Just a reminder to you Dealers: STI has Distributors in place in many areas of the United States and most of the foreign countries that our State Department will recognize. We strongly recommend that you contact them first for all your needs.

Domestically, in most cases, they will have your desired product in their inventory for immediate shipment. Please remember, though, that we have expanded the product line to where there are now too many models in too many calibers with too many options for all of those folks to inventory some of everything. While some of these companies may be temporarily out of stock on an item doesn’t mean that one of the others may not currently have it. The Distributors continue to stock all of the most popular firearms and some of the newer, less established models. We will continue building to satisfy their requirements and orders. We’ll also try to inventory more of the new items here to satisfy their requirements as they come in and we’ll be referring Dealers and end users to those folks whom we know have the customers’ desired unit in stock.

Internationally, your Distributor will probably have your desired firearm (especially your local preferences) in his inventory. If it is not in his inventory, he will probably have permits and licenses already in place that will expedite your delivery and reduce your freight charges.

Well, we now have the BATF approval to import the GP6 so that we can submit it to the BATF for their approval to import it! Follow that? It still seems that nothing moves quickly when you want it to. What it does mean though is, we’ll probably have them at SHOT!

As you are aware, by popular demand and from the results of a poll we did through the website, we have brought back the V.I.P. We’ve actually gone a step further and brought back the V.I.P. in all of its’ calibers and in all of the materials that we had previously offered. We are now taking orders with 6-8 week lead times and we’ll have some of each at S.H.O.T.

Again, on the subject of that show, we’ll have the new manufactured items ("Rogue", "SteelMaster", and "Sentinel Premier") on display in Vegas. We’ll probably not (but we might) post pictures on the web until after they have been introduced there. We are entering orders now, though. All three are truly beautiful firearms and are ideally suited to their intended purpose. Currently for 6-8 week leads. The new guns that we introduced during the course of the year (though they are on the website now) will also get their first public showing at S.H.O.T. Those are the "Off Duty", the blued "Legacy", the "Legend", the "Texican" and the "U.S.P.S.A. Single Stack" and "U.S.P.S.A. Double Stack" guns. So much for last year’s determination to not introduce any new product in 2007-2008. Look for some of the older lines to start going away in mid to late 2008.

Some that won’t be going away are the "Edge" (still our #1 best seller after about eleven years) with the "Tactical" right behind in the double stack category. In the single stack category, the "Trojan" continues to lead with the "TargetMaster", "Escort", and "Ranger II" chasing it strongly. It’s going to be interesting to see how the new guns affect next year’s totals. Just a side note: We’ve managed to lower the price of the "Trojan SS" again. Another $105.00 at MSRP.

Guys, I hate to sound like a broken record, BUT: Over the course of the next ten weeks, we’ll be at the S.H.O.T. Show, the IWA Exposition, and the Buyers Group shows. If you don’t have your stocking orders entered here, you’ll be falling behind the folks that we book business with at those affairs. As always, we’ll be producing in the order of entry.

Also (broken record time) if yer gonna’ want a "sit down" at any of those events, please let us know as soon as possible. Our "dance card" is fillin’ up.

Well, the "promotional gnomes" in the Sales Department (and it’s not just Mr. Kemble this time) want to give something away, so let’s do it! At S.H.O.T. we’ll have a fishbowl set up in the booth. If you’ll toss a business card in, we’ll draw one at 3:00 on the last day of the show. Winner gets a "Spartan"! Please note on your card if you do not want your name announced as winner, otherwise you may see it displayed in neon somewhere on the "strip". You need not be present to win!

Same deal for each of the buyers exhibitions that we’ll be at. When you see us, you’ll see the fishbowl. Just follow the instructions on the accompanying sign.

As they say on television; "But wait, there’s more!" If you are not attending the shows, send a card here to the factory and we’ll do a separate drawing for another "Spartan" on March 28th. Same note on the card if you don’t want to see your name in a Sgram or on the website. The bowls will not be combined. Only one entry per person will be eligible.

As expected, those folks that want to give things away want me to make their jobs even easier by creating "Special Deals". We normally do at least one special deal for the SHOT Show and one at the Dealers exhibitions, so we’ll probably be doing those again. Then again, don’t be surprised if there’s more than one. Ya’ better come see us and find out!

Within a couple of weeks we’ll be publishing a new shopping cart address that will be stocked with many of the items that you folks have been requesting. Shirts of different styles, coffee cups, mouse pads and quite a number of other items. I’m afraid that this one will only work properly for Domestic orders but we haven’t given up yet.

The new (2008) price list is complete, the new 2008 catalog is out to the printer, and several interim updates (especially new articles) have been made to the website with more being made daily. We’ll have the new catalog on the website in just a few days and will also have them at all the shows and exhibitions.

Well, the BATF statistics are published for 2005 (always 2 years behind) and we’ve moved up from 20th to 17th place in volume for pistol manufacturers. Our increased volumes for 2006 & 2007 should be moving us farther up as the statistics come out. We did, however, drop two positions on the "Top Exporters" list; from 3rd to 5th. Both Kimber and Beretta slipped ahead of us by a couple of percentage points. We’re still ahead of some other big name manufacturers though and believe that we’ll recover 3rd position for 2006 and 2007. Moving into 2nd ahead of Ruger would be tough, but it’s not beyond possible.

It was a great year!

Even though we closed for the holidays on the 21st of December, a week and a half before the end of the year, we actually closed up 21.4% in overall business. As usual I’ll throw in some year end statistics. Here’s some to think about. Guns were up by 46.8% for the 2007 production year. Single stacks almost doubled in 2007 (up 90.6%) and are now 55.4% of our total for complete guns. Caliber breakdown for single stacks is: 9mm = 35%, .38S = 2%, .40S&W = 5%, .45ACP = 58%. Any surprises there? Not for us! We introduced some really fine single stack .45’s this past year. Staggered column gun statistics break down as follows: 9mm = 21%, .38S = 19%, .40S&W = 49%, .45ACP = 11%. No surprise that the .40S&W gets chewed into by the 9mm and .38S. Australia, as well as many South American and Scandinavian countries just don’t allow bullet diameters over .380".

Let’s try for some surprises here: Domestic consumer business = 46.02%. Export = 46.20%. That’s pretty close to a tie, folks, and exhibits a pretty good balance in marketing efforts. O.E.M., sponsorship, contingency, and employee sales made up the other 8%. "BUSHENMACHEREI PROMMERSBERGER" in Germany turned up the heat a notch or two to take over as our "Top International Distributor". "Dawson Precision" continued its’ steady climb to remain "Top Domestic Distributor". The competition for "Most Improved Domestic Distributor" and "Most Improved Foreign Distributor" has turned into a real dogfight! Domestically, "Brazos Custom" and "Shooters Connection" have joined "Dawson Precision" and "Brownells" in our "Million Dollar Club". Thunder Mountain" showed the best domestic two year compound growth rate. "Freedom Ventures LTD" in Canada just barely hung onto its’ second place "Top Foreign" slot due to one of our new Asian folks not receiving his Export permit in time to receive credit this year. "Most Improved" Foreign Distributors (again, a real dogfight) are "Borchers S.A." in Spain, "Armurerie De La Bourse" in France, and "Erawan Firearms LTD" in Thailand. Congratulations to all! Europe has retained "Best Foreign Market" honors, but just barely. Europe = 45%, Asia = 40%, Other Countries = 15%. If any of you have any additional questions on how things stacked up or where you fell in, just drop me an email.

With all that we accomplished in 2007, we still haven’t managed to bring the website into the 21st century. Maybe this year. Any suggestions?

If this is your first time to receive this type communication from us, please go to the website to catch up on all that has happened in last few years. We may even have new pictures and articles up.

SHOT Show Booth # 1975 IWA Booth # 3-136
Have fun. Do good. Sell a bunch. Not necessarily in that order!