Smith & Wesson Holding (NASDAQ: SWHC) shareholders agreed to bury over 160 years of storied history by overwhelmingly approving the change of its name to American Outdoor Brands.
After the gunmaker acquired outdoor gear and equipment maker Battenfeld Technologies in 2014, and subsequently bought a few more companies outside of its primary firearms manufacturing business, it decided its focus was shifting more toward the outdoors products segment. With a $60 billion addressable market, that’s an industry some four times larger than firearms, and the company sees it as its future growth channel.
To reflect the change in its business, it asked shareholders for permission to change the company’s name. On Tuesday, Smith & Wesson announced that shareholders at its annual meeting overwhelmingly approved the move.
As American Outdoor Brands, the company will now look more like industry peer Vista Outdoors, which sells outdoor gear but also rifles and shotguns through its Savage Arms division, than it does rival Sturm, Ruger, which is now the sole publicly traded firearms industry pure play.
Firearms sales have a certain cyclical nature to them, and tend to surge and wane as the public’s belief that new gun control legislation might pass rises and falls. Smith & Wesson’s diversification moves help it smooth out the revenue volatility associated with being a gunmaker, and allow it to seek out greater growth opportunities in markets that are parallel to firearms, but not directly linked to it.
In the past few months, Smith & Wesson has purchased knife maker Taylor Brands, laser sight manufacturer Crimson Trace, and extreme outdoors and survivalist gear maker Ultimate Survival Technologies. It has indicated it plans to make more acquisitions, and recently expanded its loan availability to further that effort.
However, its firearms will still be sold under the Smith & Wesson brand; the name change only applies to the holding company that now owns Smith & Wesson, Battenfeld Technologies, and Crimson Trace, which represent the company’s firearms, manufacturing services, accessories, and electro-optics divisions.
The name change will take effect Jan. 1, at which time the company’s ticker symbol will switch from SWHC to AOBC.
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