDH
Posted in Armor, Industry, Press Release | 8 Comments »

Leadership Changes Announced at SilencerCo

Wednesday, January 10th, 2018

This press release hit Business Wire earlier today.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SilencerCo, the nation’s leading designer and manufacturer of firearm suppressors (“silencers”), announced a change in company leadership effective January 3, 2018. Joshua Waldron will step down from his CEO position, and Jonathon Shults will step down from his role as President. Co-founded in a garage in 2008 by Waldron and Shults, SilencerCo has grown to be an industry leader, controlling the majority of sales of firearm suppressors and related accessories. The company has garnered the attention of gun enthusiasts, the business community, and even lawmakers, as Waldron and Shults, and hundreds of dedicated employees, have worked together to perfect their trade while also effecting social awareness of gun rights.

Mr. Waldron will continue his relationship with SilencerCo as Senior Advocacy Advisor, where he will focus his energy on firearm legislative advocacy, an area in which he excels. Mr. Shults will assume a new role as SilencerCo Chief Operating Officer, where he will oversee day-to-day operations and remain heavily involved in his areas of expertise, including R&D and product innovation. Both Waldron and Shults will serve on the SilencerCo Board to stay involved with the overall direction of the company. They each remain the company’s two largest equity holders.

Mr. Waldron stated, “After years of grit and hard work, SilencerCo is poised to succeed. It is now time for me to turn my focus to advocacy for the company and its industry. Resigning from my current duties as CEO will allow for more time spent in the legislative arena, furthering the scope and influence of SilencerCo products in the future.” Mr. Shults stated, “SilencerCo is responsible for suppressor industry innovation. As Chief Operating Officer, I look forward to working with our team to ensure that we stay at the forefront of firearm suppressor design and technology.”

The SilencerCo Board is currently engaged in a search for a CEO and will make an announcement regarding this position as soon as it has been filled.

More information about SilencerCo can be found at www.silencerco.com.

Tags: Silencerco
Posted in Industry, Press Release, Suppressors | 2 Comments »

Kimber Announces Manufacturing Expansion in Alabama

Tuesday, January 9th, 2018

January 9, 2018 — Kimber Mfg., Inc., a leading American firearms manufacturer, today announced that it has finalized plans to expand manufacturing operations to Alabama. Kimber will begin operations in early 2019, with a new design engineering and manufacturing facility in the City of Troy.

Once a small manufacturing company based in Yonkers, NY, Kimber has grown at a rapid pace over the past 21 years with locations in the New York metro area and Montana. The new Troy facility will double Kimber’s manufacturing capacity.

“Due to an unprecedented year-over-year growth in demand, every time the company has embarked upon a planned expansion, the newly created capacity is exhausted before the expansion is complete,” said James Cox, Kimber’s chief financial officer. “As we continue to move into uncharted waters in regards to Kimber product demand, it was important to us to build a facility that will allow us to secure a significant new plateau of capacity.”

“We are pleased with the impressive track record that Alabama has with attracting and retaining world-class manufacturing companies,” said Leslie Edelman, Kimber’s president and chief executive officer. “Growing our company intelligently depends significantly on being in the right manufacturing environment, and in Troy, we have a community dedicated to our long-term success. Working with the Alabama Department of Commerce as well as Mayor Jason Reeves and his team has been a pleasurable and rewarding experience.”

“We will be building a large, automated, state-of-the-art design engineering and manufacturing facility in Troy to support Kimber’s growth plan and strategy,” said Greg Grogan, Kimber’s chief operating officer. “Troy offers us expansion with a passionate workforce, affordable utility costs, a pro-business environment, experienced local training support, and long-term incentives from the State of Alabama and the City of Troy alike. This expansion, in conjunction with our existing manufacturing facilities, talented and experienced employees, and best-in-class products provides for exciting times here at Kimber.”

“This is a dream come true for the City of Troy and for me personally; a firearms manufacturing company with such a stellar brand as Kimber, creating jobs and capital investment for the community,” said Jason Reeves, Mayor of the City of Troy. “Troy has a strong manufacturing base and Kimber will certainly, positively add to that.”

www.kimberamerica.com

Tags: Kimber
Posted in Industry, Press Release | 14 Comments »

Super Vel Ammunition Forms Strategic Alliance With Cor-Bon Ammunition Founder

Tuesday, January 9th, 2018

Peter Pi Sr., the founder of Cor-Bon Ammunition, having sold his company, has formed a strategic alliance with Super Vel Ammunition to grow Super Vel’s sales and assist with new product designs as Super Vel’s director of business development.

“Peter Pi is highly regarded for his many innovations at Cor-Bon and Glaser Ammunition, including his patented bullet designs and the introduction of such cartridges as the .400 Corbon and .500 S&W Magnum. It has been well said that when Peter Sr. founded Cor-Bon in 1982, he essentially picked up where Lee Jurras, the founder of Super Vel, had left off,” said Super Vel Ammunition president Cameron Hopkins. “It’s more than fitting that Peter Sr. would now lend his extensive expertise to the new Super Vel.”

Super Vel Ammunition was founded by Lee Jurras in 1963, who is credited with the invention of the jacketed hollow point bullet. Super Vel created a whole new genre of “police ammunition” which literally revolutionized defensive handgun ammunition. Jurras left the company in 1975, and Super Vel went out of business shortly thereafter. Hopkins, the former editor of American Handgunner Magazine, resurrected Super Vel Ammunition in 2013. Located in Nevada, the new Super Vel is producing a line of self-defense handgun ammunition that includes several novel and unique loads.

“I’m excited to form a strategic alliance with Super Vel and my old friend Cameron Hopkins. Lee Jurras was my inspiration and I want to see his legacy memorialized as the true pioneer of high performance ammo” Pi said.

“Peter will take Super Vel to the next level,” Hopkins added.

www.supervelammunition.com

Tags: Super Vel Ammunition
Posted in Ammo, Industry, Press Release | Comments Off on Super Vel Ammunition Forms Strategic Alliance With Cor-Bon Ammunition Founder

Patrick Vuong New Breach-Bang-Clear Consulting Editor

Tuesday, January 9th, 2018

Greetings, salutations, and felicitations!

We beg your indulgence and a moment of your time to announce that Patrick Vuong has accepted a position as Consulting Editor with BreachBangClear.com. Patrick is a longtime journalist, the only known Asian Saurdaukar, and a writer, editor, photographer, and videographer of no small repute.

Beginning as a newspaper reporter at the tender age of 18, Vuong went on to become variously the Senior, Managing, and Chief Editor for several award-winning international publications. He is also an accomplished instructor in multiple combative arts. You will likely remember him from his yeoman work on The Enthusiast Network’s RECOIL and OFFGRID magazines; you may also recall he recently left TEN’s full-time employ to become an independent, world-conquering littérateur.

Now he is working with us.

Not full time, alas. Despite our every entreaty and supplication, he would not leave his other freelance endeavors and burgeoning script work for the movie and TV industry to work with us full time. Nor was he willing to abandon stunt work in allegedly non-porn indie flicks, or the numerous Baritsu, Pekiti-Tirsia Kali, and other martial arts classes he continues to teach.

Part-time is acceptable for now, and anyway, we haven’t given up on persuading him.

Vuong’s first full-time journalism job was with The Orange County Register in SOCAL. There he worked various beats, including police and fire news, continued his hoplological studies, and continued writing for other, more niche publications. For instance, he’s interviewed celebrities for Wizard Magazine and worked as a contributing editor for Black Belt Magazine for over a decade and a half.

After completing his service to the 81st Padishah Emperor, Vuong was the subject of an award-winning documentary. He was then accepted for an editorial position with The Enthusiast Network.

The trade from intense daily duties to monthly obligations clearly suited him, if the success of the automotive magazines Off-Road and 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility is any judge. He was the Managing Editor of both publications until 2012, when he was hired as the Senior Editor for the nascent gun lifestyle publication RECOIL, driving left seat for Iain Harrison when that straight shooting, funny-talking gentleman took over as his editor-in-chief. A year later he took the helm of RECOIL OFFGRID Magazine as Chief Editor – as an additional duty.

In just three years the two grew RECOIL from an unknown brand to the No. 1 firearms magazine in stores across nine continents – no mean feat at a time when the print journalism industry was hemorrhaging from significant contraction. OFFGRID similarly became the best-selling survival magazine on newsstands.

Grunts: nascent.

He didn’t just write, shoot photos, and edit, for those two publications, mind you. He also served as Senior Editor of CONCEALMENT and CARNIVORE, and directed and co-hosted episodes of RECOIL TV.

He’s just as busy now that he’s hurled himself full-Wuxia style feet first into the freelancing world while simultaneously increasing his instruction tempo. See, in addition to all that belletristic badassery, Vuong has an extensive background as a combatives instructor (two decades or more of it, in fact).

A veteran student of Pentjak Silat Serak, he holds a first-degree black belt in Kenpo Karate, a second-degree black belt in Lai Chung Chuan Fa kung fu, and is a 13th level Planar Monk with Axiomatic Soul. Vuong is a certified instructor in Pekiti-Tirsia Kali and a student of Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, boxing, Jeet Kune Do, Déjà-fu, and historical European swordfighting (as you might find in HEMA). These are just some of the reasons he is consistently the most highly paid bodyguard in Hondo City.

PV is still providing content and editorial assistance to RECOIL, OFFGRID, and the others, but now is doing so for other media outlets as well.

We are chuffed beyond measure to announce that he has accepted the position of Consulting Editor for Breach-Bang-Clear.

Can’t wait to see the awesomeness he cannot help but deliver.

You can reach him at patrick@fluidfighting.com, should you be so inclined. You can follow him on Instagram as well, @calmbatives.

Many assorted expressions of gratitude to you.

Now have a fine, nay epic, American day.

The Breach-Bang-Clear Tribe

Think and be dangerous.

breachbangclear.com
instagram.com/breachbangclear
facebook.com/BreachBangClear

Two unmarked photos courtesy of Firelance Media.

Tags: Breach Bang Clear, Patrick Vuong
Posted in Industry, Media, Press Release | 5 Comments »

ZRODelta Merges with Critical Capabilities

Friday, January 5th, 2018

Ascendant Advisory Group’s Mergers and Acquisitions Division is pleased to announce that ZRODELTA of Lubbock, Texas has merged with Critical Capabilities of Fayetteville, North Carolina.
ZRODELTA is a leader in the field of precision firearms and accessory manufacturing, employing patented technologies that improve the modularity, accuracy, and performance of a wide spectrum of OEM products throughout the small arms industry. ZRODELTA is best known for its DLOC reflex and variable power optics mounts, HEAD-S adapter for tripods, DCLW tripod shooting platform, and Cowl Induction Muzzle Break. During 2017, the company’s patented DLOC mounting system—the industry’s first true return-to-zero, non-marring rail mounting solution—was recognized by many as the new industry standard for optical mounting solutions due to its repeatability with as little as hand tightened torque. The platform has since been adopted by most major OEM optics manufacturers.

Critical Capabilities is best known for its OEM supply-chain management solutions. With manufacturing distributed across the United States, the company has excelled at linking out-of-industry manufacturing capability and capacity with OEM production requirements, with a special emphasis on improving quality, margins, and cash flow. As Critical’s founder and former Green Beret Pat Harrigan explains, “To us, it’s not just about putting parts on the production floors of our clients. It’s about exploring a better way to do business—from raw material sourcing, production methodologies and procedures, logistics and WIP post-processing, staffing, distribution opportunities, and even financing. In short, the more successful and efficient our clients are at each level of business, the more successful we will be.” This approach has worked well for Harrigan, who estimates that 15% of the AR15s on dealer shelves across the United States contain parts from Critical Capabilities.

“Our partnership is a natural fit for both companies,” says ZRODELTA president John Birk. “This merger allows us to vertically integrate high-volume production and distribution, innovate, and provide better products and services to our OEM clients that will improve their quality, organizational efficiency, and bottom line.”

The merger also includes Critical’s UnBrandedAR.com, an e-commerce portal which provides bulk OEM AR-15 parts to a network of nearly 1000 dealers across the United States. UnBrandedAR provides products to select retailers who desire to offer brand-less or house-branded products. The company has a wide range of marking capabilities and customizes products for clients both big and small.

Both companies will operate as ZRODELTA, with OEM production and sales falling under ZRO OEM Services. UnBrandedAR will continue to operate as UnBrandedAR.com.

Tags: Critical Capabilities, ZRODelta
Posted in Black Rifle, Industry, Press Release | 1 Comment »

Dynamis Alliance Announces Acquisition Of Oxcart Apparel

Friday, January 5th, 2018

DYNAMIS ALLIANCE announced today that it has acquired OXCART APPAREL in a strategic move to dominate the low-vis clothing market. “We wholeheartedly believe in what OXCART is doing and instead of competing with each-other we’ve decided to join forces” said Dom Raso Founder/ CEO of DYNAMIS ALLIANCE. OXCART founder, Mark Chin, will now be the head of Business Development while working shoulder to shoulder on design with Raso and the Dynamis team for the ADAPTIV apparel line.

“We’re excited about the strength of our alliance with OXCART in this market. Mark has set a new standard while forging an innovative style and design” added Raso. From Tier 1 military forces to everyday citizens, the need to be prepared and wearing the right gear is critical. Dynamis’ ADAPTIV line was born out of the need to be involved with extreme and low visibility operations, while having the ability to come home and implement the same mindset with the same gear.

ADAPTIV “changing the way you think by what you wear”.

dynamisalliance.com

Tags: Dynamis Alliance, Oxcart
Posted in Industry, Press Release | 1 Comment »