What in the World? ITC Company Spotlight - American Outdoor Brands

American Outdoor Brands (AOB) is a growth-oriented provider of outdoor products & accessories, including hunting, fishing, camping, shooting, and personal security and defense products, for rugged outdoor enthusiasts. The company owns a diverse portfolio of over 20 early-state consumer “lifestyle” brands. They specialize in taking products from “niche to known”.  With a focus on innovation, the company embraces a “Dock & Unlock” business development strategy – “docking” products into a specific brand lane and then “unlocking” their potential with aggressive new product development and expansion as lifestyle brands.

With an eye to expanding product sales internationally, AOB partnered with the Trulaske International Trade Center to proactively identify and analyze international market where sales opportunities exist. Projects completed included:

• Fall 2021 – 2 Projects
  • Fishing & Camping industry analysis (support AOB’s Adventurer brand lane)
  • Hunting & Shooting industry analysis (targeting AOB’s Marksman, Defender & Harvester brand lanes)
• Spring 2022 – 1 Project
  • Hooyman (Harvester brand lane)

As shared by Andrew Fulmer, Chief Financial Officer - “American Outdoor Brands is proud to partner with the Trulaske College of Business, and specifically the ITC, as it gives us exposure to a talented group of faculty and students that are helping us explore the expansion of our international footprint.  We were very impressed with the work that the ITC and its students have performed, mapping out countries, industries, and potential new customers.  As a publicly traded company headquartered in Columbia, we look forward to continuing to work with MU to help further develop our business and to keep talented graduates in the area.  We value this new partnership and the relationships we are building with MU, and we look forward to what the future will bring.”

In noting key values generated from the global market research projects completed to date, Fulmer noted that that - “The ITC teams identified what countries to focus on with respect to our product categories, and then what specific customers to target in those countries. With targeted markets identified, our goal is to raise AOB’s international sales to $40m annually.  The ITC's work has helped us craft a specific plan to support the company in reaching that goal.”

Continuing to grow, AOB recently added Grilla Grills as a new brand to its brand portfolio. As another exciting development to share, the company will open a retail sales outline at their Route Z/ AOB headquarter location in Columbia, MO in February 2025.