Shortly before NASGW last month, the industry was surprised when Beretta Holdings revealed a significant stock position in Sturm, Ruger (NYSE: RGR).
Ruger, rebuffed in attempts to determine just what Beretta Holdings was either after or wanting, enacted a Shareholder Protection plan. On Wall Street, those are best known as “poison pills” - measures designed to dilute a potentially hostile shareholder’s percentage of ownership while simultaneously raising the costs of taking additional equity positions.
Despite attempts to speak with Beretta Holdings, Ruger’s new investor had absolutely nothing to say beyond the requisite SEC filings. Those filings, however, offered small hints at what Beretta Holdings might have in mind. According to that filing, Beretta Holdings said they saw potential areas for mutual cooperation, collaboration and benefit.
Earlier this week, I learned the companies already have one collaborative agreement in place- and it was there long before the stock acquisition. Beretta Hellas, the distribution arm of Beretta for Greece, the Balkan regions and Cyprus, has been Ruger’s distributor for that region since 2023. The first Ruger products were shipped there in 2025 and some have been sold to customers.
As far as the timing of this week’s “announcement” from Beretta Hellas, it’s either an example case of news traveling very slowly from Greece, or (more likely) a PR announcement designed to help sales as we approach the holiday season. No further insights available here -unfortunately.
Ruger’s quarterly report and conference call last week further reinforced what everyone in the industry already knows: things are slow, but there’s hope for an upswing ahead. While Ruger failed to hit analyst estimates for profits, it still paid a quarterly dividend to shareholders, despite taking several income “hits” related to product line modifications, management realignments, and preparations to put the new Ruger facility formerly known as Anderson Manufacturing in Hebron, Kentucky, into production.
It also saw one of their new products essentially unveiled via an unexpected analyst question.
While inquiring about the potential for special edition Ruger products commemorating the country’s 250th birthday, Cuyahoga Capital’s James Kostell asked if the planned Red Label shotguns (which were still top secret as of NASGW) were “somehow related to your new large shareholder, which is sort of the elephant in the room?”
To me, reintroduction of the Red Label shotgun was the big news in that question. Kostell’s question had essentially ripped the deep cover from a product that had been a secret.
CEO Todd Seyfert’s response pointed out two things often overlooked when talking about new products: 1) there are long lead times between decisions to produce and products reaching shelves, and 2) there are sometimes occurrences in the industry that are nothing more than coincidences.
Shotguns, Seyfert said, were the missing link in Ruger’s being a full-line manufacturer. The upcoming Red Label shotgun had been in the planning stages for quite some time, and and the Beretta stock buy was another of those coincidental happenings.
When Kostell pressed the Beretta purchase, Seyfert’s response was a solid example of how to answer a question without running afoul of SEC regulations.
“We appreciate their investment and confidence in our company,” Seyfert said, “We reported in our press release last month that we issued a shareholder rights plan to preserve the status quo…we’re happy to engage with anyone that wants to have a conversation. And we’re a public company. We’re always for sale, and we look forward to engaging with them..when they’re ready.”
In reflection, there are takeaways from Ruger’s call that go beyond financial results: 1) good companies have downturns—but have as many contingency plans in place as possible to ease the blow, 2) there’s a pretty good chance Ruger will have one-or more- 250th anniversary special edition products coming out next year, and, 3) a “new” product to be announced at some future date will be a reintroduction of the Red Label shotgun.
With the recently-reintroduced Glenfield rifle line, Ruger has now assembled a “good (Glenfield)-better (Ruger)- best (Marlin)” line of hunting rifles.
Shotguns, the missing product in Ruger’s “Full-Line” goal will be filled with the upcoming Red Labels. With what are essentially built-in “good-better-best” ranges in shotguns from virtually every manufacturer, it looks as if Ruger will have accomplished the goal of a gun for every interest and most budgets. The first question, of course, is what will be the first offering? If history’s any indication, it will be a 20 gauge. The first Red Label, introduced in 1977, was a 20-gauge with a 26 inch barrel (and an MSRP of $480—that’s not likely).
As to the Beretta acquisition, we’ll keep you posted.
—Jim Shepherd