Air Profits!

There’s money in airguns and paintball, but you need to know the changes in the market and the keys to profit. Let’s look at airguns first.

“The airgun business is definitely not a BB gun business anymore,” said Roy Stefanko, national sales manager for Crosman Corp. “BB guns and entry-level airguns will always be a big part of the business. However, the business has evolved and a very big part of it is the adult class of airguns. By that I mean 1,000 to 2,000 feet-per-second guns, and we’re going to be introducing one that’s 1,500 feet per second.”

The price of airguns also has changed dramatically, Stefanko said.

“We’ve left the $99 price-point in the dust,” he said. “Now, many airguns retail for $200, $300 and even $400. For most dealers, margins can run from 30 to as much as 50 percent.”
With that also come higher price-points for add-ons, such as optics and pellets.

“If customers are going to spend $200 or $300 on an airgun, they want premium pellets that are going to retail for $5 to $10, and they’re going to want premium optics that may retail between $50 and $150,” Stefanko said.

In addition — and this is good news for independent dealers — big-box stores don’t carry these types of airguns or cater to this class of customer.

John McCaslin, president of AirForce Airguns, says gun dealers who carry these high-end airguns need to educate themselves in order to sell today’s “adult class” of airguns effectively.

“They also need to offer some kind of product support, so they can explain to the customer why the airguns they carry cost more,” McCaslin said. “They need to be able to tell the customer why it’s important to pay the extra money for an expensive airgun. When the dealer has that kind of information, he can help the customer focus on the area that’s most important to him. Some customers are all about the gun’s power and some are about accuracy.”

AirForce Airguns uses compressed air to power many of its airguns — not small CO2 cartridges that many lower-end airguns use; plus, the large cylinders are refillable.

“It’s still new to most people to shoot an airgun that’s powered by compressed air, which has higher power and more accuracy,” McCaslin said. “For instance, an airgun that uses a CO2 canister operates at about 900 psi. Our guns operate off 3,000 psi. We get that kind of velocity in .22, which means there’s dramatically higher muzzle energy.” That’s getting into the range of small-game hunting guns.

To help you learn about airguns, manufacturers provide good education materials, which are also useful selling tools.

“We have dealer information sheets that we put in our dealer kits, with information on how to sell airguns,” McCaslin said. “Plus we have instructional DVDs that are included with the guns. They’re for the customers, but dealers should watch them for their own learning before they try to sell the guns.”

There’s also been a shift in the market for “manual” airguns.

“Spring-piston guns is a very healthy category, with a wide range of price-points available,” said Kim Adams, one of the owners of Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine. “We see a trend somewhat away from pneumatics and multi-pumps and to spring pistons.”

Adams said Kittery Trading Post stocks a number of brands in spring-piston airguns, including Crosman, RWS, Gamo and Beeman.

If you’re not into airguns, Adams says, you need to be.

“There’s just too much overlap with shooting customers,” he said. “If you’re in the firearms business, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not being in the airgun business. It’s a lot of the same customers.”

This is particularly true where access to shooting ranges is becoming a challenge.

“An air rifle is a perfect opportunity to take shooting indoors or into the backyard,” he said. “And it’s still a good way to get someone introduced to shooting who may then graduate to firearms. Airguns should be part of every shooting department.”

Daisy’s PowerLine Model 880 is the company’s
best-selling, multi-pump pneumatic rifle.

Tippmann’s A-5 marker features the company’s Cyclone Feed System, which links the feeder sprocket to the air system, giving it the power to rapidly unleash paintballs.

In the paintball market, there’s a lot of profit in markers and accessories, says Kevin Sheehan, director of sales at Tippmann Sports, a paintball manufacturer.

“There’s a good amount in the markers,” he said. “And there’s a great amount of money in accessories such as attachments to the markers.” Those attachments include stocks, loaders or hoppers, shrouds and magazines, as well as upgrades, such as electric grips.

“Another very popular product of ours is the response trigger,” Sheehan said. “A retailer should expect to earn a 27- to 35-percent profit margin on markers. But the margins on accessories are more like 35 to 40 percent.”

All of this doesn’t include accessories, such as apparel, gear bags, T-shirts and caps. Nor does it include paintballs, which represent considerable repeat sales, but with lower margins.

“The staple products are a good selection of paintball markers and a good selection of quality paintballs,” Sheehan said. “If you have those products, enhanced by a healthy selection of accessories, you’re ready to go.”

Adams, at Kittery Trading Post, says he has only carried paintball for about two years, so he doesn’t have as long a history with paintball as he does with airguns.

“We have our paintball in a satellite store about 200 yards from our flagship store here in Kittery,” he said. One thing he’s noticed this year is there’s a lot of overlap between paintball customers and soft-air customers — a lot of the same customers like both of them.

In terms of brands of paintball equip ment, Kittery Trading Post carries markers from Tippmann Sports, Spyder Fenix, Raven and Brass Eagle.

“We buy a lot from Nelson Sports and National Paintball Supply (now Kee Action Sports),” Adams said.

Broaden Your Reach

Adams agrees there is good profit in paintball.

“The margins are good,” he said. “They’re comparable to airguns, which is to say that they’re significantly better than firearms. There’s also profitability in the charging of the tanks, which we have just recently gotten into. And there’s profit in accessories.”

The heart of the paintball marketplace, Sheehan said, continues to be the player between the ages of 12 and 20. However, one of the things that’s good for gun dealers is that older players — those who like “scenario” paintball games — represent a strong crossover from the shooting sports market.

“That’s a little different demographic,” Sheehan said. “That’s one of the advantages of an outdoor-related store starting to carry paintball. Those outdoor customers are the ones who are going to play scenario paintball games in the woods. They’re going to buy paintball equipment and then walk over to the clothing department and buy a camouflage T-shirt and pants to go along with it.”

Adams says having paintball brings in customers.

“It’s a good place to broaden your reach,” he said. “If you have additional square footage and you need something with a better profit margin that brings in a different customer, then it’s a good mix. But I think paintball needs to be separated from firearms and needs to be merchandised separately, and in a separately themed area of the store. It’s an interesting alternative product line.”