Hot shot | Dick Dyke sets his sights on a new firearms company
Photo/Carol Coultas
Dick Dyke, who founded firearms company Bushmaster, starts fresh with high-end weaponry
A serial entrepreneur, Dick Dyke served during the Korean conflict as a U.S. Army counter-intelligence officer, then with the CIA under former director and eventual President George H.W. Bush. Later, he founded and eventually sold Bushmaster, a firearms company in Windham that made M16 and AR15-style rifles used worldwide by civilians, law enforcement officials and military operatives.
Yet despite all that testosterone-infused activity, Dyke admits he’s a bit of a softie. The evidence is tacked to a wall behind his desk at his newest venture, Windham Weaponry, the next-generation firearms company he and his son started after Bushmaster’s new owners moved the operation to New York and laid off more than 70 Maine workers.
“It’s a thank-you card,” says Dyke, gesturing to the hand-drawn card, decorated with a gun, a bull’s-eye target and grass. “It’s from a little girl who wanted to thank me for bringing her mom back to work. That’s pretty touching, don’t you think?”
When Dyke sold Bushmaster to Cerberus Capital Management in 2006, the company was making about $85 million in sales annually. He expected the new owners to continue operations since the New York-based private equity firm was acquiring other firearms manufacturers, including Remington and DPMS Panther Arms. As part of the deal, he signed a five-year non-compete clause.
But when Bushmaster closed its Maine plant and laid off people Dyke had worked with for 25 years, he felt compelled to get back in the gun-making saddle. He waited until his non-compete clause expired in early April, assembled $2 million in capital and sent an email to his former employees asking if they were willing to build a new firearms company. “I got a great response from my old staff,” he says. “It brought tears to my eyes.”
Since then, his team of 43 has been busy refurbishing the former 16,000-square-foot Bushmaster plant. The company received its federal firearms manufacturing license in early July and expects to begin assembly work on the guns by the end of the month. “The goal is to ship by the end of August,” says Dyke, who expects to make 1,500 rifles per month. “We’re fast-tracking, but everything is falling into place.”
Dyke says Windham Weaponry firearms are more upscale than other semi- and automatic rifles in similar classes, and marketed for high-end users. For instance, Windham Weaponry rifles will have chrome linings in their barrels, a modification that enhances the longevity of the barrel and the accuracy of the bullet once it leaves the barrel.
“I’ve noticed that a lot of my competitors are trying to get business by focusing on the price point of a gun,” says Dyke. “I’m not doing that. I’m building guns with the quality I want in them and I’ll explain why they should pay the price I’m asking.” For example, Dyke says one of his rifles is likely to retail for $1,100 while a competitor’s sells for $700. He already has orders from distributors, including a national sporting goods store.
He expects the company will make between $12 million and $20 million its first year by concentrating primarily on the domestic market before branching into global markets. Within three years, he expects sales to hit $25 million annually and employment to return to 70, its level when Cerberus closed the plant.
Not bad for a boy who grew up in Wilton without indoor plumbing (“I played sports in high school so I could take a hot shower,” he jokes.) In addition to the firearms company, he owns Windham Business Park, Naples Country Club and other businesses. “I’m 77 … I don’t need to be doing this,” he says with a chuckle. “But I’d die happy if it happened right here at this desk.”
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