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| Statement |
|---|
| We're seeing things like at the recent shows at the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Western Hunting & Conservation Expo in Salt Lake City, tremendous demand for some of our new products |
| So, we're very pleased with the results of that promo |
| we are encouraged by our increased quarterly sales and profitability in the fourth quarter, and we enter 2024 with a strong debt-free balance sheet, reduced distributor inventories and a full pipeline of new products recently launched into the market, and others still under development |
| We look forward to adding the next chapter of our proud legacy in 2024, and our diverse and growing catalog of products, robust debt-free balance sheet, commitment to a long-term strategy of generating and returning shareholder value, have us well positioned to do so |
| And so right now, they're right about in that strike zone and we feel pretty good about that |
| And so I'm optimistic that those kaizens will continue to yield results for us |
| Our continued focus on financial discipline and the cultivation of long-term shareholder value is evident in our strong debt-free balance sheet |
| So, that's very positive |
| In addition to these 75th anniversary models, we recently introduced several new products that have been met with strong demand and excitement at the wholesale and retail levels, and most importantly, with our customers at the gun counter |
| So that between that and then doing some things like ramping up some of the lines that we neglected during COVID when we were pushing hard on certain other segments, things like the single-action revolvers, our team up in Newport has done a great job getting that back up and running to kind of our historical levels |
| So, the order rate was strong, but it was all things that we expect to fulfill going forward, as we go out into 2024 |
| That's the good news |
| And it also helped increase sales at on our ShopRuger segment and drive traffic there, and frankly, got us a lot of new customers in the ShopRuger |
| It was a memorable evening that honored the history and enduring achievements of two American leaders of our industry |
| 2024 is an exciting year for Ruger as we are celebrating our 75th anniversary |
| And so all that combined resulted in good unit sales, but the lower average sales price of those guns going out |
| And I thought the orders looked strong here during the quarter |
| And that helped drive both sales of the Generation Gen I American rifles before the launch of the Gen IIs |
| that is great news |
| It was an exciting show and a great way to catch up with a wide variety of retailers and the other industry attendees |
| 1894s are the 44 magnums and 357 Magnum rifles, which receiving tremendous demand, just like the originals that we launched in the 4570 |
| What's kind of your comfort level? How do you feel about where the kind of channel inventory is today? Christopher Killoy I think we're feeling pretty good about that |
| And the last one, Chris, just kind of big picture as we look at historically going into an election year, we would look for pretty solid demand |
| And as a follow-up to that I know you guys have done a great job over the years, really engineering cost out of the product line |
| And I would like to thank our loyal customers and the 1,800 hardworking members of the Ruger team, who design, manufacture and sell rugged, reliable firearms every day in our American factories |
| The team down in Maiden is doing an awesome job |
| So, the 1894 line really doubles our capacity in total marlin production |
| We have a gray gun market leading position with that gun, but we know we can get our volume back up when we reposition that model |
| Ryan Hamilton Excellent |
| and we think we were effective in doing that |
| Statement |
|---|
| Consumer demand remains soft throughout most of 2023, likely dampened by inflationary pressure and rising interest rates leading to a 9% reduction in sales from the prior year |
| And it's been a continuing challenge to get those ramped up to try to meet demand |
| Our profitability declined in 2023 from 2022 as our gross margin decreased from 30% to 25% |
| The lower margin was driven by unfavorable deleveraging of fixed costs, resulting from decreased production in sales, inflationary cost increases in materials, commodities, services, wages, energy, fuel and transportation |
| But that's one that to try to get quality walnut at a reasonable price is something that negatively impacts profitability or impacts the price of the firearm going out the door |
| Yes, I know in your prepared comments, you talked about product mix shift in 2023 being somewhat adverse |
| However, the average sales price of orders received, when you look at that, went down slightly from say Q1 level and Q2, up from Q3 |
| We have a lot of new products launched in Q4, particularly the American Rifle Gen II and some additional Marlin SKUs that really impacted that order rate |
| In 2023, NICS background checks, as adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, decreased 4% |
| The estimated unit sell-through of our products from the independent distributors to retailers in 2023, decreased 7% compared to 2023, excuse me, compared to 2022 |
| Like you said, distributor inventory over the course of the year was down about 30,000 |
| Reducing production levels were appropriate and offering only modest promotions on select product families, resisting the temptation to enhance short-term results at the expense of our long-term strategy |
| I wouldn't call it an adverse product mix as much as we had some lines that like you take our original LCP, the 3701 was model number |
| Our product mix shift toward products with relatively lower margins that remain in stronger demand and increased promotional costs |
| those are things that are harder and harder to find |
| When looking at Marlin, it appears that you aren't fully meeting the demand that's out there |
| We didn't see things decrease in price in our commodities and things of that nature |
| And then just looking at the expense side of things, operating expenses were a little higher than we'd expected |
| As a result, inventory of our products at the independent distributors decreased 39,000 units in 2023 despite the decreased demand |
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