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Concern Kalashnikov Will Introduce A New Brand Next Week

Dom

With the sanctions from Western Countries in place against Russia due to its support to rebels in Eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea early this year, Concern Kalashnikov has suspended deliveries to certain countries, in this case the U.S. and Canada. The problem for the company is that without government sales, the company is shutout from its largest market in North America.

With that in the background, the company has announced that they will introduce a new brand and concept development next week, on the 2nd of December specifically. According to the company, they will be using their own funds and without any government support.

This will be more a rebranding including visuals to promote the company as the leader in the Russian Arms industry, unifying approach to their internal and external markets. This will also include the development of a new line of handheld weapons.

Formed last year after Mikhail Kalashnikov, the father of the AK-47, turned over the rights of the "Kalashnikov" name to the new Concern, before his death last 23 December. With the basis of the Izhmash and Izhmekh plants, the Concern has unified state-run small arms manufacturers. Now, it is Russia's larger manufacturer of firearms which also include firearms for the civilian market such as shotguns, industrial tools and sporting rifles.

The presence of Concern Kalashnikov is in 27 countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Norway, Italy, Kazakhstan and Thailand with income in 2013 exceeding 2 billion rubles. But we don't know how its performing this year in terms of revenues with the sanctions in place given.

Last year, ROSTEC (Russian Technologies), the state company sold 49% of its stake in Concern Kalashnikov to a group of private investors whilst maintaining a controlling stake in the company. It also was awarded by the Russian government a US$400 million contract to to produce Vikhr anti-armor missiles.

We are actually curious about what happened to their plans to introduce products for the airsoft market. Given the new information, it looks like it's not a priority.

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