GEORGETOWN, Texas — Dave Skinner, STI’s so-called Commander-In-Chief, recently released STI International business statistics for 2008:
- Total guns built in house were up 7.5%.
- Total of all guns shipped was up over 48%.
- Guns available to deliver in 6 weeks or less up almost 600%.
Skinner said, “In the continuing tug of war between our domestic sales group and the folks who sell internationally, the balance of power has shifted, but if ya’ blink you’ll miss it.
“Last year, international won by a margin of 46.20% to 46.02%. We thought that 0.18% difference was very close. This year, domestic has wrested the lead back by a margin of 48.9448% to 48.9352%. If you round the numbers to two decimals, they’re both 48.94% but the domestic folks insist that the 0.0096% difference makes them the clear winner!
“Last year (2007): Export areas stacked up thusly: Europe = 45%, Asia = 40%, Other Countries = 15%. This year (2008), the rankings are the same but the Asian District is making good headway. It’s now Europe = 43.5%, Asia = 41.9%, and Other = 14.6%.”
Skinner said, “On the international distributor front, Bignami in Italy kicked it into high gear in the second half of the year to take top honors shoving Buchsenmachrei Prommersberger (3X winner) of Germany and Freedom Ventures LTD of Canada into second and third respectively even though they each also showed dramatic and appreciated growth.
“On the domestic distributor front, when the smoke cleared, Dawson Precision was again king of the mountain. Brownells and Shooters Connection were in a dead heat for second place. Surprisingly, the new kid on the block, American Shooters Edge moved from nonexistent to third overall on the domestic distributor sales chart.”
Among STI dealers, Shooters’ Station of Conroe, Texas led the pack with Fuzzy Bunny Movie Guns of Utah and American Shooters of Las Vegas rounding out the top three.
Other stats of note from Skinner:
Single stack STI orders beat the doubles by 2 percentage points, 51% to 49%.
By caliber: Single Stacks: 9mm = 50%, .45 = 40%, .40 = 8%, .38 = 2%.Double Stacks: .40 = 37%, 9mm = 33%, .45 = 20%, .38 = 9%.
The Slovakia-built GP6 will also be offered in a double-action-only model for 2009 and will be called the P1. P1 is basically a GP6 that has been shortened by about 3/4″ and will have a chrome-colored slide. Coming in May, will be the GP6-C (competition model). It’s the same pistol as the GP6 except it will have adjustable rear sights, fiber-optic front sight, over-sized thumb safety, and 20-round magazines as standard.
