Very interesting article. Glock is currently under investigation by the feds for tax evasion amongst other allegations. Their former senior US exec is being prosecuted for embezzlement from the company. Gaston's  former partner is in jail in Luxembourg for taking a hit contract out on Gaston. And, Glock estimated in a 1994 lawsuit against Smith & Wesson that their [Glock] pistols have a 68% profit margin.

too much on glock getting bashed in the head

There are about 7 pages to the article on-line  here http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_38/b4147036107809.htm

This is only page 1


Glock's Secret Path to Profits
It's the largest supplier of handguns to law enforcement in the U.S. But behind its success lies a troubling tale of business intrigue By Paul Barrett, Brian Grow and Jack Ewing

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September 21, 2009

Glock's Secret Path to Profits
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Gaston Glock, an Austrian manufacturer of shovels and knives, had an improbable dream: He would make a fortune selling handguns in America. In the early 1980s, Glock, a self-taught firearm designer, produced an innovative pistol for the Austrian military. He then devised a plan for promoting his invention in the U.S., the world's richest gun market. First, he'd persuade American police they needed a lightweight weapon with more ammunition than traditional revolvers. Then he'd use his law enforcement bona fides to win over private gun buyers.

The strategy succeeded spectacularly. By the late 1980s, major police departments across the U.S. wanted more firepower to combat crack-cocaine violence. Glock had the answer. No less impressed, street gangsters adopted the squared-off Austrian handgun as an emblem of thuggish prestige. Hip-hoppers rapped about Glocks; Hollywood put the pistol in the hands of action heroes.

Gaston Glock shouldered past the storied American brand Smith & Wesson (SWHC) to make his creation the best-known police handgun in the U.S., and probably the world. When American soldiers hauled Saddam Hussein from his underground hideout in 2003, the deposed Iraqi ruler surfaced with a Glock.

Today the company claims 65% of the American law-enforcement market, an amazing accomplishment for a privately held manufacturer based in tiny Ferlach in southern Austria. U.S. fans celebrate "Glockmas," the 80-year-old founder's July 19 birthday. U.S. sales soared 71% in the first quarter of its 2010 fiscal year, largely due to what gun executives call the "Obama stimulus": fear among gun owners that the liberal President plans to curb the marketing of handguns. Gaston Glock played on that anxiety in an open letter to customers in January. "As shooters and gun owners, we must band together with even greater zeal than in the past," he wrote. "We are not going to roll over and have our guns taken away because of some of our misguided neighbors, no matter who they are."

Behind the Glock phenomenon, however, is another story, one rife with intrigue and allegations of wrongdoing. The company's hidden history raises questions about its taxpayer-financed law-and-order franchise. Is this a company that deserves the patronage of America's police? Does Glock merit the lucrative loyalty of private American gun buyers? The Glock tale also underscores the difficulty U.S. regulators have overseeing complex international businesses.

CLAIMS OF SKIMMING
Allegations of corruption permeate Gaston Glock's empire. His former business associate, Charles Marie Joseph Ewert, now resides in a prison in Luxembourg, having been convicted in 2003 of contracting to have Glock killed. The murder plot—thwarted when the victim, then 70, fought off a hammer-wielding hit man—led to a trial that revealed a network of shell companies linked to Gaston Glock. That corporate web is now under scrutiny by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, according to lawyers familiar with the probe. Attorneys for Glock have acknowledged the misuse of company funds. But they blame most of the wrongdoing on Ewert, a money man known in the European press as "Panama Charly."

Among the Glock-related material the IRS allegedly is examining: boxes of invoices and memos provided by the company's former senior executive in the U.S., Paul F. Jannuzzo. Once one of the most prominent gun industry executives in America, Jannuzzo said in a federal complaint he filed last year that Gaston Glock used his companies' complicated structure to conceal profits from American tax authorities. "[Glock] has organized an elaborate scheme to both skim money from gross sales and to launder those funds through various foreign entities," Jannuzzo alleged in the sealed May 12, 2008, IRS filing, which BusinessWeek has reviewed. "The skim is approximately $20.00 per firearm sold," according to the complaint. Glock's U.S. unit, which generates the bulk of the company's sales, has sold about 5 million pistols since the late 1980s, Jannuzzo estimates in an interview.

Yeah,  I read that last Saturday when I got my copy in the mail.



I had no idea there was so much unsavory, illegal shit going on around Glock's buisness.  And that article really made it sound as if Gaston Glock knew about - and approved - a great deal of it.

Is the 68% net or gross?  Its probably gross which isn't unreasonable in the manufacturing world.

Interesteing, as far as profit margin, he can make whatever the market will bear.

How original Now someone post how a glock works, I think the site may have some new members who have not seen it.

Don't know, the article didn't say. I'd like to read the court documents over but I haven't found them yet. Of course I wouldn't be surprised with them using gross or even inflated numbers given the circumstances. I just thought the figure was interesting.

Not your post, i meant the Pic of the New Glock Safety, I guess being a Noob I hit reply instead of quote.

http://www.sniperworld.com/glock/

Ah, ok. No harm done.

To me the article read like Newsweek was out to do a hit piece on Glock. It seems that generally most articles in the magazine have quite a liberal bias. I'll wait to reserve judgement until there are actually charges pressed against the company.

Well...I'm keeping my 19's anyway!



HH

Capitalism is EVIL!!!!!!!!!


The kenyan told me so!

I hope Glock is forced to sell glocks to us for $50 for reparations, cause I already have 5 glocks, and I want more... That's my "Hope & Change"

IDK, to me it seemed like to be a bit more balanced. More of a "here's what's going on with the rumors surrounding a market leader" piece.

Go sit in the corner Randians, no one is saying they can't make whatever profit the market can bear. It was just interesting to see the figure.

Fail.  



It was BusinessWeek, not Newsweek.  Two entirely different magazines.



And if you just read the snipet above, you didn't read the entire article, and thus shouldn't comment on it's fairness.



As for charges, in fact some already HAVE been filed against company executives.  (That was in the part of the article you didn't read.)



Why are people are Arfcom so quick to form opinions without having all the information in their hands?  You didn't even get the magazine name correct, and asserted that the article was bias because it came from a magazine that it didn't even come from.  

The Washington compost, who owns Newsweek, who is very left leaning, who also endorsed Maobama for president?

I'll second your reservation on judgement.

oldie but goody

http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

This is the main piece of exercise equipment many people own.

The first sentence was complete BS:





Gaston Glock, an Austrian manufacturer of shovels and knives, had an
improbable dream: He would make a fortune selling handguns in America.





Will continue reading to see if it gets any better, but doubtful.



ETA:



Nope it is getting worse - 4th sentence:



First, he'd persuade American police they needed a lightweight weapon
with more ammunition than traditional revolvers. Then he'd use his law
enforcement bona fides to win over private gun buyers.

Really? I might have to go pick one up. What was the article on? Just glock?

Fail #2.



It was BusinessWeek, NOT Newsweek.  Two very different publications.

Yes. The title is "Glock's Profit Machine" tagline = "Popular with U.S. police, the Austrian handgun has a history steeped in intrigue".

You disagree with that how?

Pretty much every sentence is factually incorrect. For example, there is no evidence that when GG was a Shovel & Knife MFG, he ever had a dream to "make a fortune selling handguns in America". In fact, it is just the opposite. In every interview I have ever read, he never states "making a fortune" was a motive or that he had any expectation of the guns being so successful. He did not even expect to win the Austrian Army Contract.