American Outdoor Brands Corporation
Creates New Outdoor Recreation Division
Brian D. Murphy Joins As President, Outdoor Recreation
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., January 4, 2017 – (ArmsVault.com) – American Outdoor Brands Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: AOBC), one of the world’s leading providers of firearms and quality products for the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiast, today announced the creation of its new Outdoor Recreation Division to expand the Company’s portfolio of consumer brands and products further into the rugged outdoor recreation market. Brian D. Murphy has been hired to serve as President of the newly created division. Murphy joins American Outdoor Brands from Vista Outdoor Inc., a publicly traded designer, manufacturer, and marketer of outdoor sports and recreation products.
James Debney, American Outdoor Brands Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “I am very excited to have someone as talented as Brian Murphy join our already incredibly strong team. His goal is to establish and build our new Outdoor Recreation Division – from the ground up – by bringing a new dimension to our inorganic growth strategy. In leading the Outdoor Recreation Division, Brian will focus on markets related to rugged outdoor pursuits, such as camping, hiking and fishing – all of which already strongly resonate with many of our core firearms consumers and retailers. This focus is perfectly aligned with our vision at American Outdoor Brands to be the leading provider of quality products for the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiast. Brian’s successful track record of identifying opportunities, creating, and leading highly productive teams, as well as building and running business operations, makes him the ideal leader to establish and grow our new rugged outdoor recreation business. We look forward to benefiting from his expertise and the establishment of a new family of brands and products that will further serve our core consumers.”
Murphy joined Vista Outdoor in 2015 when the company was formed as a result of a spin-off from Alliant Techsystems (ATK), a leader in aerospace, defense, and sporting goods. At Vista Outdoor, Murphy served as Vice President of Corporate Development, a role in which he led approximately $900 million in acquisitions over an 18-month period. Prior to joining Vista Outdoor, Murphy served as Director of Corporate Development and Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis for ATK. Prior to joining ATK, Murphy held management positions with McMaster-Carr Supply Company, a supplier of maintenance, repair, and operations materials to industrial and commercial facilities worldwide, and was previously an investment banker with Houlihan Lokey, a leading middle-market investment bank. Murphy earned his B.S. in Business from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
About American Outdoor Brands Corporation
American Outdoor Brands Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: AOBC) is a provider of quality products for shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiasts in the global consumer and professional markets. The Company reports two segments: Firearms and Outdoor Products & Accessories. Firearms manufactures handgun and long gun products sold under the Smith & Wesson®, M&P®, and Thompson/Center Arms™ brands as well as provides forging, machining, and precision plastic injection molding services. Outdoor Products & Accessories provides shooting, hunting, and outdoor accessories, including reloading, gunsmithing, and gun cleaning supplies, tree saws, vault accessories, knives, laser sighting systems, tactical lighting products, and survival and camping equipment. Brands in Outdoor Products & Accessories include Smith & Wesson®, M&P®, Thompson/Center Arms™, Crimson Trace®, Caldwell® Shooting Supplies, Wheeler® Engineering, Tipton® Gun Cleaning Supplies, Frankford Arsenal® Reloading Tools, Lockdown® Vault Accessories, Hooyman® Premium Tree Saws, BOG POD®, Golden Rod® Moisture Control, Schrade®, Old Timer®, Uncle Henry®, UST®, and Imperial™. For more information on American Outdoor Brands Corporation, call (844) 363-5386 or log on to www.aob.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed to be forward-looking statements under federal securities laws, and we intend that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor created thereby. Such forward-looking statements include our vision to be the leading provider of quality products for the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiast; our belief that we have an existing infrastructure in place to allow for additional divisions to expand upon our vision through product innovation and strategic acquisitions; our belief that Murphy’s successful track record of identifying opportunities, creating and leading productive teams, as well as building and running business operations, makes him the ideal leader to establish and grow our new outdoor recreation business; and our expectation that Murphy will help us establish a new family of brands and products to better serve our core customers. We caution that these statements are qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include the demand for our products; the costs and ultimate conclusion of certain legal matters; the state of the U.S. economy in general and the firearm industry in particular; general economic conditions and consumer spending patterns; the potential for increased regulation of firearms and firearm-related products; speculation surrounding fears of terrorism and crime; our growth opportunities; our anticipated growth; our ability to increase demand for our products in various markets, including consumer, law enforcement, and military channels, domestically and internationally; the position of our hunting products in the consumer discretionary marketplace and distribution channel; our penetration rates in new and existing markets; our strategies; our ability to introduce new products; the success of new products; our ability to expand our markets; our ability to integrate acquired businesses in a successful manner; the general growth of our outdoor products and accessories business; the potential for cancellation of orders from our backlog; and other risks detailed from time to time in our reports filed with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2016.