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UWone77
31 December 2013, 18:32
A nice article in the Savannah Morning News (http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-12-28/daniel-defense-2013-manufacturer-year#) naming Daniel Defense (http://www.danieldefense.com) their 2013 Manufacturer of the Year. The entire article can be found at the Savannah Morning News' website here (http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-12-28/daniel-defense-2013-manufacturer-year#).

http://i849.photobucket.com/albums/ab55/UWone77/12911552_zpsbae08859.jpg (http://s849.photobucket.com/user/UWone77/media/12911552_zpsbae08859.jpg.html)

Marty Daniel CEO and Founder Daniel Defense (http://www.danieldefense.com)

By JULIA RITCHEY



Think of guns and names such as Colt, Remington, and Smith & Wesson come to mind, but if South Georgia native Marty Daniel has anything to say about it, future generations of gun owners will include his company on that elite roster.

Daniel is founder and CEO of the Black Creek-based Daniel Defense, which in 2013 sold about 32,000 guns, specifically black military-style assault rifles, mostly to customers in the U.S.

Daniel was raised hunting and shooting with his father, but guns remained a hobby for most of his life. In fact, Daniel ran a company installing automatic garage doors for 15 years prior to starting Daniel Defense in 2001.

It wasn’t until he started trying to modify his own weapon that he found a different calling.

“There were a couple of parts for the guns I had that nobody made,” said Daniel. “So I talked a company into making 100. That’s the least they would make, and it was just a modification to a part. I only needed four, so I set up a website to sell the rest. And that’s how the business started.”

He said it wasn’t long until other gun enthusiasts started asking for the same modifications.

“There were a lot of other customers who wanted the same thing I wanted, and they couldn’t find it anywhere,” said Daniel. “They were very appreciative that I came up with something that we could all enjoy. From there, it was just one other small sling loop or little improvement accessories.”

In 2002, Daniel began making assault rifle rail systems, which eventually landed him his first defense contract with the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning.

A year later he won a contract with U.S. Special Operations Command and a few years after that, a contract with the U.K. Ministry of Defense. Around 2009, Daniel decided to manufacture complete guns.

“I’m always dreaming a lot further ahead than we can actually do,” said Daniel, adding that he had wanted to make whole guns from the start.

In five years, Daniel Defense has gone from producing 3,000 rifles to 50,000 — in addition to parts and accessories. In eight years, the company has gone from two employees, Daniel and his wife, to more than 250, with 50 hires made in the last year alone.

In 2012, the company opened a 90,000-square-foot facility in Ridgeland, S.C., but a good chunk of the manufacturing still takes place at the 38,000-square-foot Black Creek plant, including rails, barrels, bolts and carriers.

Upper and lower receivers, inventory, testing and assembly takes place in Ridgeland. The company continues to sub-contract other parts and pieces as well.

Although the company still has contracts with many law enforcement and defense outfits for custom carbine parts — U.S. Marshals, Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Georgia Department of Corrections, to name a few — Daniel said individual guns are 90 percent of his business.

Their best seller is the M4 Version 5 assault rifle, which retails for around $1,700.

“C’mon, Man!”

Daniel Defense has more name recognition within the gun industry than outside it. At least that was the case before a controversial television ad landed the company in the national spotlight this year.

“I think as far as what we had planned to do and what happened, we came out okay,” said Daniel.

What the company had planned to do was put a commercial in eight regional markets to air during the Super Bowl. However, the ad they submitted was rejected by local Fox affiliates who said it did not meet the NFL’s strict advertising guidelines for makers of firearms.

A sticking point was the inclusion a silhouetted rifle on the company’s logo at the end, which Daniel said he offered to remove and replace with an American flag or the words “Shall not be infringed.” The company was still declined airtime.

The story was picked up by news outlets nationwide, and in an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Daniel offered an animated defense of his ad, his company and the Second Amendment, interjecting, “C’mon, Man!” frequently to interviewer Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a riff on a popular segment from ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown.”

“Running the ad would’ve been a better result for us than not running the ad because the Super Bowl reaches 200 million people. It would’ve been a huge opportunity for us,” said Daniel, though he admits the publicity from the fallout was probably as far reaching.

The company has since trademarked the use of “C’mon, Man!” for the sale of guns. (ESPN holds the rights to the phrase for entertainment.)

“What’s really interesting, over the last four or five years, is how mainstream media has run to pick up shows that have a lot of guns in them and have a lot of violence in them but won’t allow me to advertise,” said Daniel. “You hear about the war on Christmas. Well there’s a war on guns, too.”

What’s next

In the quest to become the next big gun manufacturer, Daniel said they will continue to expand their manufacturing capacity.

He’s adding 9,000 square feet to the back of his Black Creek plant, making stainless steel barrels in addition to carbon barrels and is preparing to debut his newest weapon, the MK12, at a trade show in Las Vegas in January.

The company is working toward making 100 percent of a gun’s components. After that, it will be a matter of expanding the company’s arsenal.

“We’ll have the equipment; we’ll have the ‘know-how’; we’ll be able to build any type of gun that anyone else makes,” said Daniel.

Daniel said expanding the types of guns he makes will position the company for growth not just next year but for years to come.

“We feel like we can own 5-10 percent of the AR market — that’s where we are today — and if so, we think we can, over the next 20 years, own 5-10 percent of the entire gun market,” he said.

A few moments later, Daniel added: “We’re just getting started.”



MANUFACTURER OF THE YEAR

Winner: Daniel Defense

Leader: Marty Daniel, CEO

Number of employees: 250

Guns sold in 2013: 32,000

Recent milestones: Hiring 50 employees, opening Ridgeland facility, raising national profile through media appearances, adding additional capacity to Black Creek headquarters.

Looking forward: Debut of new model (MK12), manufacturing hammer-forged stainless steel barrels, more advertising.