Is the gun industry like Exxon-Moblie right now?

[mbt2001]

Remember the days when we had lots of oil co's with more choices and competition.

The consolidations occured because the market was that bad... Consolodations always occur in a bad market, that is proof positive for almost 20 years the Oil Co's were barely keeping it together.

 

[ants]

FYI...

mbt2001 said: ALL of the gun makers put together with all of the ammo makers don't even add up to 10 billion in gross revenue... Seriously, it may not even be over 5 billion.

According to the SAAMI 1998 annual report (sorry, I know it's 10 years old, but it's the only one I have in my library):

• "Sportsmen and women spend some $5.5 billion annually on equipment, including firearms, ammunition, bows, arrows, clothing, reloading equipment, optics, and accessories."

So if all those items were $5.5 billion in 1998, guns and ammo must have been much smaller than that.
I have no data that allows us to extrapolate to 2008. Please post if you have a newer report.
But it would be reasonable to guess that guns and ammo are still less than $10 billion this year.

 

[GW]

So if all those items were $5.5 billion in 1998, guns and ammo must have been much smaller than that.
I have no data that allows us to extrapolate to 2008. Please post if you have a newer report.
But it would be reasonable to guess that guns and ammo are still less than $10 billion this year.

I have nothing to back this up, but I'm betting that its much higher. If nothing else, compare ammo prices from then to now. Then consider population growth and assuming a stable (if not growing) percentage of shooters/gun owners it would follow that there are more gun owners buying more guns and spending more money for more expensive products; ie guns, ammo, & gear.
Heck just think about the boom in lasers and lit reticle scopes, hight tech flashlights thermoplastic holsters
Short magnums... Need I go on?

 

[ants]

Agreed. It's probably much greater than the 1998 figure.

By the way, the 1998 report also stated that when you add travel, range fees, hunting licenses and other incidental expenditures, the total shooting sports bill was $30.9 billion in 1998. (And that did not include exports or military spending on arms, ammunition, optics, etc.)

Comparatively, Coca-Cola sold $28.8 billion worth of beverage products globally in 2007 according to their current annual report.

 

[Limeyfellow]

There is a few big differences. For one the whole country would not fall to pieces if the supply of new firearms seized up for a couple of weeks and they are not essential for most people for everyday living. The oil companies have a guaranteed position that they can't loose out because the country needs oil to get around. Really you can only compare them to other essential services, where they have more freedom and control than say electricity production.

On the other side both the gun business and oil business have good controls over getting politicians to protect their business by regulating imports. If anything the firearms market has particularly good support eversince the 89 ban on imports with certain features, the 93 ban on Chinese firearms, thereby eradicating almost all the competition since it accounted for 1/2 to 2/3 of sales and the 01 ban on the barrels and so on. I personally think the import bans and restrictions need easing big time and less protection of the domestic companies who feel the need to rip off their customers with much higher prices.

 

[Flyboy]

No_Fear, you really don't understand the rules of this board, do you?

Or economics. Or accounting.