Christopher Killoy: We had some very good meetings with all of our wholesale distributors out of the NASGW show in Columbus. Great meetings, talked about confidentially with new products we have in the works with them that they’re very excited about. We also asked the exact same question. Have you seen an uptick or a change in demand in the last couple of weeks? And certainly, they saw some movement, particularly in the ammunition category. But when it came to the firearms side, there’s a little bit of movement, but most of it seemed to be focused on products that we don’t make, which included very low-priced MSR rifles. And so most of what we heard was it hadn’t really impacted the primary categories that Ruger operates in.
May in the future, it remains to be seen. I think it was probably — it helped move some inventory out at retail level, and that generated some cash, I think, for retailers to perhaps fill in some holes in [indiscernible] inventory, which we heard from our wholesale customers. So I think it had a positive effect, but not like we saw say early 2020, the beginning of COVID and things like that. Nothing along those magnitudes.
Mark Smith: Okay. I might squeeze in one more here. Just as we look at the regulatory environment, any changes around exports here with some recent shifts that could potentially impact your business?
Christopher Killoy: Well, Mark, you’re probably referring to the announcement from the Commerce Department regarding the temporary 90-day export ban on — I think the headlines were a little deceptive in that they made it sound like all firearms were being banned. When you look at the companies that were specifically carved out and allowed to continue as normal, in Ruger’s case, that 90% of our exports, when we look back on 2022 and 2023 to date, are unaffected. So it could be — if it were to be expanded, certainly, it could be an issue. But right now, 90% of our exports are not impacted based on the countries that are specifically allowed by that. And typically, our export business, as you like to remember, typically goes between 5% and 6%.
I think year-to-date this year, maybe around 7%, but it’s not a big part of our business overall, but we do pretty well with it. It’s just that [indiscernible], our export team is really on top of this, and I don’t see a major impact from this unless it were to expand based on the guidance we’ve currently got from the administration.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Rommel Dionisio with Aegis Capital.
Rommel Dionisio: Chris, given the next time we’ll chat will be in a few months after a short [indiscernible]. I wonder if you could just preview the environment going into this critical period of the year where you’re going to have distributor meetings and trace — launching new products. Could you just talk about the overall receptivity that you think you’ll be seeing here over the next few months with regards taking on new products and inventories and just sort of in broad picture terms?
Christopher Killoy: Thanks, Rommel. The — like I mentioned, the NASGW show was a good meeting. We typically — we have Tom and I are there. We have our wholesales force. We spend time with every single one of our wholesale partners, and there are some great folks that we deal with, very candid conversations. And one of the things we recognize this is a very — remains a very promotionally driven marketplace. So that’s one of the things we’re asking our distributors to see what’s working, what’s not. We also gave us the opportunity to under an NDA to go through some of the new products that are in the works. And the reception was great for some of the things that are coming down the pipe. Now of course, we never predict exactly when those new products are going to launch.
