Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc.”™s enviable problem is over, after the company resumed taking orders from independent gun wholesalers after maxing out its production lines earlier this year.
Fairfield-based Ruger has factories in Newport, N.H. and Prescott, Ariz., and an engineering office in Enfield, Conn.
In the first quarter, Ruger received firearms orders in excess of one million units, leading it to temporarily suspend acceptance of new orders while it worked through the backlog. Ruger earned $15.5 million in the first quarter on $112 million in revenue, up by half from a year earlier.
The first quarter is typically the biggest season for gun shows, with election-year uncertainty over gun laws also possibly driving demand. Ruger maintained production last summer at elevated levels in expectation that sales would be higher, but still got caught short on inventory.
“With the idea that we”™d go through an election cycle in 2012 and that that might held demand the way it did back in ”™08 and ”™09, we decided we would change our practice,” said CEO Mike Fifer at Ruger”™s annual meeting in early May. “Rather than slowing down manufacturing during the summer, when retail sales to consumers generally appear to slow down a little bit, we would just keep cranking along with production and we would take inventory risks during the summer of 2011.”
