We at ADG feel it is important for you to know a little more about us. We are a very small, family-first company who are all avid shooters/hunters. We don’t have a Community Manager for our social media accounts; we don’t have a specific customer service department or even people solely assigned to taking orders. The same individuals who respond online, answer your calls and emails, and plan our production schedule are the same individuals who actually make the brass. Being small, we have to wear many hats. That’s the nature of a small business, but we believe in the small business. We came from a “big business” and simply want to do things differently and our way. We want to support small business and that starts with providing products to local dealers. By giving you the ability to walk into your favorite shop, see our product, and make a purchase helps keep those brick and mortar stores open. While internet sales give us the ability to be a national, and even global, company, they leave the small shops underserved. Also, believe it or not, we get several calls a week from individuals who still “don’t trust the internet” or use a computer at all but have heard of us via word of mouth and want our cases. By having our product in the hands of dealers throughout the country, we get additional brand exposure to everyone, including the ever-decreasing non-internet user. For 2019, our plan is to give the dealers a 3 week “head start” on inventory before we offer it on our own website. This gives them an opportunity to move product for a duration of time without direct competition from us. As we work to fill our dealer pipeline, it will also give you guys a place to go buy our product in the event you catch us between production cycles of a particular case.

This leads us to the next topic: production schedule. We’re really good at making excellent cartridge brass; however, we’re still learning forecasting and scheduling for the retail market. You are helping us with it through your recommendations and continued insight, of which, we are very thankful to have. We do listen to you. By implementing items to our website such as a waitlist, we’re able to see what the product mix needs to be and when it needs to be available. This may not help all of you in the short-term, but it will mean that in the future, we’ll be less likely to run out of particularly popular offerings (something we despise doing). Our first two years of production (2016 & 2017), 98% of our production was for OEMs. The remaining 2% was spent on caliber development and our initial retail sales via phone only. 2018 was a huge development year for us as we formed our partnership with our largest OEM. This relationship allowed us to grow our offerings and give us a foundation for future case development. Without their orders, the new offerings simply wouldn’t have been possible as quickly as they have been. Still, 2018 saw 87% of our production dedicated to our OEMs and new case development with the remaining production going to the true launch of our retail sales and website.

2019 will be our largest year for retail production to date. Our schedule for the first half of 2019 is based upon ensuring we fulfill our OEM commitments (remember, they have largely footed the bill that has allowed the diversification of offerings), getting a quantity of all our new products out to our customers (dealers and website alike), and replenishing the inventory of our legacy offerings. Beyond our initial production runs (larger than our development runs but smaller than a typical full run), you guys will help determine the quantity of the next runs for the second half of the year. Your interest through social media, the waitlist, phone calls, and emails will allow us to plan better for your volume needs. If we offer a case for a particular cartridge, as we mentioned, our goal is to reach a point where it is never out of stock with our dealers or our website. We’re just not quite there yet.

As we’ve said, we’re small. Our yearly capacity is currently fixed. Unlike the larger manufacturers, all offerings are produced on a single production line that has to be changed over each time a different cartridge case is to be made. Though limited in volume, it is this singular focus and attention that yields the most consistent brass. If and when your needs exceed our production capacity (a good problem to have should it come about), we will have to increase our shift matrix and/or add a significant capital investment into additional production lines. That type of capacity overhaul would have to be spread out over a couple of years but would be something we’re willing to do if the demand justifies it. Our growth may be slower than some in the industry, but, since we’re more like a family here, the last thing we ever want to do is hire people only to lay them off at a later date. We take each position we add very seriously and want the best assurances we can that the position is sustainable.

As encouraged, many of you have requested this caliber or that. We want you always to do so but know that we cannot meet every request. To address one in particular that’s relevant given our current release of 30 Nosler, we know the 28 Nosler is very popular. It is, in fact, more popular than the 30 Nosler. However, one of our OEM partners was in need of a large quantity of 30 Nosler, so we ran that first. That is why you saw its release prior to the 28. There was nothing nefarious, and we were not ignoring your requests or the popularity of the 28. We have far more forecasted for the 28 than we do the 30. Our plan was to change over to produce a large quantity of 28 Nosler following 30 Nosler. However, that was not to be. When we transition to full production, the final tooling is ordered with better, albeit much more expensive, material that yields better tool life. Unfortunately, some of our production 28 Nosler tooling was delivered out of specification. While dimensionally the same, we were left with only our preproduction tooling that was already nearing the end of its life. After just a short run of 28 Nosler, the preproduction tooling was quickly consumed. Since we rely on outside tool makers to manufacture much of the tooling to our design specifications, the unusable tooling caused a delay on the full production run for this product.
In order to move production forward, we have rolled on with what was next in line for us: Belted Magnums. Tooling issues happen and correction to production schedules must be made. Simply shifting the schedule to the right 6-8 weeks and waiting for the requisite tooling would mean that everything else would get delayed by that much, and the machines would be idle. We have promised you and our dealers that 300 WM would be available in March along with 7mm Rem Mag. Those are still on schedule. Replenishing the SAUMs is still on schedule for the May timeframe that we’ve shared with many of you as well. All in all, to fulfill those commitments, the 28 Nosler has to be further delayed. The 28 Nosler that we have produced will be distributed soon and covered in a separate announcement. So, until the shelves are full both here and with our dealers, if there is ever a question on availability, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We will give you the honest best estimation on that given day.

Hopefully, this has given you somewhat of an inside look at ADG and clears up some questions about our humble operation. You won’t find us disparaging our competitors, and, aside from a clever limerick or two here and there, we aren’t flashy, edgy, or trying to create a lifestyle brand. We just make great brass. We’ve always lived by the let-your-work-speak-for-itself code. As we grow and learn, we’ll certainly make a scheduling/forecasting mistake, be slow to respond to a post or two, or maybe ship you the wrong product (you know who you are! ☺); however, we’ll ALWAYS strive to improve and will NEVER compromise on the product or our ultimate customer service. We will NOT ever release a product that we aren’t 100% happy with and don’t expect you to ever accept a product that you aren’t 100% satisfied with either. As Josh always says, “If you’re not happy with the product, we’re not happy.” We appreciate your loyalty, patience, and continued quest for precision, and we consider all of you partners in our journey to produce the best brass possible.

Sincerely,

The ADG TEAM