Last week, our inaugural edition of Q&A Outdoors brought you what we called the “Exit Interview” with Barrett Firearms’ founder Ronnie Barrett. This week, we close the acquisition circle via a conversation with Robert Nioa, the second-generation owner/manager of the company that acquired Barrett.

Robert Nioa is the second generation owner/manager of Australia’s Nioa Group, the privately-owned, global munitions company that acquired Barrett Firearms.

Robert Nioa: Yeah. Yeah. So the Outdoor Wire? Yeah, it's good. It's a good, you know, media source. A lot of reporting in 20 plus years, yeah?

Robert Nioa: ….The next people are trying to sell us something so I can hold them up for a few minutes.

Robert Nioa: Look at what works. So there's been multiple facets to that.

Firstly, it's our strategy development of what we wanted to do as a company… how we wanted to grow. You know, we've been geographically located in Australia, with a small-ish market.

But with weapons and munitions we were looking at a growth strategy, how do we, how do we grow?

You can largely grow by either, you know, going into products, which are adjacent to your core competencies, where you can stick to your core competency. Our core competency is guns and ammo.

So we've grown very large in Australia, we're now the largest supplier of weapons of munitions to the Australian Department defense. So if we were going to continue to grow, we had to grow geographically.

And the biggest market in the world is American.

So we set an objective to look towards the American market some years ago. But we were absolutely going to stay true to weapons and munitions only, we didn't want to diversify into other things.

And we've had a very long, very successful relationship and happy relationship with the Barretts -as a company and family for more than 15 years now.

We love - we’ve always loved - the company; always loved the brand.

The staff and the people that we've worked with, both had the same culture, very easy fit with our company.

So it was a very natural fit from a personnel side of things.

So, you know, from the business point of view..it makes sense when we're all gun people.

There's no no better gun than the Barrett.

They also service all markets that we want to be involved in, which is sporting, law enforcement and military.

It was very important, those military credentials and military contracts.

But also critical is the sporting market.

Because, you know, we run a mixed business with sporting, law enforcement and military. That’s the business model that we really, we really want to maintain.

Because in the sporting market sales happen every single day.

You know, military contracts can be quite lumpy.

And to me, whenever we were going to do, we wanted a business that achieved a balance between those two things. And it had to have the ability to continue in that life.

So for us, it was just a magnificent fit at all levels - in a personal family, cultural quality of the product, the geographic location that the market segments, global distribution, you know, gets us into markets all over the world.

And there are very few brands that you can go and find that see that have such an exemplary reputation. Every single person I've spoken to, since this has become public, that just said, “What a magnificent brand, you just should be so proud of what you've acquired.”

And we are.

So you know that all of that whole formula just made it a very natural decision for us to want to pursue this.

Robert Nioa: I’m generation second. My father started the business.

We came from very, very humble beginnings. So our entry to the gun market started back in 1973, it's 50 years this year that we've been in the gun market, starting at the back of a gas station in a regional town in in Australia.

And dad just got frustrated with the level of service in the town from the gun dealers. All of his mates were shooters, they were all complaining.

And he said, “Why are we all sitting around complaining about the bad service?” So he goes on to start a gun shop.

So he started with a small gun shop.

And as a kid, you know, I'd go shooting. We do a lot of shooting rather than hunting in Australia, there’s a lot of feral pest destruction.

And that's how we sort of grew up, you know, in farming life.

Now with the business starting, dad was a real Wheeler Dealer. You know, never finished school. You know, a very practical hands-on sort of guy. Learned to live by his wits.

He literally lived on the street as a kid - ran away from home, then ran away from a home for kids.

So, you know, we’re a very practical family, very humble beginnings.

We all worked hard as kids in the gas stations and business and things. And then we transitioned into the gun business.

That journey, I won't go blow by blow through it, but it led us to moving into the wholesale business in about mid 90s. Or sorry, mid 80s in Australia.

And then by the mid 90s in Australia, there was a big change in gun laws, which threatened the whole business.

We were only we probably only had 12 people in the business back then.

Then dad and I agreed that we needed to diversify into at least law enforcement. I led that move to look at law enforcement and military as a way of protecting our future.

Dad said, regardless of what gun laws come in, we will be the last company in Australia. If there's only one company selling guns, it will be us, because shooters will always want guns.

So we made a commitment that we were never going anywhere.

And, you know, regardless of what difficult and hard environment came, we were going to grow. And we were going to keep working on every angle to keep growing within that market, which we did, to the point that we're the largest supplier of not just sporting, guns and ammunition, but law enforcement as well.

We got 70% of the ammunition contracts for law enforcement in Australia. And now we're the largest provider of military weapons munitions.

We actually run part of the Australian Government ammunition factory.

We've just set up a company called the Australian missile corporation.

So we're helping establish guided weapons production in Australia, and we're making artillery shells as well.

We're also running the procurement systems, the defense for all of the weapons systems that they are acquiring, including sniper rifle..

Robert Nioa: Yeah, indeed. These were all these separate considerations. But, of course, the experience we had with Barrett and the quality that we we know them to be. We already knew that.

And it's been proven and tested by defense, and including New Zealand defense. We've been involved in providing Barrett products for the Zealand Defence Force for some years as well.

Yeah, so all of that.

So that's been our quick snapshot of a 50-year journey in the gun industry.

Robert Nioa: As a second generation, yeah. Unfortunately, we lost dad just about 20 years ago.

So I've been on my own there for 20 years. And in that regard, we've now got my nephew and my son in the business. Then my wife, you know, obviously In the business…

Robert Nioa: All we've ever known is this.

You know, we're fighters, because we've always been small and growing. So we've never had anything given to us. Every market we've touched has been challenging.

There's always been people that are bigger than us, meaning, you know, more incumbency than us.

And we've always had to push our way through. And that’s the culture that we have within the organization.

And we'll continue, you know, we'll bring that I think, you know, to any business that we will come to, you know, we understand that businesses are hard work, customers have to be, you know, hard won.

And you got to defend your patch, you got to stay ahead of the game, which we intend to do.

Robert Nioa: Every day…maybe multiple times a day? Yeah. He’d be very, very proud of this association and what we've done here.

Robert Nioa: No, no, it was, it was 20 years ago, we lost dad. And - I think - we've probably been working with Barrett for, let's say, 15 years, as we started to get more into that, law enforcement and military side of things.

Robert Nioa: We didn't have a plan B in the in the firearms market.

We'd probably have looked at munitions, you know, with guns and ammo.

So you know, we probably still have an appetite for ammo. You know, a company that makes good ammunition, good reputation as well - and a brand. So, you know, there's, there's also elements of that, in this transaction as well.

Robert Nioa: 
Yeah…we’re a family company. We're absolutely committed to the Murfreesboro area, to grow in the Murfreesboro facility. This will always be a, you know, Tennessee based company, it will be still doing the same things that it always has.

You know, I sort of can't help where I was born.

But you know, what we can do is grow the Tennessee business.

And we can take that to the world.

I think what I'd like to think now is that Barrett is part of a global company, as an American success story, going global, rather than an Australian company coming in acquiring Barrett.

This is the growth most people celebrate when an American company manages to go global.

And this is really part of that story.

Barrett is now part of a global operation. And, you know, I think that's a great testament of success for Ronnie and, Chris, that their company is now part of a global network.

Ultimately, they're not going to be different for the people in Murfreesboro… other than I'd like to think that we can grow the business there, and the footprint.

And we certainly have a very long term view. We're taking I'm trying to create a 100-year legacy family business. I say we're at the 50 year mark right now.

So I'll never see the end of it, you know, unless there's a medical miracle. So I'm a custodian of the company on that journey.

But you know, Barrett, Murfreesboro, this is our sole entry to the American market and an access to the outside world, from Murfreesboro.

Robert Nioa: The other nice thing is, it's been such such a harmonious handoff. Ronnie, Donna, Chris, the family could not be a bit more supportive. They're really good, genuine, honest people.

And Ronnie promises to be there to help me you know, as we come across challenges or opportunities or need guidance.

So we certainly have formal arrangements in place for that. But you know, beyond the formal arrangements is the spirit and the cooperation and the support is just naturally there.

So that's there's going to be a continuity there of leadership. It’s got Ronnie's name on the front door and always will.

So you know, that's also something for Ronnie and the family to be proud of. What they've created we will respect.

Robert Nioa: No.

Robert Nioa: We're a family business. I don't do well being told what to do by boards. I don't.

I don't particularly like the way public companies operate on quarter-by-quarter profits.

I want a long term, multi-year view and a strategic view. I don't think you get that under the constraints of public accounting and accountability.

Robert Nioa: Thank you.