FEATURE RETAILERS PERSPECTIVE
COVID
While the pandemic will hopefully be a one-off (eventually) how did it affect you as a business and has it led to changes which are likely to persist well beyond it? FS: We made changes to our shop hours in light of our experiences, but that’s about it. LWA: Twitchy bottom time at the start of the first lockdown, but in fact we found that sales remained healthy despite players having very limited opportunities to use their gear. We suspect that those on furlough actually had a bit of spare cash to put into their interests as they weren’t carrying the costs associated with getting to and from work.
THE FUTURE
Do you have any concerns as to the future viability of airsoft as a business? FS: Nothing in particular beyond the expected competition within the market. There is only so much pie there and we’re all fighting for our slice. LWA: The next ten years, aside from supply issues and reduced production across the board I think the number of players and game fields will steadily increase. I don’t see any reason for it reducing so long as Call of Duty type games keep appearing to pique an interest. We’ve seen big reductions in manufacturing, with the likes of Classic Army, G&P and Real Sword slowing output. I doubt any new manufacturers will appear either, but then how many new AR15s can we need? As always we’re only a law change away from things being illegal which is always a mild concern but I think the future is bright.
SUMMING UP
Unsurprisingly there is a lot of common ground between the two companies, and knowing the two companies and the people behind them, I can see where the differences might emerge. The general opinion is upbeat. Both expect to see airsoft continuing and growing. LWA distributes Umarex in the UK and have been handling a lot of their paintball equipment, in particular the T4E range, in addition to their airsoft offerings. This is proving to be exceptionally popular
although it’s been a bit of a slow burner. One of the collateral results of this is an increase in the number of other paintball retailers who are becoming interested in airsoft, and vice versa. Firesupport has remained wholly dedicated to airsoft and continues to carry an extensive range of replacement and upgrade parts. Both companies serve the same airsoft community in slightly different ways; this has been the case for many years. I was genuinely surprised that neither Brexit nor the pandemic seemed to have been as dramatic interludes as I expected. Looking at Brexit, I realised that as mentioned by both companies, importing is a way of life, and the vast majority of that comes and historically has come, from outside the EU. This trade would be unaffected by Brexit and the changing relationship between Britain and the EU, in fact the effects were more obvious as far as trade from the UK to Europe was concerned. In part that has been adversely affected by the massive increase in shipping costs which have arisen on the back of the pandemic and aren’t being helped by the price of oil these days. LWA has one major European supplier in Umarex, but it will be no surprise that a global player is capable of quickly responding to changes in regulation. Covid simply doesn’t seem to have affected either company in the way I think most of us would have imagined. The idea that sales would increase during a protracted period when sites were closed is rather counterintuitive however that seems to be what happened. In fairness, at the beginning of the first lockdown two years ago none of us could have foreseen a situation where the government would literally pay people to stay at home. It seems that some of that money has found its way to the retailers. I was surprised not to hear of more drama from both Firesupport and LWA. The last several years have been interesting on several levels and I suppose I expected to see that reflected in businesses. I have concluded that both retailers are sufficiently mature to weather the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and while one shouldn’t draw definitive conclusions from such a small sample, it would seem that the sector is not just healthy but, in places, thriving!.AA
“I HAVE CONCLUDED THAT BOTH RETAILERS ARE SUFFICIENTLY MATURE TO WEATHER THE SLINGS AND ARROWS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE, AND WHILE ONE SHOULDN’T DRAW DEFINITIVE CONCLUSIONS FROM SUCH A SMALL SAMPLE, IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE SECTOR IS NOT JUST HEALTHY BUT, IN PLACES, THRIVING!”
98
MAY 2022
