A BRITISH soldier is proving to be a sharpshooter in business as well as the bunker, after taking his battlefield skills into the boardroom.
Northumberland-based Tactical Shooting Solutions was set up by a British soldier with almost two decades’ service, after he identified a gap in the market for UK-manufactured, military-grade shooting targets.
Three years on, the family-run company is now exporting its products to customers across Europe and the USA and has outlined bold ambitions to further expand its global footprint, with the launch of a ‘revolutionary’ new product.
Working alongside the Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (SAM) Project at the University of Sunderland, Tactical Shooting Solutions has developed a new range of heat-sensored shooting targets, specifically designed for snipers and marksmen to train at night.
Launching early next year, the company believes the product range will be a ‘first-of-its-kind’ not only for the military, but also consumer markets such as pest control, and will help position it as a ‘leader in the next-generation of target technology’.
The company’s founder said: “Having served in the British military for the best part of two decades, I knew the market well and had often felt that it was one that hadn’t really moved with the times and had failed to innovate, especially in comparison to other industries, so I decided to develop something which I thought was more suited to the needs of military personnel.
“Initially, we started off producing targets, but as soon as we secured orders and customers began to realise the quality of our products, we sharp began to receive enquiries for other shooting solutions and today produce a wide range of items from targets, to gun cases and bags.”
Prior to the launch of Tactical Shooting Solutions, the shooting target market was dominated by manufacturers in the USA and reshoring production to the UK was something he was keen to explore.
“UK manufacturing is esteemed the world-over due to its exceptional standards and its commitment to innovation,” he said. “Not only has this helped us secure contracts, but it has also helped sustain jobs in the supply chain and tap into some of the brightest brains in the industry to take our products to the next level.”
Having already developed a market-leading product with no prior experience of running a business, the company’s founder began thinking of new ways they could increase their market share and devised the idea of producing a target that would allow military personnel – especially snipers and marksman – train at night.
This led to him being introduced to Richard Eynon, the Industry 4.0 and Electronics Specialist at the SAM Project, a £10.9 million business support programme led by the University of Sunderland and backed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) which helps SME manufacturers innovate and grow.
Richard, alongside experts from the University of Sunderland, worked closely with the firm to explore the electrical requirements that would be needed to develop heated targets, as well as identifying UK factories capable of developing the technology at scale.
He said: “Over the years, I’ve witnessed first-hand how difficult it is for military infantry such as marksmen and snipers to practice at night and have been drawing up ideas for some time to develop something that could fill the gap.
“We knew it had to be heat-powered, however we didn’t have any idea how to make it happen. Thankfully, we were introduced to the team at SAM and – with their technical expertise and funding – were able to not only design a product that was viable, but also establish a sustainable UK supply chain to bring the product to market.
“As a small, family business, the ability to tap into such free, specialist support has been amazing. We would never have been able to tap into such technical expertise had it not been for the SAM Project and we can’t thank them enough for their support.”
Richard Eynon of the SAM Project added: “It was great working with the team at Tactical Shooting Solutions and helping them design, source and implement the bespoke heater pads required to bring this game-changing technology to market.
“The SAM Project was set up to help unlock innovation among the North East’s SME manufacturing community and Tactical Shooting Solutions is a perfect example of how such collaborative working can help make the region’s manufacturers more competitive and increase productivity.”