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.
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.
