LEWISTON, Idaho (BRAIN) — After Vista Outdoor splits into two companies later this year, the ammunition and shooting sports business will be called The Kinetic Group. The Outdoor Products business, which contains the bike-related brands Giro, Bell, Blackburn, QuietKat, Fox Racing and CamelBak, will also get a new name, which the company will announce in a few weeks.
Jason Vanderbrink, the president and CEO of the Sporting Products division, shared the new name with employees at the CCI-Speer ammunition factory in Idaho on Thursday. The Kinetic Group will be traded on the NYSE under the HUNT symbol.
"The Kinetic Group will be our name moving forward after the separation and be used for corporate identity to bring employees and stakeholders together with a common purpose and strategic approach," Vanderbrink said. "To hunters and shooters, their favorite brand of ammunition will take center stage as it always has — they'll look for CCI, Federal, HEVI-Shot, Remington and Speer on the shelf, at events and online."
The company says it will complete the split this calendar year. Eric Nyman will begin as CEO of the Outdoor Products segment on Aug. 21, and he will be CEO of the new, to-be-named Outdoor Products company post-spin. The company said it will announce the new name before the unveiling of branding at an investor event in October in New York City.
The connection between the company's outdoor sports brands and firearm-related brands has been problematic. REI stopped restocking products from Vista Outdoor brands in 2018, soon after a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. REI complained that Vista did not make a statement about the shootings or its support of the NRA. Besides REI, some specialty retailers stopped stocking Vista products in early 2018, as did MEC, a Canadian outdoor retailer.
REI resumed purchases from Vista Outdoor the following year, soon after Vista Outdoor sold off its firearms brands.
Vista Outdoor now sells ammunition and some shooting sports in its Outdoor Sports group. The Outdoor Products group also contains some shooting sports accessory brands such as Bushnell (binoculars and other optics), Blackhawk (holsters and bags), and Simmons (range finders and scopes).
