Taurus wants to get big and they ain’t goin’ home. The Brazilian-based gunmaker has ambitious plans to re-brand and expand their North American ops. Taurus’s box-fresh President and CEO Mark Kresser’s the Man. He’s promising new products, better customer relations and higher quality. True story: Kresser’s aware that Taurus’s rep needs a reset. He’s asking gun guys and gals for one thing and one thing only as he pulls on the wheel of the Taurus-shaped aircraft carrier . . .
Time. Kresser knows that improving the company’s products and service isn’t going to happen overnight. Despite his hunger for rapidly recognizable change, Kresser also realizes that it will take time for public perceptions to catch up with the new reality he’s fashioning for Taurus.
File this one under “hopeful signs”: Kresser began his career in the firearms industry as a Remington Shooting School instructor. Then Beretta snatched him away for a sales job. Since then Kressler’s kept up his shooting proficiency while working for SIG Arms, Mossberg and Traditions Firearms. And now . . . Taurus.
As a salesman and marketing maven, Kresser knows that all branding starts with the product. Kresser is dedicated to continuous product improvement and “making a better gun today than we did yesterday.” No really.
Throughout our entire organization, we are focused on continuous improvement… regardless of what process, regardless of what position or what department we have within our organization.
At the same time that Kresser’s working on Taurus’s corporate culture, he’s operating on the time-tested principle that the customer is king.
We’re listening to our customer more today than we did yesterday, paying attention to our customer and we’re servicing our customer today better than yesterday.
Kresser reckons the gunmaker will be rocking the gun world by the next SHOT Show in January. He was understandably cagey about details, hinting at some significant new products that will help raise the company’s profile.
We’re going to bring some new thinking to the industry and make people question why they didn’t think of that first…I think we’ve got some things that are really going to change the way people think about firearms.
Look out world? Look out gun company owners. Kresser admits that Taurus is on the prowl for new acquisitions. The gunmaker’s main man in North America promised that any additions to the corporate portfolio will complement the existing product line.
Modern home defense black sporting rifles? Shotguns? Kresser won’t say. But he will say that Taurus is going places. And he knows that satisfied, engaged, surprised and delighted customers are the only ones who can take them there. Watch this space.