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.Vista Outdoor, parent company of 41 renowned brands that design, manufacture and market sporting and outdoor products to consumers around the globe, announced a definitive agreement to sell its Sporting Products business to Czechoslovak Group (CSG) on Oct. 1. The value of the all-cash transaction is $1.91 billion and includes ownership transfer of some of the industry’s biggest names in ammunition, including Federal, CCI, Remington Ammo, Speer and Hevi-Shot.
“This is an important strategic step for our company in creating value through separating our Outdoor Products and Sporting Products segments,” said Gary McArthur, interim CEO of Vista Outdoor. “The previously announced plan to separate our businesses has positioned us to execute seamlessly on this transaction, which we believe is the best path to maximize value for our stockholders, while better positioning Sporting Products and Outdoor Products for future success.”
CSG is a leading industrial technology holding company, operating within five strategic business segments, including defense, aerospace, ammunition, mobility and business. CSG is owned and led by Michal Strnad, who has transformed it into a leading Czech industrial group with a strong international footprint. CSG employs more than 10,000 people worldwide and it owns and manages a diverse portfolio of industrial and trade companies across the defense and civilian sectors.
“We are confident that CSG is a great home for our leading ammunition brands,” said Jason Vanderbrink, CEO of Vista Outdoor Sporting Products. “The company is fully committed to our iconic American brands and expanding our legacy of U.S. manufacturing, support for military and law enforcement customers, and investments in conservation and our hunting and shooting heritage. We are excited to work closely with the CSG team as we enter this next phase and position our brands for long-term success.”
Upon closing, Vanderbrink will remain CEO of the Sporting Products business and the U.S. headquarters will remain in Anoka, Minn. In connection with the transaction, the company’s approximately 4,000 employees who represent four factories and the consumer brands CCI, Federal, HEVI-Shot, Remington and Speer will continue their heritage of community and conservation support through local and national organizations.
“Jason and the Sporting Products leadership team have a strong heritage of delivering high quality products, and we are pleased to welcome them to the CSG family of companies as we partner to support their next chapter,” said Strnad, CEO of CSG. “We look forward to building on the company’s success in delivering innovative, quality products and are confident in the long-term value we can create together. We are committed to expanding their legacy of U.S. manufacturing and providing resources to accelerate their growth.”
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Reports: Army’s Lake City Ammunition Plant Cancels Commercial Ammunition Contracts
Last year we reported that Susan Rice the Biden administration, as part of its unrelenting war on guns and those who own them, was moving to cut off civilian sales of ammunition produced at the Army’s Lake City ammunition plant in Independence, Missouri. Lake City cranks out as much as 30% of the commercial .223/5.56 ammunition sold in this country.
As the NSSF remarked at the time . . .
This policy to deny the sale of excess ammunition not only would freeze over 30 percent of the 5.56 mm/.223 caliber ammunition used by law-abiding gun owners, it risks the ammunition industry’s ability to surge production capacity for national defense if the costs to maintain the present workforce isn’t recouped through sales to the civilian market.
While we couldn’t get Winchester (who operates the plant under contract with the Army) to comment on the situation, the report was well-sourced by those with direct knowledge of what was happening at the time. We obviously were on to something because the White House went so far as issuing a non-denial denial of the report.
A good measure of how real the threat by the administration was at the time might have been that 50 members of Congress issued a call to the administration to walk back the policy. The BidenBots apparently concluded at the time that the anti-gun juice wasn’t worth the political squeeze and Lake City continued producing for the civilian market.
However, we started hearing from a number of people late this week that Lake City had moved to cancel all of its commercial contracts. We’ve also been told that distributor supplies of .223/5.56 had begun to be drained, as a result of the move by Lake City and in anticipation of higher civilian ammunition demand following last week’s terrorist attacks in Israel. Then Staple Defense published this report.
Lake City typically sells off its excess capacity ammo, over and above the military’s needs, to keep its operations fully running and employees on the payroll. If, as it appears, these latest reports are accurate, the reason this time may have less due to the administration’s desire to jack up domestic ammo costs (thus sticking it to civilian gun owners) than it is to anticipation by the US military that its needs may be increasing in the very near future.
Given U.S. support for Ukraine, a new war breaking out in Israel, and other potential points of instability, the Lake City move may portend more bad things in the offing. And one of them may be scarcer, more expensive ammo for your AR-15.
www.thetruthaboutguns.com/reports-...tion-contracts/
Edited by Curly - 11/17/2023, 12:54 AM. -
+3 .
that ammo now has an easy path to arming the private/secret cia/mossad armies/mercenaries. the company has been at it for a good while
grabbed a few clips from long article at link
www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/...sh=342c76fa68f2
Meet 27-Year-Old Arms Dealer Michal Strnad, The Czech Industrialist With ‘More Tanks’ Than The Army
For some he is a champion of industry, a man who rose from the most humble beginnings at the end of the Cold War to rescue the country’s iconic brands, save jobs and restore national pride.
But for others Jaroslav is simply a “War Dog,” a relic of a foregone age feeding off the battlefield scraps of yesteryear, buying and selling guns while working hand-in-glove with the post-Soviet establishment to further his billion-dollar business empire.
This long-limbed and lanky 27-year-old Czech now commands his father’s entire defense contracting empire, with over a billion dollars in revenue and two Black Hawk choppers in the garage. His business, The Czechoslovak Group (CSG), has the façade of a modern industrial giant, with a taste for old, cheap weaponry. Selling the “type of ammunition,” according to Georges Berghezan from GRIP, that’s “bought cheap and used quickly” in “proxy” wars around the world.
CSG truly is a global business. Its exploits—such as buying up Chinese bullets from Albania and selling old Hungarian tanks to Nigeria—have been well-documented by central Europe’s investigative press, with one organization dedicating a Web page–“War Dog Millionaire”–to Jaroslav Strnad.
But westerners are also less quick to question the morality of the Czech arms dealer when it’s selling tanks in the hundreds to Iraqi forces to help launch a counteroffensive against ISIS. The 2015 deal was a “milestone” in the firm’s history, described at the time by Jaroslav as “the biggest export contract in the history of Excalibur Group.” When it comes to being an arms dealer, there’s often a conflict of interest when you’re deeply invested in the business of conflict.
And controversy is never far away. In 2015 Strnad’s offices were raided by Czech investigators as part of a probe of four government officials who allegedly sold tank parts to Excalibur Army below the market price. The four officials denied the allegations and were later acquitted, but even greater controversy came in September 2017, just a few months before the father-son succession at CSG, when a fleet of “large-calibre artillery” weaponry was unexpectedly paraded by the military in Azerbaijan.
After enjoying years of anonymity, Jaroslav’s name was suddenly being mentioned in diplomatic circles around the world. Weapons that Jaroslav Strnad and Excalibur sold to Israeli firm Elbit had immediately arrived in Azerbaijan, which was a violation of the arms embargo intended to de-escalate the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region that has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives since the fall of communism.
Edited by cheka - 11/17/2023, 03:06 AM. -
+2 .
bought another ammo maker last year
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/c...-301687163.html
25 Nov, 2022, 05:47 ET
Share this article
Czechoslovak Group (CSG) announced the acquisition of a 70% stake in Fiocchi Munizioni, a global leader in premium and super premium small caliber ammunition. CSG will partner with the current shareholders, the Fiocchi family and Charme Capital Partners, each retaining a minority stake, to pursue the continued growth path envisaged for Fiocchi Munizioni over the coming years.. -
+2 .
www.zawya.com/en/world/uk-and-euro...oducer-m6mz8uc5
Restocking Western ammunition after arming Ukraine will take years -producer
Despite the flow of ammo to Ukraine, CSG owner Michal Strnad said Ukrainian forces were experiencing shortfalls as Western governments were running down their arsenals amid limits on production capacity
December 5, 2022
PRAGUE - It will take 10-15 years to refill Western stocks of artillery ammunition depleted to support Ukraine's army as it battles Russia's invasion, according to the owner of major arms manufacturer Czechoslovak Group.
Despite the flow of ammo to Ukraine, CSG owner Michal Strnad said Ukrainian forces were experiencing shortfalls as Western governments were running down their arsenals amid limits on production capacity.
Strnad told Reuters his firm was now responsible for about 25-30% of European output of NATO-standard 155mm artillery.
"Artillery ammunition are very scarce goods today," he said in an interview. "I estimate it will take 10-15 years to refill (Western armies') stocks" as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Strnad said CSG now had capacity of 80,000-100,000 of artillery shells per year, a significant chunk of the annual capacity in Europe which he put at 270,000-300,000.
The firm is hiring 250-300 more people to expand production, he said, aiming to raise capacity to 150,000, but this would take about two years to set up due to lengthy delivery times of production equipment.
European governments have significantly drawn on their arsenals to support Ukraine, which Strnad said was firing 40,000 shells per week from several hundred, Western-supplied howitzers against Russian invaders.
"Really a lot has been delivered to Ukraine," he said. "But the fact is that today the Ukrainians are shooting less than they could because they do not have enough ammunition."
CSG has been a major supplier of upgraded Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine, including tanks, artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers and infantry fighting vehicles.
Its supplies include 90 modernised T-72 tanks, paid for by the United States and Netherlands, a process now underway.
But CSG's stocks of Soviet-era weaponry have also dwindled and there is little left on the market that could be quickly modernised and send on to Ukraine, Strnad said.
Edited by cheka - 11/17/2023, 03:13 AM. -
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Michal Strnad, obviously one of the clever tribe and part of the 'management' class who is centralising ammo manufacture. . -
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Stack deep, and buy reloading equipment I guess. . -
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Do I see a pattern forming to cutting off our access to ammo? . -
+1 .
The Czechs make high quality small arms. I have a few of their rifles. They are unique, but very practical. They use quality steel too. .
Czechoslovak Group Acquires Federal, CCI, Hevi-Shot, Remington Ammo & Speer |
