Martin Archery – A Company Review
Americans, about a century ago did not know the use of bows and arrows. Only Native Americans were practicing it in the forests. But, as they started to live in the reservations, they started to loose their skill.
All this changed 1911 when a Native American called Ishi came out of the forest and came in contact with Dr. Saxton Pope, a medical doctor attached with University of California at San Francisco. They became great friends till Ishi died of tuberculosis in 1916. From Ishi, Dr. Pope learnt skills making of bows of arrows and how to use them for hunting. He also wrote a number of books regarding Archery. This led to the development of archery, as we know today.
Martin Archery is one of oldest producer of archery products of this country. They are now employing the latest technology of riser construction technique in their bows. This is giving their bows better value for money and this new product is improving their share in the bow market.
Martin archery is in the business of bow making with many long time employees and three generations of Martin family are providing the lead in design, manufacture and marketing these bows. By using modular risers it has been possible for them to reduce the manufacturing cost of their bows. Their bows range from $399 Bengal that Vice President Terry Martin talked about in middle of 2006 to $599 Firecat.
Bengal was released early before its target launch in 2007 so that they could gain some sales in fall of 2006. It was a medium priced 32-inch model that featured a ball bearing mounted M-Pro single cam a Vibration escape kit and a fully laminated Coreflex limbs.
Terry Martin who is also responsible for marketing, also talked about how pro archer Laura Francese preferred to use Bengal instead of other longer models offered by other companies. He was also talked of using her beauty in their forthcoming advertisement for the new value-packed bow to attract the attention of the customers to their new product.
Martin is now reporting 25% rise in sales in 2007, which he ascribes to the launch of two models: Bengal and Cheetah. They are now releasing three more models: the Firecat, Moab and Leopard.
Though Terry Martin heads the bow design group, he says that his son Ryan and other members of the group should get the credit of the models developed in 2007 and 2008. The team includes, besides Ryan Martin and Scott Landwehr, the head machinist Aaron Hamilton, 3D Computer modeling expert Jake Richmond and graphic artist Ken Melhus.
In this family owned business, which was established 57 years ago, Terry is helping the third generation represented by his son Ryan in developing their management skills. He is also unperturbed by the sale of his competitor Bow Tech to Savage Sports Corporation.
He feels that firearms companies like Savage Sports have not been successful in archery industry. He also does not want to sell his company to any outside party, because that would affect the future of his son and many other old time loyal workers working in the company.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under Archery Types. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.