WOW! 2003 was up over 16% from 2002! Fifty-four percent (54%) domestic, forty-six percent (46%) export. Forty percent (40%) single stack, sixty percent (60%) wide body. I'm not even going to try to predict what 2004 will be. I'm doing our shop loading and financial planning around a 20% increase and will be happy with 12%. However, the way our normal business has continued to expand coupled with our new OEM capabilities gives us the ability to do far more. It should be an interesting year.

Huge recognition is due to the STI Distributors who made the greatest gains in 2003. The two most notable are Manfred Gruber of Bignami in Italy and Dave Dawson of Dawson Precision in the United States of Texas. Right on their tails was Matthew Workman of Action Shooter Imports in Australia and Chuck Bradley of Shooters Connection in the Kentucky Outback. Honorable mentions must go out to the staffs of Waffen Schumacher and Karl Prommersberger of Germany and to Relic Custom of Australia for significant sales during 2003. Brownells is still “King of the Hill” but these guys are making a horse race of it. New players to watch are in Guatemala, Spain, and Florida.

As long as we're passing out “Kudos”, how about congratulations to our notable Dealers for this year? Gator Guns and Knives in Louisiana, Brazos Custom Gunworks in Texas, and Personal Defense and Handgun in North Carolina ! Saaaaaaaaalute!

Our SHOT Show booth is # 3989 and our IWA booth is # 3-131. We will have a guest in our SHOT booth and we will be, split time, guests in Waffen Schumacher's IWA booth. (Just too many old friends down there to ignore.) Our “dance card” is filling up. Contact Pauletta soon if you need a “sit down”.

Again, we should have four new guns at SHOT. (Maybe at IWA if somebody orders some soon so we can get ‘em into the country.) We'll, hopefully, have literature. Descriptions are already on the website. Please note that we have decided to “flat top” the Wasp and the Hornet.

Comment from last time with updates : During the first quarter of '04 we will be adding people in Sales (kinda' added already), Q.C., Materials, Machining (some added), Gunsmithing (added some, some to come), Documentation, (added) and Assembly. Probably as many as a dozen, total.

The “Lone Star” equipment move went flawlessly. Five 40-foot air ride “low boy” trailers made 95% of it happen in one trip. All powered up fine. Tooling and “tweaking” happening already. Big time congratulations are in order to Wes and Brandon (new guys) and to Ed. (old guy)

The “Lone Star” article about the “Lawman” is on the website along with pictures. Obviously, the McCormick parts go away, but it will look pretty much like you see it. No options are offered. What you see is what you get!

No more “Trigger Slick”! It's gone!

Sell a bunch. Do good. Have fun. Not necessarily in that order!