EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1015383
Filing Year: 2023
Filename: 1015383_10-K_2023_0001493152-23-021280.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
Introduction
Ammo Inc. is a conglomerate of two premium positions in the shooting sports industry. Ammo Inc. started in ammunition manufacturing and in 2021 broadened its portfolio with the acquisition of Gunbroker.com. Gunbroker.com is an ecommerce marketplace that connects buyers and sellers with new/used firearms and ancillary gear and componentry for the firearm community. Gunbroker.com helps facilitate this community with a state and federal compliant solution that connects buyers with sellers across the US with their local federally licensed firearm dealers. This allows our base of approximately 7.8 million users to follow ownership policies and regulations through our network of over 35,000 federally licensed firearms dealers as transfer agents. The nature and operation of the Marketplace as an online auction and sales platform also affords our Company a unique view into the total domestic market for the purpose of understanding sales trends at a granular level across all elements of the outdoor and sports shooting space.
Reportable Segments
We operate our business within two operating segments. Our Chief Executive Officer reviews financial performance based on two operating segments as described below.
● Ammunition - which consists of our manufacturing business. The Ammunition segment engages in the design, production and marketing of ammunition, ammunition component and related products.
● Marketplace - which consists of the GunBroker.com Ecommerce marketplace. In its role as an auction site, GunBroker.com supports the lawful sale of firearms, ammunition and hunting/shooting accessories.
See Note 19 of our consolidated financial statements for more information regarding our reportable segments.
Marketplace Segment - GunBroker.com
On April 30, 2021 (the “Effective Date”), we entered into an agreement and plan of merger (the “Merger Agreement”), by and among us, SpeedLight Group I, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (“Sub”), Gemini Direct Investments, LLC, a Nevada limited liability company (“Gemini”), and Steven F. Urvan, an individual (the “Seller”), whereby Sub merged with and into Gemini, with Sub surviving the merger as our wholly owned subsidiary (the “Merger”). At the time of the Merger, Gemini had nine subsidiaries, all of which are related to Gemini’s ownership of the GunBroker.com business. The Merger was completed on the Effective Date.
GunBroker.com is a large online marketplace dedicated to firearms, hunting, shooting and related products. Aside from merchandise bearing its logo, GunBroker.com does not hold any inventory and serves to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers. Third-party sellers list items on the site and federal and state laws govern the sale of firearms and other restricted items. Ownership policies and regulations are followed using licensed firearms dealers as transfer agents offering a compliant solution to transact online. GunBroker.com has approximately 7.8 million registered users and averages over 1.8 million items listed for sale on its site on a daily basis.
Our vision is to expand the services on GunBroker.com and to become a partner to those in our industry. In the short term, we will be implementing the following services;
● Payment Processing - facilitating payment between parties allowing sellers of all sizes to offer fast and secure electronic payments and allowing buyers to experience the ease of instant checkout using a single platform for payment of all items purchased.
● Carting Ability - enables our buyers to checkout multiple items from multiple sellers in a single transaction. Our buyers will be able finalize transactions including both regulated and nonregulated items, allowing one payment, while also affording them the ability to ship their purchases to more than one location. By way of example, a buyer will be able to complete a transaction with a single payment, ship regulated items to a registered federal firearms license dealer, and also ship nonregulated items directly to their address.
● GunBroker.com Analytics - launched in January 2023 through the compilation and refinement of vast Marketplace data, we offer ecommerce market analytics to our industry peers allowing them to better manage business strategy and planning.
● GunBroker.com Advertising - effective as of January 2023 we offer additional resources to our seller community to promote their seller stores within GunBroker.com as well as the products they supply. Content creation for manufactures, email campaigns and banner ads are all part of our advertising offerings that are ever evolving resources to the outdoor industry.
Enhance Market Share, Brand Recognition, and Customer Loyalty
Our work to enhance and simplify the user experience on the GunBroker.com marketplace platform, while adding to its merchandise and related offerings, is designed to enhance the GunBroker.com brand by ensuring customer (both buyers and sellers) adhesion is amplified as they access one of the largest single on-line destinations for outdoor and shooting sports enthusiasts within the US market.
Ammunition Segment - Manufacturing
Our manufacturing operations are currently based out of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. We manufacture small arms ammunition and their components for the commercial, military, and law enforcement community. Our core competency lies in our ability to deep draw rifle brass casings with a high degree of precision up to 50 caliber. Our capacities are dependent upon mix, labor and the number of shifts we are running but our case capacity resides in excess of 750 million to 1.0 billion pieces based on full utilization of the factory. We emphasize an American heritage by using predominantly American-made components and raw materials in our products that are produced, inspected, and packaged at our facilities in Manitowoc.
We are focused on manufacturing premium pistol and rifle ammunition and supporting industry partners for manufactured components. We will continue to leverage our proprietary brands like Streak Visual AmmunitionTM and Stelth subsonic ammunition and extend our product offering with premium rifle lines and brands. We also support the US military with our cutting-edge developmental ammunition programs as we seek out and effectively execute upon new governmental-based opportunities. Our production processes focus on safety, consistency, precision, and cleanliness. Each round is developed for consistency, velocity, accuracy, and repeatability. Each round is chamber gauged and inspected with redundant seven-step quality control processes and meet and exceed SAAMI and CIP standards.
Our Growth Strategy
Our goal is to enhance our position as a designer, producer, and marketer of ammunition products via our manufacturing and related sales operations, while simultaneously enhancing and embracing the data we have in Gunbroker.com to allow us to see growing trends and demands form the US customer base.
Design, Produce, and Market Innovative, Distinctive, Performance-Driven, High-Quality Ammunition and Ammunition Components
We are focused on designing, producing, and marketing innovative, distinctive, performance-driven, high-quality products that appeal to retailers, manufacturers, and consumers that will enhance our users’ shooting experiences. Our research and development activities continue to drive opportunity and market attractiveness for our brands. We balance our R&D prowess with best-in-class operational efficiencies and continue to drive our cost down through rigorous continuous improvement initiatives.
Continue to Strengthen Relationships with Channel Partners and Retailers.
We continue to strive to strengthen our relationships with our current distributors, specialty retailers, dealers, and OEM manufacturers. The success of our efforts depends on new caliber introduction, innovation in our operations, quality, performance of our products, attractiveness of our retail packaging, and the guarantees we bring to our user community through our customer support efforts.
Emphasis on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
We plan to continue to emphasize customer satisfaction and loyalty by offering innovative, distinctive, high-quality products on a timely basis and by offering effective customer service, training, and support for the user community. We regard the features, quality, and performance of our products as the most important components of our customer satisfaction and loyalty efforts.
Continuously Improving Operations
We continue our efforts to enhance our production and lean out our operations by increasing daily production quantities through equipment acquisition, shift expansion, process improvements, increased operational availability of our equipment, and increased overall efficiency. Further, the Company opened its new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Manitowoc, WI. The opening and full operation of this new plant has positioned Ammo Inc. to be the leader in brass case supply to the OEM market and under the many brands we go to market under. The plant will allow us to exponentially increase capacity through the end of calendar 2023 and into 2024.
Products
We design, produce, and sell ammunition and ammunition components in a variety of types, sizes, and calibers for use in handguns and long guns. We ship our ammunition in the form of cartridges (or rounds), and also ammunition casings. A cartridge consists of four components: a case made of brass, steel, or polymer that holds together all the other components of the cartridge; the primer, which is an explosive chemical compound that ignites the gunpowder when struck by the firing pin; the gun powder, which is a chemical mixture that burns rapidly and creates an expanding gas when ignited and pushes the bullet out the barrel; and the bullet, or projectile, usually containing lead that is fired through the barrel to strike the target. We also offer ammunition casings for pistol ammunition through large rifle ammunition.
STREAK Visual Ammunition
STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ enables shooters to see the path of the bullets. STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ rounds utilize non-flammable phosphor material that produces a glow by the utilization of the light emitted during the round discharge to make STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ glow. The luminescent material is applied only to the base of the projectile, making it visible only to the shooter and those within a 30-degree viewing window. As a result, the glow of STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ is not visible to the target unlike conventional tracers, which we believe is important to the military and law enforcement. We refer to the technology used by our STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ as one-way luminescent or O.W.L. Technology™. Unlike conventional tracer ammunition, STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ rounds are not incendiary and do not utilize burning metals to generate light, thereby eliminating heat generation and making them safer for use in various environments and avoiding serious fire hazards. STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ comes in 380 auto, 9 mm, 40 S&W, 44 magnum, 45 long colt, and 38 special among other calibers.
We hold the exclusive worldwide sales and distribution rights for the patented O.W.L. Technology™ used by our STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ and pay a royalty based on our product sales incorporating this technology. On October 13, 2020, the Company further expanded its patent portfolio as a result of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)’s issuance of Patent No. 10,801,821 recognizing the Company’s development of both a protectable and cutting-edge process to mass-produce luminescent projectiles, as well as the luminescent projectiles manufactured as a result of the protected process.
Stelth Subsonic Ammunition
Stelth Subsonic ammunition is designed specifically for superior performance in suppressed firearms. Stelth ammunition finds applications in which silence is paramount, such as in tactical training, predator night hunts, and clandestine operations. The Stelth ammunition is produced to be a clean burning total metal jacket round to slow baffle corrosion and reduce lead emissions that collect in the suppressor body. Stelth ammunition comes in 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP, 223, and 300BLK.
JMC
Through Jagemann Munitions Components (“JMC”), we offer ammunition casings for pistol and rifle ammunition. Jagemann Munitions Components is backed by decades of manufacturing experience that allows the production of high-quality pistol brass and rifle brass components. Borne from the automotive industry and refined over time to deliver durable and consistent sporting components, Jagemann Munitions Components has become one of the largest brass manufacturers in the country, with the capacity to produce more than 750 million pieces of brass each year with the ability to scale to over 1 billion pieces of brass each year. Proud of its American-made components and capabilities, the Company now has complete control over the manufacturing process.
Marketing
We market our products and services to consumers through distributors, dealers, mass market, and specialty retailers. We maintain consumer-focused product marketing and promotional campaigns, which include print and digital advertising campaigns; social and electronic media; product demonstrations; point-of-sales materials; in-store training, and in-store retail merchandising. Our use of social media includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube. We also utilize third-party endorsements, social influencers, and brand ambassadors.
Product Innovation and Development
The Company was founded on delivering new and innovative products such as Streak to the industry. Since initiating operations in 2017 and has developed proprietary products for the commercial and military sectors. We continue this passion with developing new calibers and products to meet and create market demand. The core competency of our manufacturing facility lies in its ability to deep draw rifle cases. Our goal is to fill the capacity of our new facility with innovative products around this core competency. In our 2024 fiscal year, we will be delivering on calibers with high demand in premium segments of the market such as 7mm PRC, 35 Whelan, 350 Legend, and 45-70 both in our AMMO, Inc. Signature lines as well as brass for OEM manufacturers. We will provide our ammunition customers with a stronger line up of high precision hunting cartridges and continue to deliver to the OEM market with an offering that provides our customers the ability to reach their fullest potential. The competition will continue to fight for shelf space at retail and our market continues to normalize so we must default to new caliber design and introduction to create brand strength, market positioning, and loyalty. We will continue to push into niche markets to find margins and create opportunities for our newfound capacity at the new 185,000 sq ft facility in Manitowoc. We do all this while following strict industry standards to ensure we deliver safe and effective products to our customers. We will continue to add talent and engage best in class resources to enable AMMO, Inc. to continue down this path.
Since the acquisition, we have evolved the GunBroker.com marketplace to push best in class ecommerce standards. By streamlining customer service, we push proactive customer engagement based around outreach to the seller and buyer community. We are in the final testing stages of a centralized payment system that will allow all, including smaller sellers, merchant processing and carting ability for the entire platform. Centralized payment processing will allow for advanced fraud prevention, reduce manual reviews & reductions in chargebacks for the seller community. There is continued development around listing processes and communication flow between buyers and sellers, as well as optimization of the immense amount of self-data. We currently use our platform data to present personalized marketing campaigns to the user base and will continue to evolve how we engage with our customer base. Marketing, Analytics, and Advertising programs have been instrumental in the success of the prior year, we are continuing to build out teams and structure for our aggressive go to market campaigns for this fiscal year.
Research and Development
We conduct research and development activities to enhance existing products and develop new products at our facilities in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, utilizing our personnel and strategic relationships. We expense all costs associated with our research and development efforts through either our cost of goods sold, as they are performed by the same employees who produce our finished product, or through or general and administrative expenses if the product has not been brought to market.
Suppliers
We purchase certain raw materials and components for our ammunition products, including brass, steel, or copper casings; ammunition primers to ignite gun powder; gun powder; and projectiles. We believe we have reliable sources of supply for all our raw material and component needs, but from time to time raw materials and components are subject to shortages and price increases. Most of our suppliers are U.S.-based and provide us the materials and components at competitive rates. Our ownership of JMC supplies our ammunition casings. We plan to continue to broaden our supplier base and secure multiple sources for all the raw materials and components we require.
Customers
We sell our products through distribution, “Big Box” retailers, manufacturers, specialty retailers, local ammunition stores, and shooting range operators. Our consumers include sport and recreational shooters, hunters, competitive shooters, individuals desiring home and personal protection, manufacturers, and law enforcement and military agencies, and selected international markets. We distribute our products under four primary product lines: AMMO Inc. Signature, STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™, Stelth, and JMC.
Competition
The ammunition and ammunition casing industry is dominated by a small number of companies, a number of which are divisions of large public companies. We compete primarily on the quality, reliability, features, performance, brand awareness, and price of our products. Our primary competitors include Federal Premium Ammunition, Remington Arms, the Winchester Ammunition division of Olin Corporation, and various smaller manufacturers and suppliers, including Black-Hills Ammunition, CBC Group, Fiocchi Ammunition, Hornady Manufacturing Company, PMC, Rio Ammunition, and Wolf.
Human Capital
As of June 9, 2023, we had a total of 342 employees. Of these employees, 236 were engaged in manufacturing, 31 in sales, marketing and customer service, 34 in research and development, manufacturing engineering, and software engineering, and 41 in various corporate and administrative functions (information technology, accounting, executives, etc.). None of our employees are represented by a union in collective bargaining with us. We believe that our employee relations are good.
Our human capital proposition is centered around a team-oriented work environment that promotes a culture that fosters engagement, hard work, a desire to win, and accountability. At our core, we strive to attract, develop, and retain employees that want to be a part of a dynamic workforce centered around delivering new products and services to our passionate userbase. We value diversity, engagement, and unique viewpoints that enable us to excel in the marketplace.
Seasonality
Our business has not exhibited a material degree of seasonality to date but as we move into more rifle production and strive to meet our customers projections and needs, seasonality will have a larger effect on our sales pipeline. Our net sales could be moderately higher in our second and third fiscal quarters because of the fall hunting and holiday seasons.
Intellectual Property
We believe our tradenames, trademarks, and service markets are important factors in distinguishing our products. In addition, we regard our trade secrets, technological resources, knowhow, licensing arrangements, and endorsements as important competitive factors.
Under the terms of the 2017 merger between our wholly-owned subsidiary, AMMO Technologies Inc., an Arizona corporation (“ATI”) and Hallam, Inc. (“Hallam”), ATI succeeded to all of the assets of Hallam and assumed the liabilities of Hallam, which were none. The primary asset of Hallam was an exclusive license to produce projectiles and ammunition using the Hybrid Luminescence Ammunition Technology under patent U.S. 8,402,896 B1 with a publication date of March 26, 2013 owned by University of Louisiana at Lafayette (“ULL”). The license was formally amended and assigned to ATI pursuant to an Assignment and First Amendment to Exclusive License Agreement Assumption Agreement. Under the terms of the merger with Hallam, we, the sole shareholder of ATI, issued to Hallam’s two shareholders, 600,000 shares of our Common Stock, subject to restrictions, and payment of $200,000. The first payment of $100,000 to Hallam’s shareholders was paid on September 13, 2017, and the second payment of $100,000 was paid on February 6, 2018.
We hold the exclusive worldwide sales and distribution rights for the patented O.W.L. Technology™ used by our STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ via our license agreement with ULL. We pay ULL a royalty based on our product sales incorporating this patented technology. We have been using our O.W.L. Technology™ to compete for military contracts in part because we believe the glow of STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ not being visible to the target (which is unlike conventional tracers) is important to the military and law enforcement.
Such military use is allowed pursuant to that certain Amended and Restated Exclusive License Agreement between ATI and ULL which was dated as of November 16, 2017 and effective as of January 1, 2018 (the “A&R License Agreement”). The A&R License Agreement expires on January 1, 2022 and is renewable in the Company’s sole discretion for successive four (4) year periods provided the Company is not in breach of the A&R License Agreement. While the parties have agreed that, effective January 1, 2022, the A&R License Agreement was extended to January 1, 2026, the parties are still finalizing the documentation of this extension via the signing of an amendment. On July 7, 2022, the Company and the Licensor entered into a Second Amendment to Amended and Restated Exclusive License Agreement, effective as of January 1, 2022 (the “Second Amendment”). Pursuant to the Second Amendment, the term of the Original License Agreement is extended for a period of four (4) years from the date of the start of the current term, such that the term will expire on January 1, 2026.
We are a party to a license agreement with Jesse James, a well-known motorcycle designer, and Jesse James Firearms, LLC, a Texas limited liability company. The licensing agreement grants us the exclusive worldwide rights through April 12, 2027 to Mr. James’ image rights and all trademarks associated with him in connection with the marketing, promotion, advertising, sale, and commercial exploitation of Jesse James Branded Products. In addition, Mr. James agreed to make himself available for certain promotional activities and to promote Jesse James Branded Products through his own social media outlets. We agreed to pay Mr. James royalty fees on the sale of ammunition and non-ammunition Branded Products and to reimburse him for any out-of-pocket expenses and reasonable travel expenses.
Through our acquisition of SW Kenetics, Inc. (“SWK”), we acquired the rights to a patent for modular projectiles. This technology is used in connection with our AP and HAPI lines of ammunition. The Company acquired SWK for a total of up to $1,500,000 in cash and issued 1,700,002 restricted shares of the Common Stock. The agreement specifies that $1,250,000 of the cash is deferred pending completion of specific milestones and the 1,700,002 shares of Common Stock are subject to claw back provisions to ensure agreed upon objective are met. As of March 31, 2023, the Company has made $350,000 in payments. As of March 31, 2023, 1,550,134 shares remain subject to clawback provisions. The patent will be amortized over 15 years.
Included in the acquisition of JMC for $7,000,000 in cash, $10,400,000 delivered in the form of a Promissory Note, and 4,750,000 shares of Common Stock, we acquired customer relationships, intellectual property, and the use of a tradename, which will be amortized over 3 years, 3 years and 5 years, respectively. These intangible assets are used in the operation and production of our ammunition casing business through our wholly owned subsidiary, Jagemann Munition Components.
Environmental Matters
Our operations are subject to a variety of federal, state, and local laws and regulations relating to environmental protection, including those governing the discharge, treatment, storage, transportation, remediation, and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes; the restoration of damages to the environment; and health and safety matters. We believe that our operations are in material compliance with these laws and regulations. We incur expenses in complying with environmental requirements and could incur higher costs in the future as a result of more stringent requirements that may be enacted in the future.
Some environmental laws, such as the U.S. federal Superfund law and similar state laws, can impose liability, without regard to fault, for the entire cost of the cleanup of contaminated sites on current or former site owners and operators or parties who sent wastes to such sites. Based on currently available information, we do not believe that environmental matters will have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, or financial condition.
Regulatory Matters
The manufacture, sale, and purchase of ammunition are subject to extensive federal, state, local, and foreign governmental laws. We are also subject to the rules and regulations of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) and various state and international agencies that control the manufacture, export, import, distribution and sale of firearms, explosives, and ammunition. Such regulations may adversely affect demand for our products by imposing limitations that increase the costs or limit the availability of our products.
Our failure to comply with applicable rules and regulations may result in the limitation of our growth or business activities and could result in the revocation of licenses necessary for our business. Applicable laws and regulations provide for the following:
● require the licensing of all persons manufacturing, exporting, importing, or selling ammunition as a business;
● require serialization, labeling, and tracking of the acquisition and disposition of certain types of ammunition;
● regulate the interstate sale of certain ammunition;
● restrict or prohibit the ownership, use, or sale of specified categories of ammunition;
● require registries of so-called “ballistic images” of ammunition fired from new guns;
● govern the sale, export, and distribution of ammunition;
● regulate the use and storage of gun powder or other energetic materials;
● regulate the employment of personnel with certain criminal convictions;
● restrict access to ammunition manufacturing facilities for certain individuals from other countries or with criminal convictions; and
● require compliance with International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
The handling of our technical data and the international sale of our products may also be regulated by the U.S. Department of State and Department of Commerce. These agencies can impose civil and criminal penalties, including denying us from exporting our products, for failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations.
In addition, bills have been introduced in Congress to establish, and to consider the feasibility of establishing a nationwide database recording so-called “ballistic images” of ammunition fired from new guns. Should such a mandatory database be established, the cost to us, our distributors, and our customers could be significant, depending on the type of firearms and ballistic information included in the database. Bills have been introduced in Congress in the past several years that would affect the manufacture and sale of ammunition, including bills to regulate the manufacture, importation, and sale.
We believe that existing federal, state, and local legislation relating to the regulation of firearms and ammunition have not had a material adverse effect on our sales of these products. However, the regulation of firearms and ammunition may become more restrictive in the future, and any such developments might have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition, and cash flows. In addition, regulatory proposals, even if never enacted, may affect firearms or ammunition sales as a result of consumer perceptions.
Transactions taking place on the GunBroker.com site involving the lawful sale of firearms are facilitated from a listing and documentation standpoint by GunBroker.com. The transaction is consummated between a third-party buyer and seller and requires the direct involvement of an ATF Federal Firearms License (“FFL”) holder such as a gun shop or range that accepts receipt of the firearms and completes the transaction and delivery subject to confirmation of compliance with applicable federal and/or state laws.
Available Information
You can find reports on our company including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports on our website www.ammoinc.com under the “Investor Relations” heading. These reports are free of charge and are available as soon as reasonably practicable after they have been filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We are providing the address to our website solely for the information of investors and the information on our website is not a part of this or any report that we file with the SEC.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Purchasing our Common Stock or Series A Preferred Stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with all of the information included in this Form 10-K Report, before you decide to purchase shares of our Common Stock or Series A Preferred Stock. We believe the risks and uncertainties described below are the most significant we face. Additional risks and uncertainties of which we are unaware, or that we currently deem immaterial, also may become important factors that affect us. If any of the following risks occur, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. In that case, the trading price of our Common Stock or Series A Preferred Stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have a limited operating history on which you can evaluate our company.
With the exception of GunBroker.com’s approximate 20 year history operating as a private company preceding the merger, we have a limited operating history on which you can evaluate our company. Although the corporate entity has existed since 1990, we have only operated as an ammunition manufacturer since March 2017. As a result, our business will be subject to many of the problems, expenses, delays, and risks inherent in the establishment of a new business enterprise.
Our performance is influenced by a variety of economic, social, and political factors.
Our performance is influenced by a variety of economic, social, and political factors. In the year ended March 31, 2023, we believe that general economic conditions and consumer spending patterns negatively impacted our operating results because consumers bought fewer discretionary items such as our products. These economic conditions included, but were not limited to, declines in consumer confidence and increases in consumer debt levels. In times of economic uncertainty, consumers tend to defer expenditures for discretionary items, which affects demand for our products. Economic conditions also affect governmental political and budgetary policies. As a result, economic conditions also can have an adverse effect on the sale of our products to law enforcement, government, and military customers.
Political and other factors also can adversely affect our performance. Concerns about presidential, congressional, and state elections and legislature and policy shifts resulting from those elections can adversely affect the demand for our products. In addition, uncertainty surrounding the control of firearms, firearm products, and ammunition at the federal, state, and local level and heightened fears of terrorism and crime can adversely affect consumer demand for our products. Often, such concerns result in an increase in near-term consumer demand and subsequent softening of demand when such concerns subside. We believe that one of the reasons our sales went down in the year ended March 31, 2023 as compared to the year ended March 31, 2022 was due to decreased demand. We believe there was heightened demand for our products during the year ended March 31, 2022 due to the pandemic and the political environment. Inventory levels in excess of customer demand may negatively impact operating results and cash flow.
Federal and state legislatures frequently consider legislation relating to the regulation of firearms, including amendment or repeal of existing legislation. Existing laws may also be affected by future judicial rulings and interpretations. If restrictive changes to legislation develop, we could find it difficult, expensive, or even impossible to comply with them, impeding new product development and distribution of existing products.
War, terrorism, other acts of violence or natural or manmade disasters, such as a global pandemic, may affect the markets in which the Company operates, the Company’s customers, the Company’s delivery of products and customer service, and could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.
The Company’s business and supply chain has been adversely affected by instability, disruption or destruction in a geographic region in which it operates, regardless of cause, including war, terrorism, riot, civil insurrection or social unrest, and natural or manmade disasters, including famine, food, fire, earthquake, storm or pandemic events and spread of disease.
In building our main new manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, the delivery of some of the main components needed in the building process were delayed due to supply chain disruptions. These delays caused our manufacturing capacity to be lower than it otherwise would have been causing a drop in sales in the year ended March 31, 2023, but have since been corrected.
Such events may cause customers to suspend their decisions on using the Company’s products and services, make it impossible to access some of our inventory, and give rise to sudden significant changes in regional and global economic conditions and cycles that could interfere with purchases of goods or services and commitments to develop new products and services. These events also pose significant risks to the Company’s personnel and to physical facilities, transportation and operations, which could materially adversely affect the Company’s financial results.
Any significant disruption to communications and travel, including travel restrictions and other potential protective quarantine measures against a pandemic by governmental agencies, could make it difficult for the Company to deliver goods services to its customers. War, riots, or other disasters may increase the need for our products and demand by our government and military and may make it more difficult to provide our products to other customers.
Worldwide economic and social instability could adversely affect our revenue, financial condition, or results of operations.
The health of the global economy, and the credit markets and the financial services industry in particular, as well as the stability of the social fabric of our society, affects our business and operating results. For example, the credit and financial markets may be adversely affected by the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine and measures taken in response thereto. If the credit markets are not favorable, we may be unable to raise additional financing when needed or on favorable terms. Our customers may experience financial difficulties or be unable to borrow money to fund their operations, which may adversely impact their ability to purchase our products or to pay for our products on a timely basis, if at all.
We are engaged in legal proceedings that could cause us to incur unforeseen expenses and could occupy a significant amount of our management’s time and attention.
On September 24, 2019, the Company received notice that an individual who was former member of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) who had been removed as a director by majority vote of the stockholders and who had voluntarily resigned as an employee filed a complaint against the Company, and certain individuals (the “Complaint”), with the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”). The Complaint alleges that the individual reported potential violations of SEC rules and regulations by management and that as a result of such reports, the individual experienced a hostile work environment; that the Company lacks sufficient internal controls, and that the individual was the victim of retaliation and constructive discharge after being removed as a director by majority vote of the stockholders. The claims were investigated by a Special Committee of the Board made up of independent directors represented by independent legal counsel. The Special Investigative Committee and legal counsel found the material claims were unsubstantiated, including those concerning alleged SEC violations, and recommended enhancements to certain corporate governance charter documents and processes which the Company promptly implemented. The parties participated in a successful mediation at the end of June 2022 and all matters relating to this former employee/claimant were confidentially resolved with the lawsuit dismissed with prejudice. The settlement was covered by our Employment Practices Liability Policy and did not amount to a material amount.
On April 30, 2023, Director and shareholder Steve Urvan filed suit in the Delaware Chancery Court against the Company, certain Directors, former directors, employees, former employees and consultants, seeking rescission of the Company’s acquisition of GunBroker.com and certain affiliated companies. Plaintiff Urvan’s claims include rescission, misrepresentation and fraud. The Company is currently in communications with its insurance carriers as concerns coverage (defense and indemnification), has engaged counsel and formal/legal service of process is being coordinated at this time. The Company and named defendants are in alignment and reasonably believe at this date that the claims are without merit and the Company has engaged Delaware Chancery Court litigation specialists to defend its interests in all respects in this case.
The claims made by Mr. Urvan and such other litigation or claims that may be made against the Company or its officers or directors, from time to time, could negatively affect our business, operations or financial position. As we grow, we will likely see a rise in the number of litigation matters against us. These matters may include employment and labor claims, product liability, and other claims related to our products, as well as consumer and securities class actions, each of which are typically expensive to defend. Litigation disputes could cause us to incur unforeseen expenses and otherwise occupy a significant amount of our management’s time and attention, any of which could negatively affect our business operations and financial position.
An inability to expand our E-commerce business could reduce our future growth.
Consumers are increasingly purchasing products online. We operate direct-to-consumer e-commerce stores to maintain an online presence with our end users. The future success of our online operations depends on our ability to use our marketing resources to communicate with existing and potential customers. We face competitive pressure to offer promotional discounts, which could impact our gross margin and increase our marketing expenses. We are limited, however, in our ability to fully respond to competitor price discounting because we cannot market our products at prices that may produce adverse relationships with our customers that operate brick and mortar locations as they may perceive themselves to be at a disadvantage based on lower e-commerce pricing to end consumers. There is no assurance that we will be able to successfully expand our e-commerce business to respond to shifting consumer traffic patterns and direct-to-consumer buying trends.
In addition, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer operations are subject to numerous risks, including implementing and maintaining appropriate technology to support business strategies; reliance on third-party computer hardware/software and service providers; data breaches; violations of state, federal or international laws, including those relating to online privacy; credit card fraud; telecommunication failures; electronic break-ins and similar disruptions; and disruption of Internet service. Our inability to adequately respond to these risks and uncertainties or to successfully maintain and expand our direct-to-consumer business may have an adverse impact on our business and operating results.
The GunBroker.com auction website facilitates the lawful sale of firearms, ammunition and accessories between listing sellers and interested buyers and includes the direct transactional involvement of FFLs regulated by the ATF. A change in applicable federal or state law that prohibited GunBroker.com from providing its facilitative auction platform services would have a direct substantial financial impact on the operations and adverse effect on the continuity of operations.
If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may lose a competitive advantage or incur substantial litigation costs to protect our rights.
Our future success depends upon our proprietary technology. Our protective measures, including patent and trade secret protection, may prove inadequate to protect our proprietary rights. The right to stop others from misusing our trademarks, service marks, and patents in commerce depends to some extent on our ability to show evidence of enforcement of our rights against such misuse in commerce. Our efforts to stop improper use, if insufficient, may lead to loss of trademark and service mark rights, brand loyalty, and notoriety among our customers and prospective customers. The scope of any patent that we have or may obtain may not prevent others from developing and selling competing products. The validity and breadth of claims covered in technology patents involve complex legal and factual questions, and the resolution of such claims may be highly uncertain, and expensive. In addition, our patents may be held invalid upon challenge, or others may claim rights in or ownership of our patents.
We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims, which could cause us to incur litigation costs and divert management attention from our business.
Any intellectual property infringement claims against us, with or without merit, could be costly and time-consuming to defend and divert our management’s attention from our business. If our products were found to infringe a third party’s proprietary rights, we could be required to enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements to be able to sell our products. Royalty and licensing agreements, if required, may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Breaches of our information systems could adversely affect our reputation, disrupt our operations, and result in increased costs and loss sales.
There have been an increasing number of cyber security incidents affecting companies around the world, which have caused operational failures or compromised sensitive corporate data. Although we do not believe our systems are at a greater risk of cyber security incidents than other similar organizations, such cyber security incidents may result in the loss or compromise of customer, financial, or operational data; disruption of billing, collections, or normal operating activities; disruption of electronic monitoring and control of operational systems; and delays in financial reporting and other management functions. Possible impacts associated with a cyber security incident may include among others, remediation costs related to lost, stolen, or compromised data; repairs to data processing systems; increased cyber security protection costs; reputational damage; and adverse effects on our compliance with applicable privacy and other laws and regulations.
A failure of our information technology systems, or an interruption in their operation due to internal or external factors including cyber-attacks, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our operations depend on our ability to protect our information systems, computer equipment, and information databases from systems failures. We rely on our information technology systems generally to manage the day-to-day operations of our business, operate elements of our manufacturing facility, manage relationships with our customers, fulfill customer orders, and maintain our financial and accounting records. Failure of our information technology systems could be caused by internal or external events, such as incursions by intruders or hackers, computer viruses, cyber-attacks, failures in hardware or software, or power or telecommunication fluctuations or failures. The failure of our information technology systems to perform as anticipated for any reason or any significant breach of security could disrupt our business and result in numerous adverse consequences, including reduced effectiveness and efficiency of operations, increased costs, or loss of important information, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Any technology and information security processes and disaster recovery plans we use to mitigate our risk to these vulnerabilities may not be adequate to ensure that our operations will not be disrupted should such an event occur.
Risks Related to Our Products and Our Dependence on Third Parties
Our success depends upon our ability to introduce new products that match customer preferences.
Our success depends upon our ability to introduce new products that match consumer preferences. Our efforts to introduce new products into the market may not be successful, and any new products that we introduce may not result in customer or market acceptance. We develop new products that we believe will match consumer preferences. The development of a new product is a lengthy and costly process and may not result in a successful product. Failure to develop new products that are attractive to consumers could decrease our sales, operating margins, and market share and could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We depend on the sale of our ammunition products.
We manufacture ammunition and ammunition casings for sale to a wide variety of consumers, including gun enthusiasts, collectors, hunters, sportsmen, competitive shooters, individuals desiring home and personal protection, manufacturers, law enforcement and security agencies and officers in the United States and throughout the world. The sale of ammunition and ammunition components is influenced by the sale and usage of firearms. Sales of firearms are influenced by a variety of economic, social, and political factors, which may result in volatile sales. Ammunition sales represented a substantial amount of our net sales for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021. If ammunition sales decline, our financial results could be adversely impacted and the stock price of our Common Stock could decline.
Our manufacturing facilities are critical to our success.
Our manufacturing operations are currently based out of two facilities in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and are critical to our success, as we currently produce all of our products at these facilities. These facilities also house our principal research, development, engineering, and design functions.
Any event that causes a disruption to the operation of these facilities for even a relatively short period of time would adversely affect our ability to produce and ship our products and to provide service to our customers. We make certain changes in our manufacturing operations from time to time to enhance the facilities and associated equipment and systems and to introduce certain efficiencies in manufacturing and other processes to produce our products in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. We have incurred significant capital and other expenditures with respect to our $26 million manufacturing plant, but we may not be successful in continuing to improve efficiencies.
Shortages of components and materials may delay or reduce our sales and increase our costs, thereby harming our results of operations.
The inability to obtain sufficient quantities of raw materials and components, including casings, primers, gun powder, projectiles, and brass necessary for the production of our products could result in reduced or delayed sales or lost orders. Any delay in or loss of sales or orders could adversely impact our operating results. Many of the materials used in the production of our products are available only from a limited number of suppliers. We do not have long-term supply contracts with any suppliers. As a result, we could be subject to increased costs, supply interruptions, and difficulties in obtaining raw materials and components.
Our reliance on third-party suppliers for various raw materials and components for our products exposes us to volatility in the availability, quality, and price of these raw materials and components. Our orders with certain of our suppliers may represent a very small portion of their total orders. As a result, they may not give priority to our business, leading to potential delays in or cancellation of our orders. A disruption in deliveries from our third-party suppliers, capacity constraints, production disruptions, price increases, or decreased availability of raw materials or commodities could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet our commitments to customers or increase our operating costs. Quality issues experienced by third party suppliers can also adversely affect the quality and effectiveness of our products and result in liability and reputational harm.
We rely on third-party suppliers for most of our manufacturing equipment.
We also rely on third-party suppliers for most of the manufacturing equipment necessary to produce our products. The failure of suppliers to supply manufacturing equipment in a timely manner or on commercially reasonable terms could delay our plans to expand our business and otherwise disrupt our production schedules and increase our manufacturing costs. Our orders with certain of our suppliers may represent a very small portion of their total orders. As a result, they may not give priority to our business, leading to potential delays in or cancellation of our orders. If any single-source supplier were to fail to supply our needs on a timely basis or cease providing us with manufacturing equipment or components, we would be required to locate and contract with substitute suppliers. We may have difficulty identifying a substitute supplier in a timely manner and on commercially reasonable terms. If this were to occur, our business would be harmed. In addition, adverse economic conditions, such as recent supply chain disruptions and labor shortages and persistent inflation, have impacted, and may continue to adversely impact our suppliers’ ability to provide us with materials and components, which may negatively impact our business. These economic conditions make it more difficult for us to accurately forecast and plan our future business activities.
Our revenue depends primarily on sales by various retailers and distributors, some of which account for a significant portion of our sales.
Our loaded ammunition and munition components revenue depends on our sales through various leading national and regional retailers, local specialty firearms stores, and online merchants. The U.S. retail industry serving the outdoor recreation market has become relatively concentrated. Our sales could become increasingly dependent on purchases by several large retail customers. Consolidation in the retail industry could also adversely affect our business. If our sales were to become increasingly dependent on business with several large retailers, we could be adversely affected by the loss or a significant decline in sales to one or more of these customers. In addition, our dependence on a smaller group of retailers could result in their increased bargaining position and pressures on the prices we charge.
The loss of any one or more of our large or “Big Box” retail customers or significant or numerous cancellations, reductions, delays in purchases or changes in business practices by our large or “Big Box” retail customers could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
These sales channels involve a number of special risks, including the following:
● we may be unable to secure and maintain favorable relationships with retailers and distributors;
● we may be unable to control the timing of delivery of our products to end-user consumers;
● our retailers and distributors are not subject to minimum sales requirements or any obligation to market our products to their customers;
● our retailers and distributors may terminate their relationships with us at any time;
● our retailers and distributors market and distribute competing products; and
● our retailers may experience closure due to COVID-19 outbreaks or other natural or manmade disasters in a particular region.
We have one customer that accounted for approximately 12% of our revenues for the years ended March 31, 2023 in comparison to two customers that accounted for approximately 18% of our revenues for the year ended March 31, 2022 and one customer that accounted for approximately 17% of our revenues for the year ended March 31, 2021. Although we intend to expand our customer base, our revenue would likely decline if we lost any major customers or if one of these sizable customers were to significantly reduce its orders for any reason. Because our sales are made by means of standard purchase orders rather than long-term contracts, we cannot assure you that our customers will continue to purchase our products at current levels, or at all.
In addition, periods of sluggish economies and consumer uncertainty regarding future economic prospects in our key markets can have an adverse effect on the financial health of our customers, which may in turn have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
General inflation, including rising energy prices, and interest rates and wages could have negative impacts on our business by increasing our operating costs and our borrowing costs as well as decreasing the capital available for our customers to purchase our products. General inflation in the United States, Europe and other geographies has risen to levels not experienced in recent decades. Additionally, inflation and price volatility may cause our customers to reduce use of our products would harm our business operations and financial position.
We extend credit to our customers for periods of varying duration based on an assessment of the customer’s financial condition, generally without requiring collateral, which increases our exposure to the risk of uncollectable receivables. In addition, we face increased risk of order reduction or cancellation when dealing with financially ailing retailers or retailers struggling with economic uncertainty. We may reduce our level of business with customers and distributors experiencing financial difficulties and may not be able to replace that business with other customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our gross margins depend upon our sales mix.
Our gross margin is higher when our sales mix is skewed toward our higher-margin proprietary product lines versus a lower contribution from mid-market ammunition that we also manufacture. If our actual sales mix results in a lower overall percentage from our proprietary lines, our gross margins will be reduced, affecting our results of operations.
We face intense competition that could result in our losing or failing to gain market share and suffering reduced sales.
We operate in intensely competitive markets that are characterized by price erosion and competition from major domestic and international companies. Competition in the markets in which we operate is based on a number of factors, including price, quality, product innovation, performance, reliability, styling, product features, and warranties, and sales and marketing programs. This intense competition could result in pricing pressures, lower sales, reduced margins, and lower market share.
Our competitors include Federal Premium Ammunition, Remington Arms, the Winchester Ammunition Division of Olin Corporation, and various smaller manufacturers and importers, including Black Hills Ammunition, CBC Group, Fiocchi Ammunition, Hornady, PMC, Rio Ammunition, and Wolf. Most of our competitors have greater market recognition, larger customer bases, long-term government contracts, and substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution, and other resources than we possess and that afford them competitive advantages. As a result, they may be able to devote greater resources to the promotion and sale of products, to invest more funds in intellectual property and product development, to negotiate lower prices for raw materials and components, to deliver competitive products at lower prices, and to introduce new products and respond to consumer requirements more quickly than we can.
Our competitors could introduce products with superior features at lower prices than our products and could also bundle existing or new products with other more established products to compete with us. Certain of our competitors may be willing to reduce prices and accept lower profit margins to compete with us. Our competitors could also gain market share by acquiring or forming strategic alliances with other competitors.
Finally, we may face additional sources of competition in the future because new distribution methods offered by the Internet and electronic commerce have removed many of the barriers to entry historically faced by start-up companies. Retailers also demand that suppliers reduce their prices on products, which could lead to lower margins. Any of the foregoing effects could cause our sales to decline, which would harm our financial position and results of operations.
Our ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors, both within and outside our control. These factors include the following:
● our success in developing, producing, marketing, and successfully selling new products;
● our ability to address the needs of our consumer customers;
● the pricing, quality, performance, and reliability of our products;
● the quality of our customer service;
● the efficiency of our production; and
● product or technology introductions by our competitors.
Because we believe technological and functional distinctions among competing products in our markets are perceived by many end-user consumers to be relatively modest, effectiveness in marketing and manufacturing are particularly important competitive factors in our business.
Seasonality and weather conditions may cause our operating results to vary from quarter to quarter.
Because many of our products are used for seasonal outdoor sporting activities, our operating results may be significantly impacted by unseasonable weather conditions. Accordingly, our operating results could suffer when weather patterns do not conform to seasonal norms.
Shipments of ammunition for hunting are highest during the months of June through September to meet consumer demand for the fall hunting season and holidays. The seasonality of our sales may change in the future. Seasonal variations in our operating results may reduce our cash on hand, increase our inventory levels, and extend our accounts receivable collection periods. This in turn may cause us to increase our debt levels and interest expense to fund our working capital requirements.
We manufacture and sell products that create exposure to potential product liability, warranty liability, or personal injury claims and litigation.
Our products are used in activities and situations that involve risk of personal injury and death. Our products expose us to potential product liability, warranty liability, and personal injury claims and litigation relating to the use or misuse of our products, including allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product or activities associated with the product, negligence, and strict liability. If successful, any such claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Defects in our products may result in a loss of sales, recall expenses, delay in market acceptance, and damage to our reputation and increased warranty costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Although we maintain product liability insurance in amounts that we believe are reasonable, we may not be able to maintain such insurance on acceptable terms, if at all, in the future and product liability claims may exceed the amount of insurance coverage or may not be covered by our insurance policies. In addition, our reputation may be adversely affected by such claims, whether or not successful, including potential negative publicity about our products.
Our business is highly dependent upon our brand recognition and reputation, and the failure to maintain or enhance our brand recognition or reputation would likely have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our brand recognition and reputation are critical aspects of our business. We believe that maintaining and further enhancing our brands, particularly our STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ brands, and our reputation are critical to retaining existing customers and attracting new customers. We also believe that the importance of our brand recognition and reputation will continue to increase as competition in our markets continues to develop.
We anticipate that our advertising, marketing, and promotional efforts will increase in the foreseeable future as we continue to seek to enhance our brands and consumer demand for our products. Historically, we have relied on print and electronic media advertising to increase consumer awareness of our brands to increase purchasing intent and conversation. We anticipate that we will increasingly rely on other forms of media advertising, including social media and e-marketing. Our future growth and profitability will depend in large part upon the effectiveness and efficiency of our advertising, promotion, public relations, and marketing programs. These brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue and the efficacy of these activities will depend on a number of factors, including our ability to do the following:
● determine the appropriate creative message and media mix for advertising, marketing, and promotional expenditures;
● select the right markets, media, and specific media vehicles in which to advertise;
● identify the most effective and efficient level of spending in each market, media, and specific media vehicle; and
● effectively manage marketing costs, including creative and media expenses, to maintain acceptable customer acquisition costs.
In addition, certain of our current or future products may benefit from endorsements and support from particular sportsmen, athletes, or other celebrities, and those products and brands may become personally associated with those individuals. As a result, sales of the endorsed products could be materially and adversely affected if any of those individuals’ images, reputations, or popularity were to be negatively impacted.
Increases in the pricing of one or more of our marketing and advertising channels could increase our marketing and advertising expenses or cause us to choose less expensive but possibly less effective marketing and advertising channels. If we implement new marketing and advertising strategies, we may incur significantly higher costs than our current channels, which in turn could adversely affect our operating results. Implementing new marketing and advertising strategies also could increase the risk of devoting significant capital and other resources to endeavors that do not prove to be cost effective. We also may incur marketing and advertising expenses significantly in advance of the time we anticipate recognizing revenue associated with such expenses and our marketing and advertising expenditures may not generate sufficient levels of brand awareness and conversation or result in increased revenue. Even if our marketing and advertising expenses result in increased sales, the increase might not offset our related expenditures. If we are unable to maintain our marketing and advertising channels on cost-effective terms or replace or supplement existing marketing and advertising channels with similarly or more effective channels, our marketing and advertising expenses could increase substantially, our customer base could be adversely affected, and our business, operating results, financial condition, and reputation could suffer.
A portion of our revenue is contingent on an exclusive license agreement with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
A significant portion of our revenue is attributable to the sale of our STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™. The manufacturing of our STREAK product relies, in part, on a patent that is held by ULL. We have an exclusive license to use the licensed technology, derivative and related technology worldwide. We may renew this license agreement for successive four-year periods provided we are in compliance with the agreement. If we breach the license agreement, the licensor may terminate the agreement and if we fail to renew the license, we may be unable to use the technology, which, in either case, could significantly harm our results of operations.
Regulatory Risks
We are subject to extensive regulation and could incur fines, penalties and other costs and liabilities under such requirements.
Like many other manufacturers and distributors of consumer products, we are required to comply with a wide variety of laws, rules, and regulations, including those relating to labor, employment, the environment, the export and import of our products, and taxation. These laws, rules, and regulations currently impose significant compliance requirements on our business, and more restrictive laws, rules and regulations may be adopted in the future.
Our operations are subject to a variety of laws and regulations relating to environmental protection, including those governing the discharge, treatment, storage, transportation, remediation, and disposal of certain materials and wastes, and restoration of damages to the environment, and health and safety matters. We could incur substantial costs, including remediation costs, resource restoration costs, fines, penalties, and third-party property damage or personal injury claims as a result of liabilities under or violations of such laws and regulations or the permits required thereunder. While environmental laws and regulations have not had a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition, the ultimate cost of environmental liabilities is difficult to accurately predict and we could incur material additional costs as a result of requirements or obligations imposed or liabilities identified in the future.
As a manufacturer and distributor of consumer products, we are subject to the Consumer Products Safety Act, which empowers the Consumer Products Safety Commission to exclude from the market products that are found to be unsafe or hazardous. Under certain circumstances, the Consumer Products Safety Commission could require us to repurchase or recall one or more of our products. In addition, laws regulating certain consumer products exist in some cities and states, and in other countries in which we sell our products, and more restrictive laws and regulations may be adopted in the future. Any repurchase or recall of our products could be costly to us and could damage our reputation. If we were required to remove, or we voluntarily removed, our products from the market, our reputation could be tarnished, and we could have large quantities of finished products that we are unable to sell. We are also subject to the rules and regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the ATF. If we fail to comply with ATF rules and regulations, the ATF may limit our growth or business activities, levy fines against or revoke our license to do business. Our business, and the business of all producers and marketers of ammunition and firearms, is also subject to numerous federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations, and protocols. Applicable laws have the following effects:
● require the licensing of all persons manufacturing, exporting, importing, or selling firearms and ammunition as a business;
● require background checks for purchasers of firearms;
● impose waiting periods between the purchase of a firearm and the delivery of a firearm;
● prohibit the sale of firearms to certain persons, such as those below a certain age and persons with criminal records;
● regulate the use and storage of gun powder or other energetic materials;
● regulate our employment of personnel with criminal convictions; and
● restrict access to firearm manufacturing facilities for individuals from other countries or with criminal convictions.
Also, the export of our products is controlled by International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or “ITAR”, and Export Administration Regulations, or “EAR”. The ITAR implements the provisions of the Arms Export Control Act and is enforced by the U.S. Department of State. The EAR implements the provisions of the Export Administration Act and is enforced by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Among their many provisions, the ITAR and the EAR require a license application for the export of many of our products. In addition, the ITAR requires congressional approval for any firearms export application with a total value of $1 million or higher. Further, because our manufacturing process includes certain toxic, flammable and explosive chemicals, we are subject to the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, as administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which require that we take additional reporting and security measures related to our manufacturing process.
Several states currently have laws in effect that are similar to, and, in certain cases, more restrictive than, these federal laws. Compliance with all of these regulations is costly and time-consuming. Any violation of any of these regulations could cause us to incur fines and penalties, may also lead to restrictions on our ability to manufacture and sell our products and services and to import or export the products we sell and may cause our business to be harmed.
Changes in government policies and firearms legislation could adversely affect our financial results.
The sale, purchase, ownership, and use of firearms are subject to numerous and varied federal, state, and local governmental regulations. Federal laws governing firearms include the National Firearms Act, the Federal Firearms Act, the Arms Export Control Act, and the Gun Control Act of 1968. These laws generally govern the manufacture, import, export, sale, and possession of firearms and ammunition. We hold all necessary licenses to legally sell ammunition in the United States.
Currently, the federal legislature and several state legislatures are considering additional legislation relating to the regulation of firearms and ammunition. These proposed bills are extremely varied. If enacted, such legislation could effectively ban or severely limit the sale of affected firearms and ammunition. In addition, if such restrictions are enacted and are incongruent, we could find it difficult, expensive, or even practically impossible to comply with them, which could impede new product development and the distribution of existing products. We cannot assure you that the regulation of our business activities will not become more restrictive in the future and that any such restriction will not have a material adverse effect on our business.
Any adverse change to the interpretations of the Second Amendment (Right to Bear Arms) could impact our ability to conduct business by restricting the ownership and use of firearms in the United States.
Risks Related to our Common Stock
Our shares are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market; however, if we fail to comply with Nasdaq’s rules for continued listing or other requirements, our shares may be delisted.
Our Common Stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “POWW.” If we fail to comply with Nasdaq’s rules for continued listing, including, without limitation, minimum market capitalization and other requirements, Nasdaq may take steps to delist our shares. Failure to maintain our Nasdaq listing would make it more difficult for shareholders to sell our Common Stock and more difficult to obtain accurate price quotations on our Common Stock. The delisting of our shares could have an adverse effect on the price of our Common Stock. Our ability to issue additional securities for financing or other purposes, or otherwise to arrange for any financing we may need in the future, may also be materially and adversely affected if our Common Stock is not traded on a national securities exchange.
The exercise of warrants, and issuance of incentive stock grants may have a dilutive effect on our stock, and negatively impact the price of our Common Stock.
As of June 9, 2023, we had 2,460,946 warrants outstanding with a weighted average exercise price of $2.46. As of June 9, 2023, there were no options outstanding and 1,428,659 shares of Common Stock are reserved for future issuance under the 2017 Equity Incentive Plan. We plan to adopt a new Incentive Stock Plan designed to assist us in attracting, motivating, retaining, and rewarding high-quality executives, directors, officers, employees, and individual consultants by enabling such persons to acquire or increase a proprietary interest in our company to strengthen the mutuality of interests between such persons and our stockholders and providing such persons with performance incentives to expand their maximum efforts in the creation of stockholder value under the plan. We will be able to grant stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, stock appreciation rights, bonus stocks, and performance awards under the plan.
To the extent that any of the outstanding warrants and future options are exercised, dilution to the interests of our stockholders may occur. For the life of such warrants and options, the holders will have the opportunity to profit from a rise in the price of the Common Stock with a resulting dilution in the interest of the other holders of Common Stock. The existence of such warrants and options may adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock.
Our management has concluded that we have material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting and that our disclosure controls and procedures are not effective. If we fail to develop or maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent financial fraud. As a result, current and potential stockholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting.
As a public company, we are required to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Section 404”). Section 404 requires us to include management’s assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of the fiscal year in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. This report must also include disclosure of any material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting that we have identified.
During the audit of our financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2023, our management identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. The Company failed to maintain an effective control environment due to the following:
● the Company’s management and the governance did not maintain appropriately designed entity-level controls impacting the control environment to prevent or detect material misstatements to the consolidated financial statements. These deficiencies were attributed to limited personnel to assist with the accounting and financial reporting function and inadequate oversight and accountability over the performance of control activities, including establishment of a Whistleblower Hotline and lack of formalization of certain key governance elements: management delegation, annual board committee charter review, acknowledgement of code of conduct, and approval of the annual budget;
● the Company failed to maintain properly designed segregation of duties, both within manual processes and system access;
● the Company failed to maintain effectively designed controls over journal entries, both recurring and nonrecurring, account reconciliations, and periodic flux analysis. Journal entries were not always accompanied by sufficient supporting documentation and were not adequately reviewed and approved for validity, completeness, and accuracy. In most instances, persons responsible for reviewing journal entries and account reconciliations for validity, completeness, and accuracy were also responsible for preparation.
● the Company failed to maintain effectively designed controls over the period-end financial reporting process, including adequate tie-out and review of documentation that supports the financial statements; and
● the Company failed to maintain effectively designed controls over information technology general controls in the areas of user provisioning and de-provisioning, application change management, operating system and logical access controls, and segregation of duties for information technology (“IT”) systems that supports the Company’s financial reporting process.
These material weaknesses, if not remediated, create an increased risk of misstatement of the Company’s financial results, which, if material, may require future restatement thereof. A failure to implement improved internal controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation or execution, could cause future delays in our reporting obligations and could have a negative effect on us and the trading price of our Common Stock. If these weaknesses and inadequate disclosure controls and procedures continue, investors could lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and other disclosures.
Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, we could be subject to regulatory action or other litigation and our operating results could be harmed.
General Risk Factors
Our operating results may experience significant fluctuations.
Many factors can contribute to significant fluctuations in our results of operations. These factors include the following:
● the cyclicality of the markets we serve;
● the timing and size of new orders;
● the cancellation of existing orders;
● the volume of orders relative to our capacity;
● product introductions and market acceptance of new products or new generations of products;
● timing of expenses in anticipation of future orders;
● changes in product mix;
● availability of production capacity;
● changes in cost and availability of labor and raw materials;
● timely delivery of products to customers;
● pricing and availability of competitive products;
● new product introduction costs;
● changes in the amount or timing of operating expenses;
● introduction of new technologies into the markets we serve;
● pressures on reducing selling prices;
● our success in serving new markets;
● adverse publicity regarding the safety, performance, and use of our products;
● the institution and adverse outcome of any litigation;
● political, economic, or regulatory developments;
● changes in economic conditions; and
● natural and manmade disasters, including COVID-19.
As a result of these and other factors, we believe that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations may not be meaningful in the short term, and our performance in a particular period may not be indicative of our performance in any future period.
We may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs.
In the future, we may require additional capital to fund the planned expansion of our business and to respond to business opportunities, challenges, potential acquisitions, or unforeseen circumstances. We could encounter unforeseen difficulties that may deplete our capital resources rapidly, which could require us to seek additional financing in the near future. The timing and amount of any additional financing that is required to continue the expansion of our business and the marketing of our products will depend on our ability to improve our operating results and other factors. We may not be able to secure additional debt or equity financing on a timely basis or on favorable terms, or at all. Such financing could result in substantial dilution of the equity interests of existing stockholders. If we are unable to secure any necessary additional financing, we may need to delay expansion plans, conserve cash, and reduce operating expenses. There is no assurance that any additional financing will be sufficient, that the financing will be available on terms favorable to us or to existing stockholders and at such times as required, or that we will be able to obtain the additional financing required for the continued operation and growth of our business. Any debt financing obtained by us in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity, convertible debt securities, or other securities convertible into equity, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution in their percentage ownership of our company, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges senior to those of holders of our Common Stock. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.
Our charter documents and Delaware law could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us and discourage a takeover.
Our certificate of incorporation, bylaws, and Delaware law contain certain provisions that may have the effect of deterring or discouraging, among other things, a non-negotiated tender or exchange offer for shares of Common Stock, a proxy contest for control of our company, the assumption of control of our company by a holder of a large block of Common Stock, and the removal of the management of our company. Such provisions also may have the effect of deterring or discouraging a transaction which might otherwise be beneficial to stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation also may authorize our board of directors, without stockholder approval, to issue one or more series of preferred stock, which could have voting and conversion rights that adversely affect or dilute the voting power of the holders of Common Stock. Delaware law also imposes conditions on certain business combination transactions with “interested stockholders.” Our certificate of incorporation authorizes our Board of Directors to fill vacancies or newly created directorships. A majority of the directors then in office may elect a successor to fill any vacancies or newly created directorships. Such provisions could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Common Stock and impede the ability of the stockholders to replace management.
The elimination of monetary liability against our directors, officers, and employees under Delaware law and the existence of indemnification rights to our directors, officers, and employees may result in substantial expenditures by us and may discourage lawsuits against our directors, officers, and employees. We also may have entered into contractual indemnification obligations under employment agreements with our executive officers. The foregoing indemnification obligations could result in our incurring substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against directors and officers, which we may be unable to recoup. These provisions and resultant costs may also discourage us from bringing a lawsuit against our directors and officers for breaches of their fiduciary duties and may similarly discourage the filing of derivative litigation by our stockholders against our directors and officers even though such actions, if successful, might otherwise benefit our company and our stockholders.
Our certification of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for actions or proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could discourage claims or limit stockholders’ ability to make a claim against the Company, our directors, officers, and employees.
Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation states that unless the Corporation consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware shall be the sole and exclusive forum for any stockholder (including a beneficial) to bring (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of the Corporation, (ii) an action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer, or other employee of the Corporation to the Corporation or the Corporation’s stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against the Corporation, its directors, officers, or employees arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law or the Corporation’s certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against the Corporation, its directors, officers, or employees governed by the internal affairs doctrine, except for, as to each of (i) through (iv) above, any claim as to which the Court of Chancery determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery, or for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction.
These exclusive forum provisions do not apply to claims under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. The exclusive forum provision may discourage claims or limit stockholders’ ability to submit claims in a judicial forum that they find favorable and may create additional costs as a result. If a court were to determine the exclusive forum provision to be inapplicable and unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs in conjunction with our efforts to resolve the dispute in an alternative jurisdiction, which could have a negative impact on our results of operations.
Risks Related to our Series A Preferred Stock
The Series A Preferred Stock ranks junior to all of our indebtedness and other liabilities.
In the event of our bankruptcy, liquidation, dissolution or winding-up of our affairs, holders of the Series A Preferred Stock will be entitled to receive any of our assets remaining only after all of our indebtedness and other liabilities have been paid. The rights of holders of the Series A Preferred Stock to participate in the distribution of our assets will rank junior to the prior claims of our current and future creditors and any future series or class of preferred stock we may issue that ranks senior to the Series A Preferred Stock. Also, the Series A Preferred Stock effectively ranks junior to all existing and future indebtedness and to the indebtedness and other liabilities of our existing subsidiaries and any future subsidiaries. Our existing subsidiaries are, and future subsidiaries would be, separate legal entities and have no legal obligation to pay any amounts to us in respect of dividends due on the Series A Preferred Stock. If we are forced to liquidate our assets to pay our creditors, we may not have sufficient assets to pay amounts due on any or all of the Series A Preferred Stock then outstanding. We have incurred and may in the future incur substantial amounts of debt and other obligations that will rank senior to the Series A Preferred Stock. At March 31, 2023, our total liabilities equaled approximately $38.9 million.
Certain of our existing or future debt instruments may restrict the authorization, payment or setting apart of dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock. Also, future offerings of debt or senior equity securities may adversely affect the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock. If we decide to issue debt or senior equity securities in the future, it is possible that these securities will be governed by an indenture or other instruments containing covenants restricting our operating flexibility. Additionally, any convertible or exchangeable securities that we issue in the future may have rights, preferences and privileges more favorable than those of the Series A Preferred Stock and may result in dilution to owners of the Series A Preferred Stock. We and, indirectly, our shareholders, will bear the cost of issuing and servicing such securities. Because our decision to issue debt or equity securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of our future offerings. The holders of the Series A Preferred Stock will bear the risk of our future offerings, which may reduce the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock and will dilute the value of their holdings in us.
The trading market for the Series A preferred stock may not provide investors with adequate liquidity.
The Series A Preferred Stock is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “POWWP.” We cannot assure you that holders of the Series A Preferred Stock will be able to sell their shares at favorable prices or at all. The difference between bid and ask prices in any secondary market for the Series A Preferred Stock could be substantial. Accordingly, no assurance can be given as to the liquidity of, or trading markets for, the Series A Preferred Stock, and holders of the Series A Preferred Stock may be required to bear the financial risks of an investment in the Series A Preferred Stock for an indefinite period of time.
We may issue additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock and additional series of preferred stock that rank on parity with the Series A Preferred Stock as to dividend rights, rights upon liquidation or voting rights.
We are allowed to issue additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock and additional series of preferred stock that would rank junior to the Series A Preferred Stock as to dividend payments and rights upon our liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our affairs pursuant to our certificate of incorporation and the certificate of designations relating to the Series A Preferred Stock without any vote of the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock. The issuance of additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock and additional series of preferred stock that have been authorized pursuant to our certificate of incorporation and the certificate of designations could have the effect of reducing the amounts available to the Series A Preferred Stock upon our liquidation or dissolution or the winding up of our affairs. It also may reduce dividend payments on the Series A Preferred Stock if we do not have sufficient funds to pay dividends on all Series A Preferred Stock outstanding and other classes or series of stock with greater or equal priority with respect to dividends.
Also, although holders of Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to limited voting rights, as described in this prospectus supplement under “Description of the Series A Preferred Stock-Voting Rights,” with respect to the circumstances under which the holders of Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to vote, the Series A Preferred Stock votes separately as a class along with all other series of our preferred stock that we may issue upon which like voting rights have been conferred and are exercisable. As a result, the voting rights of holders of Series A Preferred Stock may be significantly diluted, and the holders of such other series of preferred stock that we may issue may be able to control or significantly influence the outcome of any vote.
Future issuances and sales of senior or pari passu preferred stock, or the perception that such issuances and sales could occur, may cause prevailing market prices for the Series A Preferred Stock and our Common Stock to decline and may adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital in the financial markets at times and prices favorable to us.
Market interest rates may materially and adversely affect the value of the Series A Preferred Stock.
One of the factors that influences the price of the Series A Preferred Stock is the dividend yield on the Series A Preferred Stock (as a percentage of the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock) relative to market interest rates. An increase in market interest rates, which in recent years have been at low levels relative to historical rates, may lead prospective purchasers of the Series A Preferred Stock to expect a higher dividend yield (and higher interest rates would likely increase our borrowing costs and potentially decrease funds available for dividend payments). Thus, higher market interest rates could cause the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock to materially decrease.
We may not be able to pay dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock if we have insufficient cash to make dividend payments.
Our ability to pay cash dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock requires us to have either net profits or positive net assets (total assets less total liabilities) over our capital, to be able to pay our debts as they become due in the usual course of business. Further, notwithstanding these factors, we may not have sufficient cash to pay dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock. Our ability to pay dividends may be impaired if any of the risks described in this prospectus, including the documents incorporated by reference herein, were to occur. Also, payment of our dividends depends upon our financial condition and other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant from time to time. We cannot assure you that our businesses will generate sufficient cash flow from operations or that future borrowings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to make distributions on our Common Stock, if any, and preferred stock, including the Series A Preferred Stock to pay our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs.
Dividends or other payments with respect to the Series A Preferred Stock may be subject to withholding taxes in circumstances where we are not obliged to make gross up payments, and this could result in holders receiving less than expected in such circumstances.
In the event of certain changes to current tax law that require tax to be withheld from dividends or other payments on the Series A Preferred Stock, we are not required to make gross up payments in respect of such taxes. This would result in holders of Series A Preferred Stock receiving less than expected and could materially adversely affect the return on your investment.
Our Series A Preferred Stock has not been rated.
We have not sought to obtain a rating for the Series A Preferred Stock. No assurance can be given, however, that one or more rating agencies might not independently determine to issue such a rating or that such a rating, if issued, would not adversely affect the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock. Also, we may elect in the future to obtain a rating for the Series A Preferred Stock, which could adversely affect the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock. Ratings only reflect the views of the rating agency or agencies issuing the ratings and such ratings could be revised downward, placed on a watch list or withdrawn entirely at the discretion of the issuing rating agency if in its judgment circumstances so warrant. Any such downward revision, placing on a watch list or withdrawal of a rating could have an adverse effect on the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock.
We may redeem the Series A Preferred Stock.
On or after May 18, 2026, we may, at our option, redeem the Series A Preferred Stock, in whole or in part, at any time or from time to time. Also, upon the occurrence of a Change of Control (as defined below under “Description of the Series A Preferred Stock - Redemption”), we may, at our option, redeem the Series A Preferred Stock, in whole or in part, within 120 days after the first date on which such Change of Control occurred. We may have an incentive to redeem the Series A Preferred Stock voluntarily if market conditions allow us to issue other preferred stock or debt securities at a rate that is lower than the dividend on the Series A Preferred Stock. If we redeem the Series A Preferred Stock, then from and after the redemption date, dividends will cease to accrue on shares of Series A Preferred Stock, the shares of Series A Preferred Stock shall no longer be deemed outstanding and all rights as a holder of those shares will terminate, except the right to receive the redemption price plus accumulated and unpaid dividends, if any, payable upon redemption.
The market price of the Series A Preferred Stock could be substantially affected by various factors.
The market price of the Series A Preferred Stock depends on many factors, which may change from time to time, including:
● prevailing interest rates, increases in which may have an adverse effect on the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock;
● trading prices of similar securities;
● our history of timely dividend payments;
● the annual yield from dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock as compared to yields on other financial instruments;
● general economic and financial market conditions;
● government action or regulation;
● the financial condition, performance and prospects of us and our competitors;
● changes in financial estimates or recommendations by securities analysts with respect to us or our competitors in our industry;
● our issuance of additional preferred equity or debt securities; and
● actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results of us and our competitors.
As a result of these and other factors, holders of the Series A Preferred Stock may experience a decrease, which could be substantial and rapid, in the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock, including decreases unrelated to our operating performance or prospects.
A holder of Series A Preferred Stock has extremely limited voting rights.
The voting rights for a holder of Series A Preferred Stock are limited. Our shares of Common Stock are the only class of our securities that carry full voting rights. Voting rights for holders of the Series A Preferred Stock exist primarily with respect to the ability to elect, voting together with the holders of any other series of our preferred stock having similar voting rights, two additional directors to our board of directors, subject to limitations described in this prospectus supplement entitled “Description of the Series A Preferred Stock-Voting Rights,” in the event that dividends payable on the Series A Preferred Stock are in arrears for four or more consecutive or non-consecutive quarterly dividend periods, and with respect to voting on amendments to our certificate of incorporation or certificate of designations relating to the Series A Preferred Stock that materially and adversely affect the rights of the holders of Series A Preferred Stock or authorize, increase or create additional classes or series of our capital stock that are senior to the Series A Preferred Stock. Other than the limited circumstances described in the prospectus and except to the extent required by law, holders of Series A Preferred Stock do not have any voting rights. Please see the section in this prospectus supplement entitled “Description of the Series A Preferred Stock-Voting Rights.”
The Series A Preferred Stock is not convertible, and investors will not realize a corresponding upside if the price of the Common Stock increases.
The Series A Preferred Stock is not convertible into the Common Stock and earns dividends at a fixed rate. Accordingly, an increase in market price of our Common Stock will not necessarily result in an increase in the market price of our Series A Preferred Stock. The market value of the Series A Preferred Stock may depend more on dividend and interest rates for other preferred stock, commercial paper and other investment alternatives and our actual and perceived ability to pay dividends on, and in the event of dissolution satisfy the liquidation preference with respect to, the Series A Preferred Stock.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Our executive offices are located in Scottsdale, Arizona where we lease approximately 21,000 square feet under a month-to-month triple net lease for approximately $20,000 per month. This space houses our principal executive, administration, and marketing functions.
We lease a 10,000 square foot facility located in Atlanta, Georgia for approximately $19,000 per month. This space houses our GunBroker.com offices and operations.
We lease a 36,000 square foot facility located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin for approximately $10,000 per month. We utilize this facility for manufacturing and packaging.
We lease a 5,000 square foot facility located in Marietta, Georgia for approximately $3,000 per month. The purpose of this space is for warehousing related to our GunBroker.com operations.
We own a 185,000 square foot facility in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Since our second fiscal quarter in the year ended March 31, 2023, we have utilized this facility for ammunition and casing manufacturing, research and development, packing, and shipping activities. A portion of this facility was financed by our Construction Loan. The terms of the Construction Loan are documented in Note 11 of our financial statements.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are involved in or subject to, or may become involved in or subject to, routine litigation, claims, disputes, proceedings and investigations in the ordinary course of business. While the outcome of lawsuits and other proceedings against us cannot be predicted with certainty, in the opinion of management, individually or in the aggregate, no such lawsuits are expected to have a material effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows. We record accruals for contingencies when it is probable that a liability will be incurred and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated.
Please reference the Contingencies section of Note 2 of our Financial Statements for additional disclosure.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
None.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market Information
Our Common Stock has been listed on Nasdaq since December 1, 2020 and is trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “POWW”.
Holders of Common Equity
As of June 9, 2023, there were 117,580,758 shares of $0.001 par value Common Stock outstanding and there were approximately 290 holders of record.
Dividend Information
We have never declared or paid dividends on our Common Stock. Payment of future dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors after taking into account various factors, including the terms of any credit arrangements, our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs and plans for expansion. At the present time, we intend to retain any earnings in our business, and therefore do not anticipate paying dividends in the foreseeable future. We paid preferred dividends on our Series A Preferred Stock in the amount of $3.0 million for the year ended March 31, 2023.
We currently have $0.1 million of unpaid accrued dividends on our Series A Preferred Stock as of the date of this filing. Accordingly, we may not be able to declare a dividend on our Common Stock unless full cumulative dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock have been or contemporaneously are declared and paid or declared.
Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
The following table sets forth information as of March 31, 2023 with respect to our compensation plans under which equity securities may be issued.
Plan Category
Number of Securities
to be Issued
upon Exercise
of
Outstanding
Options,
Warrants
and Rights
Weighted-
Average
Exercise
Price of
Outstanding
Options,
Warrants
and Rights
Number of
Securities
Remaining
Available for
Future Issuance
under Equity
Compensation
Plans
(Excluding
Securities
Reflected in
Column (a))
(a)
(b)
(c)
Equity compensation plans approved by security holders:
2017 Equity Incentive Plan
-
-
1,946,929
Total
-
-
1,946,929
Transfer Agent
We have appointed Securities Transfer Corporation (“STC”) as the transfer agent for our Common Stock and Series A Preferred Stock. The principal office of STC is located at 2901 N. Dallas Parkway, Suite 380 Plano, Texas 75093, and its telephone number is (469) 633-0101.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
Issuers Repurchase of Equity Securities
On February 8, 2022, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program for up to $30 million of our outstanding common stock. On March 28, 2023, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized the extension of our repurchase program until February 2024.
The following table summarizes our share repurchases under our repurchase program for our fourth fiscal quarter of our 2023 fiscal year:
Period Total Number
of Shares
Repurchased
Average
Price Paid
per Share
Total
Number of
Shares
Repurchased
as Part of
Publicly Announced
Plan or
Programs
Maximum
Number of
Shares that
may yet be
Repurchased
Under the
Plan or
Programs (1)
March 2023 118,328 1.93 118,328
Total 118,328 - 118,328 14,963,235
(1) As reported on the Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Commission on December 6, 2022, we initiated our Common Stock share repurchase program in December of 2022. We previously reported the repurchase of 150,000 shares of our Common Stock under this plan. The maximum number of shares that may yet be repurchased included herein is determined based on the closing price of our Common Stock of $1.97 on March 31, 2023. This amount may change based on the price that our Common Stock trades at.
As of June 9, 2023, approximately 1 million shares have been repurchased in total. The current plan is in effect until February 2024 and the remaining funds available to the Company pursuant to the repurchase plan is approximately $28 million.
Performance Graph
The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return of our common stock (Nasdaq: POWW) in comparison to the cumulative total return of the NASDAQ Capital Market Composite (“NASDAQ CMC”) and the Russell 2000 Index (“Russell 2000”) for the period from March 31, 2018 through March 31, 2023. The graph assumes an investment of $100 in our common stock and in each of the indexes on March 31, 2018. The calculation of cumulative stockholder return on the NASDAQ CMC and Russell 2000 include reinvestment of dividends, but the calculation of cumulative stockholder return on our common stock does not include reinvestment of dividends because we did not pay any dividends during the measurement period. The performance shown is not necessarily indicative of future performance.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
ITEM 6. RESERVED
Not required.

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.
This document contains certain “forward-looking statements”. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward-looking statements” for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, any projections of earnings, revenue or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies, goals and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning proposed new products and services or developments thereof; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; any statements or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing.
Forward looking statements may include the words “may,” “could,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue,” “believe,” “expect,” or “anticipate,” or other similar words, or the negative thereof. These forward-looking statements present our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this report. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. We do not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the dates they are made. You should, however, consult further disclosures and risk factors we included in the section titled Risk Factors contained herein.
Overview
AMMO, Inc., owner of the GunBroker.com Marketplace, the largest online marketplace serving the firearms and shooting sports industries, and a vertically integrated producer of high-performance ammunition and premium components began its operations in 2016.
Through our GunBroker.com Marketplace segment (acquired in April 2021), we allow third party sellers to list items consisting of firearms, hunting gear, fishing equipment, outdoor gear, collectibles, and much more on our site, while facilitating compliance with federal and state laws that govern the sale of firearms and restricted items. This allows our base of over 7.6 million users to follow ownership policies and regulations through our network of over 35,000 federally licensed firearms dealers as transfer agents. The nature and operation of the Marketplace as an online auction and sales platform also affords our Company a unique view into the total domestic market for the purpose of understanding sales trends at a granular level across all elements of the outdoor sports and shooting space. Our vision is to expand the services on GunBroker.com and to become a peer to those in our industry. In the short term, we will be implementing the following services;
● Payment Processing - facilitating payment between parties allowing sellers of all sizes to offer fast and secure electronic payments and allowing buyers to experience the ease of using a single form of payment for all items purchased,
● Carting Ability - allowing our buyers to purchase multiple items from multiple sellers at one point in time, and,
● GunBroker.com Analytics - through the compilation and refinement of vast Marketplace data, we plan to offer domestic market analytics to our industry peers to allow them to better manage their businesses.
Through our Ammunition segment, we are tailoring our focus to build a new future for our manufacturing operations focused on premium pistol and rifle ammunition and supporting industry partners for manufactured components. We will continue to leverage our proprietary brands like Streak Visual AmmunitionTM and Stelth subsonic ammunition and extend our product offering with premium rifle lines and brands that complement our technologically innovative heritage. We also continue to ensure dynamic performance under the exacting standards of the US military complex in support of our cutting-edge developmental ammunition programs as we seek out and effectively execute upon new governmental-based opportunities.
Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations is intended to provide our financial statements with a narrative from the perspective of management on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, and certain other factors that may affect our future results. The following information should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report beginning on page.
Fiscal Year 2023 Compared to Fiscal Year 2022
Our financial results for the year ended March 31, 2023 reflect our newly positioned organization as we transition into our new manufacturing facility. We believe that we have hired a strong team of professionals, developed innovative products, and continue to raise capital sufficient to establish our presence as a high-quality ammunition provider and marketplace. We continue to focus on growing our top line revenue and streamlining our operations. We continue to focus on growing our top line revenue, and streamlining our operations. We experienced a 20.3% decrease in our Net Revenues for the year ended March 31, 2023 compared with the year ended March 31, 2022. This was the result of decreased ammunition sales due to changes in market demand.
The following table presents summarized financial information taken from our consolidated statements of operations for the year ended March 31, 2023 compared with the year ended March 31, 2022:
For the Year Ended
March 31, 2023 March 31, 2022
Net Sales $ 191,439,801 $ 240,269,166
Cost of Revenues 136,031,204 151,505,657
Gross Margin 55,408,597 88,763,509
Sales, General & Administrative Expenses 58,667,516 51,614,147
Income (loss) from Operations (3,258,919 ) 37,149,362
Other income (expense)
Other income (expense) (606,881 ) (615,957 )
Income (loss) before provision for income taxes $ (3,865,800 ) $ 36,533,405
Provision for income taxes 730,238 3,285,969
Net Income (Loss) $ (4,596,038 ) $ 33,247,436
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We analyze operational and financial data to evaluate our business, allocate our resources, and assess our performance. In addition to total net sales, net loss, and other results under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”), the following information includes key operating metrics and non-GAAP financial measures we use to evaluate our business. We believe these measures are useful for period-to-period comparisons of the Company. We have included these non-GAAP financial measures in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q because they are key measures we use to evaluate our operational performance, produce future strategies for our operations, and make strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses and the allocation of our resources. Accordingly, we believe these measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.
Adjusted EBITDA
For the For the
Year Ended Year Ended
March 31, 2023 March 31, 2022
Reconciliation of GAAP net income to Adjusted EBITDA
Net Income (Loss) $ (4,596,038 ) $ 33,247,436
Provision for income taxes 730,238 3,285,969
Depreciation and amortization 17,519,949 17,339,093
Interest expense, net 632,062 637,797
Employee stock awards 5,807,779 5,759,000
Stock grants 179,094 252,488
Stock for services - 4,200
Warrants issued for services 213,819 718,045
Contingent consideration fair value (63,764 ) (385,750 )
Other income (25,181 ) (21,840 )
Proxy contest fees(1) 4,724,385 -
Other nonrecurring expenses(2) 1,248,865 -
Adjusted EBITDA $ 26,371,208 $ 60,836,438
(1) Includes proxy contest fees of $910,000 for Employee Stock Awards issued as a result of the Settlement Agreement as discussed in Note 16 of our financial statements.
(2) Other nonrecurring expenses consist of professional and legal fees that are nonrecurring in nature.
Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measures that displays our net loss, adjusted to eliminate the effect of certain items as described below.
We have excluded the following non-cash expenses from our non-GAAP financial measures: provision or benefit for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, share-based or warrant-based compensation expenses, and changes to the contingent consideration fair value. We believe it is useful to exclude these non-cash expenses because the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations.
Adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure also excludes other cash interest income and expense, and non-recurring expenses incurred as a result of a proxy contest as these items are not components of our core operations.
We have modified our Adjusted EBITDA calculation in the current period to remove the adjustment for Excise Taxes as we believe this is a better representation of our operations. In prior periods, we included an adjustment for Excise Taxes.
Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations, should be considered as supplemental in nature and are not meant as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. These limitations include the following:
● Employee stock awards and stock grants expense has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense in the Company and an important part of our compensation strategy;
● the assets being depreciated or amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and the non-GAAP financial measures do not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditures or other capital commitments; and
● non-GAAP measures do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs
● other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate the non-GAAP financial measures differently or not at all, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.
Because of these limitations, you should consider the non-GAAP financial measures alongside other financial performance measures, including our net loss and our other financial results presented in accordance with GAAP.
Net Sales
The following table shows our net sales by proprietary ammunition versus standard ammunition for the periods ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022. “Proprietary Ammunition” include those lines of ammunition manufactured by our facilities that are sold under the brand names: STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ and Stelth. We define “Standard Ammunition” as non-proprietary ammunition that directly competes with other brand manufacturers. Our “Standard Ammunition” is manufactured within our facilities and may also include completed ammunition that has been acquired in the open market for sale to others. Also included in this category is low cost target pistol and rifle ammunition, as well as bulk packaged ammunition manufactured by us using reprocessed brass casings. Ammunition within this product line typically carries much lower gross margins.
For the Year Ended
March 31, 2023 March 31, 2022
Proprietary Ammunition $ 10,779,035 $ 10,071,659
Standard Ammunition 103,337,009 151,387,366
Ammunition Casings 14,174,084 14,201,625
Marketplace Revenue 63,149,673 64,608,516
Total Sales $ 191,439,801 $ 240,269,166
Sales for the year ended March 31, 2023 decreased 20.3%, or approximately $48.8 million from the prior year due to changes in market conditions. The decrease for period was largely the result of a decrease of $48.1 million in sales of bulk pistol and rifle ammunition, a decrease of $0.7 million of sales of Proprietary Ammunition, a decrease of $0.1 million of our casing sales, and a decrease of $1.5 million generated from our marketplace, GunBroker.com, which includes auction revenue, payment processing revenue, and shipping income. Management expects the sales growth rate of Proprietary Ammunition to greatly outpace the sales of our Standard Ammunition.
We are focused on continuing to grow top line revenue quarter-over-quarter as we continue to further expand distribution into commercial markets, introduce new product lines, and continue to initiate sales to U.S. law enforcement, military, and international markets.
Through our acquisition of SWK, the Company has developed and deployed a line of tactical armor piercing (AP) and hard armor piercing incendiary (HAPI) precision ammunition to meet the lethality requirements of both the US and foreign military customers. We continue to demonstrate our AP and HAPI ammunition to military personnel at scheduled and invite only events, resulting in increased interest and procurement discussions. The Company has since developed the ballistic match (BMMPR) and signature-on-target (SoT) rounds under contract with the U.S. Government in support of US special operations which have been publicly announced pursuant to governmental authorization. Additional work continues in support of the military operations of the U.S. and its ally military components which is not currently subject to disclosure.
It is important to note that, although U.S. law enforcement, military and international markets represent significant opportunities for our Company, they also have a long sales cycle. The Company’s sales team has been effective in establishing sales and distribution channels, both in the United States and abroad, which are reasonably anticipated to drive sustained sales opportunity in the military, law enforcement, and commercial markets.
Sales outside of the United States require licenses and approval from either the U.S. Department of Commerce or the U.S. State Department, which typically takes approximately 30 days to receive. On June 16, 2022, we renewed our annual registration with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”), which remains valid through the report date. This permits the Company to export and broker ammunition and other controlled items covered under ITAR.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of Revenues decreased by approximately $15.5 million from $151.5 million to $136.0 million for the year ended March 31, 2023 compared to the comparable period ended in 2022. This was the result of a significant decrease in net sales as well increases to non-cash depreciation related to increases in production equipment, expensing of increased labor, overhead, and raw materials used to produce finished product during 2023 as compared to 2022.
Gross Margin
Our gross margin percentage decreased to 28.9% from 36.9% during the year ended March 31, 2023 as compared to the same period in 2022. This was a result of increased cost of materials, labor, and overhead in our ammunition segment, which was offset by our marketplace, GunBroker.com which, by nature has significantly higher margins than our manufactured products.
We believe as we continue to grow sales through new markets and expanded distribution that our gross margins will also increase, as evidenced by the improvement over this time last year. Our goal in the next 12 to 24 months is to continue to improve our gross margins. This will be accomplished through the following:
● Increased product sales, specifically of proprietary lines of ammunition, like the STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™, Stelth and now our tactical Armor Piercing (AP) and Hard Armor Piercing Incendiary (HAPI) precision ammunition, all of which carry higher margins as a percentage of their selling price;
● Introduction of new lines of ammunition that historically carry higher margins in the consumer and government sectors;
● Reduced component costs through operation of our ammunition segment and expansion of strategic relationships with component providers;
● Expanded use of automation equipment that reduces the total labor required to assemble finished products
● And, better leverage of our fixed costs through expanded production to support the sales objectives.
Operating Expenses
Overall, for the year ended March 31, 2023, our operating expenses increased by approximately $7.1 million and increased as a percentage of sales from 21.5% to 30.6% in comparison to the year ended March 31, 2022. Our operating expenses include non-cash depreciation and amortization expense of approximately $13.3 million. For the year ended March 31, 2023, we incurred additional expenses in the amounts of $5.6 million related to a proxy contest, of which $0.9 million was included non-cash stock compensation, and $1.2 million of nonrecurring expenses. Our operating expenses also consisted of commissions related to our sales, legal and professional fees, stock compensation expense associated with issuance of our Common Stock in lieu of cash compensation for employees, board members, and key consultants for the organization during the period. Operating expenses for the year ended March 31, 2023 and 2022 included noncash expenses of approximately $19.5 million and $20.1 million, respectively.
During the year ended March 31, 2023, our selling and marketing expenses decreased by approximately $2.6 million. The decrease was primarily related to decreases in sales commission due to the decrease in the sale of our products.
Our corporate general & administrative expenses increased approximately $8.0 million in the year ended March 31, 2023 from the comparable prior period due to $6.6 million of respective legal and professional fees and expenses largely related to our proxy contest and $1.2 million of nonrecurring expenses.
Employee salaries and related expenses increased approximately $2.1 million for the year ended March 31, 2023 compared to the comparable period ended in 2022. The increase when compared to the prior period, was primarily related to $2.1 million of additional payroll expenses incurred as a result of payments due upon termination without cause as a result of the proxy contest and the addition of employees in our Marketplace.
Depreciation and amortization expenses for the year ended March 31, 2023 decreased by approximately $0.4 million in comparison to the prior year period.
Interest and Other Expenses
For the year ended March 31, 2023, interest expense remained constant compared with year ended March 31, 2022. The change from the prior periods was mainly due to increases related to our Construction Note Payable of approximately $0.3 million and decreases in activity related to our Factoring Liability and our Inventory Credit Facility of approximately $0.3 million.
Income Taxes
For the year ended March 31, 2023, we recorded a provision for federal and state income taxes of approximately $0.7 million in comparison to $3.3 million in the prior year period ended March 31, 2022. The decreases was related to a decrease in Net Income(Loss) before Taxes.
Net Income
We ended the year ended March 31, 2023 with a net loss of approximately $4.6 million compared with a Net Income of approximately $33.2 million for the year ended March 31, 2022.
Our goal is to continue to improve our operating results as we focus on increasing sales and reducing our operating expenses.
Fiscal Year 2022 Compared to Fiscal Year 2021
Results of Operations
We experienced an increase in our gross profit margin for the year ended March 31, 2022. This was the result of our newly acquired marketplace, GunBroker.com which, by nature has significantly higher margins than our manufactured products.
The following table presents summarized financial information taken from our consolidated statements of operations for the year ended March 31, 2022 compared with the year ended March 31, 2021:
For the Year Ended
March 31, 2022 March 31, 2021
Net Sales $ 240,269,166 $ 62,482,330
Cost of Revenues 151,505,657 51,095,679
Gross Margin 88,763,509 11,386,651
Sales, General & Administrative Expenses 51,614,147 16,766,636
Income (loss) from Operations 37,149,362 (5,379,985 )
Other income (expense)
Other income (expense) (615,957 ) (2,432,309 )
Income (loss) before provision for income taxes $ 36,533,405 $ (7,812,294 )
Provision for income taxes 3,285,969 -
Net Income (Loss) $ 33,247,436 $ (7,812,294 )
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We analyze operational and financial data to evaluate our business, allocate our resources, and assess our performance. In addition to total net sales, net income (loss), and other results under generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), the following information includes key operating metrics and non-GAAP financial measures we use to evaluate our business. We believe these measures are useful for period-to-period comparisons of the Company. We have included these non-GAAP financial measures in this Annual Report on Form 10-K because they are key measures we use to evaluate our operational performance, produce future strategies for our operations, and make strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses and the allocation of our resources. Accordingly, we believe these measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.
Adjusted EBITDA
For the For the
Year Ended Year Ended
March 31, 2022 March 31, 2021
Reconciliation of GAAP net income to Adjusted EBITDA
Net Income (Loss) $ 33,247,436 $ (7,812,294 )
Provision for income taxes 3,285,969 -
Depreciation and amortization 17,339,093 4,876,756
Interest expense, net 637,797 3,009,094
Employee stock awards 5,759,000 1,450,359
Stock grants 252,488 278,585
Stock for services 4,200 1,707,500
Warrants issued for services 718,045 -
Contingent consideration fair value (385,750 ) (119,731 )
Other income (21,840 ) (576,785 )
Loss on purchase - 1,000,000
Adjusted EBITDA $ 60,836,438 $ 3,813,484
Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measures that displays our net loss, adjusted to eliminate the effect of certain items as described below.
We have excluded the following non-cash expenses from our non-GAAP financial measures: provision or benefit for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, loss on purchase, share-based or warrant-based compensation expenses, and changes to the contingent consideration fair value. We believe it is useful to exclude these non-cash expenses because the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations.
Adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure also excludes other cash interest income and expense, as these items are not components of our core operations. We have included an adjustments for our provision or benefit for income taxes.
We have modified our Adjusted EBITDA calculation in the current period to remove the adjustment for Excise Taxes as we believe this is a better representation of our operations. In prior periods, we included an adjustment for Excise Taxes.
Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations, should be considered as supplemental in nature and are not meant as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. These limitations include the following:
●
Employee stock awards and stock grants expense has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense in the Company and an important part of our compensation strategy;
● the assets being depreciated or amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and the non-GAAP financial measures do not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditures or other capital commitments; and
● non-GAAP measures do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; and
● other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate the non-GAAP financial measures differently or not at all, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.
Because of these limitations, you should consider the non-GAAP financial measures alongside other financial performance measures, including our net loss and our other financial results presented in accordance with GAAP.
Net Sales
The following table shows our net sales by proprietary ammunition versus standard ammunition for the periods ended March 31, 2022 and March 31, 2021. “Proprietary Ammunition” include those lines of ammunition manufactured by our facilities that are sold under the brand names: STREAK VISUAL AMMUNITION™ and Stelth. We define “Standard Ammunition” as non-proprietary ammunition that directly competes with other brand manufacturers. Our “Standard Ammunition” is manufactured within our facilities and may also include completed ammunition that has been acquired in the open market for sale to others. Also included in this category is low cost target pistol and rifle ammunition, as well as bulk packaged ammunition manufactured by us using reprocessed brass casings. Ammunition within this product line typically carries much lower gross margins.
For the Year Ended
March 31, 2022
March 31, 2021
Proprietary Ammunition
$ 10,071,659
$ 5,340,823
Standard Ammunition
151,387,366
44,279,707
Ammunition Casings
14,201,625
12,861,800
Marketplace Revenue
64,608,516
-
Total Sales
$ 240,269,166
$ 62,482,330
Sales for the year ended March 31, 2022 increased 285% or $177.8 million over the year ended March 31, 2021. This increase was the result of our increased production capacity coupled with increased demand from our customers which resulted in approximately $107.2 million of increased sales in bulk pistol and rifle ammunition, an increase of approximately $4.7 million of respective sales of Proprietary Ammunition, an increase of approximately $1.3 million of sales from our casing operations and $64.6 million in respective revenue generated from our recently acquired marketplace, GunBroker.com, which includes auction revenue, payment processing revenue, and shipping income. Management expects the sales growth rate of Proprietary Ammunition to greatly outpace the sales of our Standard Ammunition.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues increased by approximately $100.4 million from $51.1 million to $151.5 million, respectively for the year ended March 31, 2022 compared with the year ended March 31, 2021. This was the result of a significant increase in net sales as well increases to non-cash depreciation related to our newly acquired casing operations, expensing of increased labor, overhead, and raw materials used to produce finished product during our 2022 fiscal year as compared to the 2021 fiscal year and additional cost of revenues from our recent acquisition of our marketplace, GunBroker.com. As a percentage of sales, cost of goods sold decreased by 22.8% when comparing the year ended March 31, 2022 to the year ended March 31, 2021.
Gross Margin
Our gross margin percentage increased to 36.9% from 18.2% during the year ended March 31, 2022 as compared to the same period in 2021. This was a result of the inclusion of our newly acquired marketplace, GunBroker.com which, by nature has significantly higher margins than our manufactured products.
Operating Expenses
Overall, for the year ended March 31, 2022, our operating expenses increased by approximately $34.8 million over the year ended March 31, 2021, but decreased as a percentage of sales from 26.8% for the year ended March 31, 2021 to 21.5% for the year ended March 31, 2022. The increase was primarily related to approximately $20.6 million of additional operating expenses following our merger with Gemini, including $12.1 million of depreciation and amortization expenses. Our operating expenses include non-cash depreciation and amortization expense of approximately $13.7 million for the year ended March 31, 2022. Our operating expenses consisted of commissions related to our sales increases, stock compensation expense associated with issuance of our Common Stock in lieu of cash compensation for employees, and board members, and key consultants for the organization during the period. Operating expenses for the years ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 included noncash expenses of approximately $20.1 million and $3.2 million, respectively. We expect to see administrative expenditures to continue to decrease as a percentage of sales in the 2023 fiscal year, as we leverage our work force and expand our sales opportunities.
During the year ended March 31, 2022, our selling and marketing expenses increased by approximately $5.4 million. The increase was primarily related to commission on the increases in the sale of our products resulting of approximately $3.6 million of increase in commissions and a $1.1 million increase advertising expenses for the year ended March 31, 2022 in comparison to the comparable prior year.
Our corporate general & administrative expenses increased approximately $9.8 million in the current period from the prior year mainly due to increased general corporate expenses related to the addition of Gemini of approximately $5.3 million and increases in insurance expenses of $4.0 million.
Employee salaries and related expenses increased approximately $8.6 million for the year ended March 31, 2022 compared to the comparable period ended in 2021. This was a result of increased payroll and related expenses of $4.2 million, including $2.9 million from the addition of Gemini, and employee stock compensation of approximately $4.3 million.
Depreciation and amortization expenses increased approximately $12.0 million from the period principally due to the addition of assets from the Gemini Acquisition.
Interest and Other Expenses
For the year ended March 31, 2022, interest expense decreased by approximately $2.4 million compared with the year ended March 31, 2021. The change from the prior periods was mainly due to the repayment of notes and conversion of convertible promissory notes in current and prior periods. Interest expense for the year ended March 31, 2021 included approximately $1.3 million of non-cash interest expense recognized on the issuance of warrants to purchase Common Stock, approximately $0.4 million in debt discount amortization related to Convertible Promissory Notes as well interest expense and debt discount amortization related to Note Payables Related Party, Note Payable, and Convertible Promissory Notes.
Net Income
As a result of increases in revenues from increased production as well as our acquisition of Gemini, we ended the year ended March 31, 2022 with net income of approximately $33.2 million compared with net losses of approximately $7.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2021.
Our goal is to continue to improve our operating results as we focus on increasing sales and controlling our operating expenses.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of March 31, 2023, we had $39,134,027 of cash and cash equivalents, an increase of $15,852,552 from March 31, 2022.
Working Capital is summarized and compared as follows:
March 31, 2023 March 31, 2022
Current assets $ 128,451,893 $ 129,691,636
Current liabilities 25,463,399 35,823,311
$ 102,988,494 $ 93,868,325
Liquidity
Existing working capital, cash flow from operations, bank borrowings, and sales of equity and debt securities are expected to be adequate to fund our operations over the next year. Generally, we have financed operations to date through the proceeds of stock sales, bank financings, and related-party notes. These sources have been adequate to fund our recurring cash expenditures including but not limited to our working capital requirements, capital expenditures to expand our operations, debt repayments, and acquisitions. We intend to continue to use the aforementioned sources of funding for capital expenditures, debt repayments, share repurchases and any potential acquisitions.
Leases
We lease four locations that are used for our offices, production, and warehousing. As of March 31, 2023, we had $1.6 million of fixed lease payment obligations with $0.6 million payable within the next 12 months. Please refer to Note 9 - Leases for additional information.
Related Party Note Payable
As of March 31, 2023, we had an outstanding balance on our Related Party Note Payable of approximately $0.2 million, of which the balance in its entirety million is due within the next 12 months.
Construction Note Payable
We financed a portion of our new production facility with our Construction Note Payable. We expect to make $0.8 million in principal and interest payments within the next 12 months. The total principal balance of the Construction Note is expected to be $11.4 million upon completion of the project and will mature on October 14, 2026.
Changes in cash flows are summarized as follows:
Operating Activities
For the year ended March 31, 2023, net cash provided by operations totaled approximately $35.6 million. This was primarily the result of net loss of approximately $4.6 million, decreases to our period end accounts receivable of $14.4 million, inventories of $4.7 million, prepaid expenses of 2.8 million, and deposits of $4.3 million which was offset by increases in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $8.7 million and $2.8 million, respectively. The cash used in operations were partially offset by the benefit of non-cash expenses for depreciation and amortization of approximately $17.5 million, employee stock compensation of $5.8 million, $1.6 million of deferred income taxes, stock grants totaling $0.2 million, $0.2 million of allowance for doubtful accounts, and $0.2 million of warrants issued for services.
For the year ended March 31, 2022, net cash provided by operations totaled approximately $2.9 million. This was primarily the result of net income of approximately $33.2 million, increases to our period end inventories of $43.1 million, accounts receivable of $20.7 million, and deposits of $8.8 million which was offset by increases in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $9.9 million and $2.3 million, respectively, and decreases of prepaid expenses of $1.9 million. The cash used in operations were partially offset by the benefit of non-cash expenses for depreciation and amortization of approximately $17.3 million, employee stock compensation of $5.8 million, stock grants totaling $0.3 million, $2.7 million of allowance for doubtful accounts, $0.8 million of warrants issued for services, $1.5 million of deferred income taxes and a decrease related to an adjustment to the fair value of contingent consideration of $0.4 million.
Investing Activities
During the year ended March 31, 2023, we used approximately $12.5 million in net cash for investing activities. Net cash used in investing activities consisted of approximately $12.5 million related to purchases of production equipment, the construction of our new manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, WI, and capitalized development costs related to our marketplace, GunBroker.com.
During the year ended March 31, 2022, we used approximately $69.7 million in net cash for investing activities. Net cash used in investing activities consisted of approximately $50.5 million uses in connection with the merger of Gemini, and approximately $19.2 million related to purchases of production equipment and the construction of our new manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, WI.
Financing Activities
During the year ended March 31, 2023, net cash used in financing activities was approximately $6.7 million. This was the result of approximately $3.0 million of preferred stock dividends paid, $2.1 million of insurance premium note payments, $0.7 million in payments of our related party note payable, and an approximate $0.8 million reduction in our Inventory Credit Facility. These items were offset by $1.0 million generated from our construction note payable and $0.1 million of proceeds from warrants exercised for common stock. Additionally, approximately $71.3 million was generated from accounts receivable factoring, which was offset by payments of approximately $72.3 million.
During the year ended March 31, 2022, net cash used in financing activities was approximately $28.2 million. This was the net effect of a $50.0 million payment on debt assumed from Gemini, $35.0 million of proceeds from the sale of our preferred stock net of approximately $3.2 million of issuance costs, approximately $2.5 million of preferred stock dividends paid, approximately $2.2 million of insurance premium note payments, approximately $0.9 million was generated from common stock issued for exercised warrants, the $4.0 million repayment of a note payable, and an approximate $0.3 million reduction in our Inventory Credit Facility. Additionally, approximately $121.5 million was generated from accounts receivable factoring, which was offset by payments of approximately $122.8 million.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of March 31, 2023, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future material effect on our financial condition, net sales, expenses, results of operations, liquidity capital expenditures, or capital resources.
Critical Accounting Policies
Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operation are based upon our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses. We have identified several accounting principles that we believe are key to the understanding of our financial statements. These important accounting policies require our most difficult subjective judgements.
Goodwill
We evaluate goodwill for impairment annually or more frequently when an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of the reporting unit below its carrying amount. In testing for goodwill impairment, we may elect to utilize a qualitative assessment to evaluate whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If our qualitative assessment indicates that goodwill impairment is more likely than not, we perform a two-step impairment test. We test goodwill for impairment under the two-step impairment test by first comparing the book value of net assets to the fair value of the reporting unit. If the fair value is determined to be less than the book value or qualitative factors indicate that it is more likely than not that goodwill is impaired, a second step is performed to compute the amount of impairment as the difference between the estimated fair value of goodwill and the carrying value. We estimate the fair value of the reporting units using discounted cash flows. Forecasts of future cash flows are based on our best estimate of future net sales and operating expenses, based primarily on expected category expansion, pricing, market segment share, and general economic conditions. Due to the declines in the value of our stock price and market capitalization, we assessed qualitative factors to determine if it is more likely than not that the fair value of the Marketplace segment is less than its carrying amount. Through our analysis we determined our stock price and market capitalization decline it is not indicative of a decrease in the fair value of our Marketplace segment and a fair value calculation using the discounted cash flows was more appropriate due to the operational performance of the reporting segment. Accordingly, the impairment of Goodwill was not warranted for the year ended March 31, 2023. As of March 31, 2023, the Company has a goodwill carrying value of $90,870,094, all of which is assigned to the Marketplace segment. However, due to declines in the value of the Company’s common stock and market capitalization, it is possible that the book values of our Marketplace segment could exceed its fair value, which may result in the recognition of a material, noncash impairment of goodwill for the year ending March 31, 2024.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the balance sheet and reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates made in preparing the condensed consolidated financial statements include the valuation of allowances for doubtful accounts, valuation of deferred tax assets, inventories, useful lives of assets, goodwill, intangible assets, stock-based compensation and warrant-based compensation.
Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
Our accounts receivable represents amounts due from customers for products sold and include an allowance for uncollectible accounts which is estimated based on the aging of the accounts receivable and specific identification of uncollectible accounts. At March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022, we reserved $3,246,551 and $3,055,252, respectively, of allowance for doubtful accounts.
Inventory
We state inventories at the lower of cost or net realizable value. We determine cost by using the weighted-average cost of raw materials method, which approximates the first-in, first-out method and includes allocations of manufacturing labor and overhead. We make provisions when necessary, to reduce excess, potential damaged or obsolete inventories. These provisions are based on our best estimates. At March 31, 2023, and March 31, 2022, we conducted a full analysis of inventory on hand and expensed all inventory not currently in use, or for which there was no future demand.
Research and Development
To date, we have expensed all costs associated with developing our product specifications, manufacturing procedures, and products through our cost of products sold, as this work was done by the same employees who produced the finished product. We anticipate that it may become necessary to reclassify research and development costs into our operating expenditures for reporting purposes as we begin to develop new technologies and lines of ammunition.
Revenue Recognition
We generate revenue from the production and sale of ammunition, ammunition casings, and marketplace fee revenue, which includes auction revenue, payment processing revenue, and shipping income. We recognize revenue according to Accounting Standard Codification - Revenue from Contract with Customers (“ASC 606”). When the customer obtains control over the promised goods or services, we record revenue in the amount of consideration that we can expect to receive in exchange for those goods and services. We apply the following five-step model to determine revenue recognition:
● Identification of a contract with a customer
● Identification of the performance obligations in the contact
● Determination of the transaction price
● Allocation of the transaction price to the separate performance allocation
● Recognition of revenue when performance obligations are satisfied
We only apply the five-step model when it is probable that we will collect the consideration we are entitled to in exchange for the goods or services it transfers to the customer. At contract inception and once the contract is determined to be within the scope of ASC 606, we assess the goods or services promised within each contract and determine those that are performance obligations, and assess whether each promised good or service is distinct.
For Ammunition Sales and Casing Sales, our contracts contain a single performance obligation and the entire transaction price is allocated to the single performance obligation. We recognize as revenues the amount of the transaction price that is allocated to the respective performance obligation when the performance obligation is satisfied or as it is satisfied. Accordingly, we recognize revenues (net) when the customer obtains control of our product, which typically occurs upon shipment of the product or the performance of the service. In the year ended March 31, 2021, we began accepting contract liabilities or deferred revenue. We included Deferred Revenue in our Accrued Liabilities. We will recognize revenue when the performance obligation is met.
For Marketplace revenue, the performance obligation is satisfied, and revenue is recognized as follows:
Auction revenue consists of optional listing fees with variable pricing components based on customer options selected from the GunBroker website and final value fees based on a percentage of the final selling price of the listed item. The performance obligation is to process the transactions as initiated by the customer. Revenue is recognized at a point in time when the transaction is processed.
Payment processing revenue consists of fees charged to customers on a transactional basis. The performance obligation is to process the transactions as initiated by the customer. The price is set by the GunBroker user agreement on the website based on stand-alone selling prices. Revenue is recognized at a point in time when the transaction is processed.
Shipping income consists of fees charged to customers for shipping of sold items listed on the GunBroker website. The performance obligation is to ship the item sold as initiated by the customer. The price is set based on the third-party service provider selected to be used by the customer as well as the speed and location of shipment. Revenue is recognized at a point in time when the shipping label is printed.
Banner Advertising Campaign Revenue consists of fees charged to customers for advertisement placement and impressions generated through the GunBroker website. The performance obligation is to generate the number of impressions specified by the customer on banner advertisements on the GunBroker website using the placement selected by the customer. The price is set by the GunBroker user agreement on the website based on standalone selling prices, or by advertising insertion order as negotiated by media broker. If the number of impressions promised is not generated, the customer receives a refund and the refund is applied to the transaction price. Banner advertising campaigns generally run for one month, and revenue is recognized at a point in time at the end of the selected month.
Product Sales consists of fees charged for the liquidation of excess inventory for partner distributors. The performance obligation is to sell and ship the inventory item as initiated by the customer. The price depends on whether the inventory is a fixed price item or an auction item. For a fixed price item, the Company performs research to determine the current market rate for such an item, and the item is listed at that price. For an auction item, the price is set by what the buyer is willing to pay. The Company acts as a principal in these transactions due to the extent of control they have over the product prior to the sale. Due to the principal determination, gross revenue is recognized at a point in time when the item has been shipped.
Identity Verification consists of fees charged to customers for identity verification in order to gain access to the GunBroker website. The performance obligation is to process the identity verification as initiated by the customer. The price is set by the GunBroker user agreement on the website based on a stand-alone selling price. Revenue is recognized at a point in time when the identity verification is completed.
Excise Tax
As a result of regulations imposed by the Federal Government for sales of ammunition to non-government U.S. entities, we charge and collect an 11% excise tax for all products sold into these channels. During the years ended March 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, we recognized approximately $9.8 million, $14.6 million, and $4.3 million respectively, in excise taxes. For ease in selling to commercial markets, excise tax is included in our unit price for the products sold. We record this through net sales and expense the offsetting tax expense to cost of goods sold.
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
Fair value estimates discussed herein are based upon certain market assumptions and pertinent information available to us as of March 31, 2023. The respective carrying value of certain on-balance-sheet financial instruments approximated their fair value. These financial instruments include cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable, amounts due to related parties, factoring liability, and the construction note payable. Fair values were assumed to approximate carrying values because they are short term in nature and their carrying amounts approximate fair values or they are payable on demand.
Income Taxes
We file federal and state income tax returns in accordance with the applicable rules of each jurisdiction. We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification 740 - Income Taxes (“ASC 740”). The provision for income taxes includes federal, state, and local income taxes currently payable, and deferred taxes. We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax basis. We measure deferred tax assets and liabilities using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable amounts in years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. If it is more likely than not that some portion or all of a deferred tax asset will not be realized, a valuation allowance is recognized. In accordance with ASC 740, we recognize the effect of income tax positions only if those positions are more likely than not of being sustained. We measure recognized income tax positions at the largest amount that is greater than 50% likely of being realized. We reflect changes in recognition or measurement in the period in which the change in judgment occurs.
Stock-Based Compensation
We grant stock-based compensation to key employees and directors as a means of attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel. We also grant stock in lieu of cash compensation for key consultants and service providers. We recognize expense related to stock-based payment transactions in which we receive employee or non-employee services in exchange for equity.
We account for stock-based compensation at fair value in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification 718 - Compensation - Stock Compensation (“ASC 718”). Which requires the measurement and recognition of compensation expense for all share-based payment awards to employees and directors. We measure stock compensation based on reference to the closing fair market value of our Common Stock on the date of grant. Stock-based compensation is recognized on a straight line basis over the vesting periods and forfeitures are recognized in the periods they occur.
In addition to our base of employees, we also use the services of several contract personnel and other professionals on an “as needed basis”. We plan to continue to use consultants, legal and patent attorneys, engineers and accountants as necessary. We may also expand our staff to support the market roll-out of our products to both the commercial and government related organizations. A portion of any key employee compensation likely would include direct stock grants, which would dilute the ownership interest of holders of existing shares of our Common Stock.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
We have not entered into any market risk sensitive instruments for trading purposes. We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of business including fluctuations in interest rates and commodity prices, which can affect our operating, investing and financing activities. We believe our primary market risk is interest rate risk. Our Factoring Liability is indexed to market rates. Although we did not have a balance outstanding under our Factoring Liability at March 31, 2023, if were to make use of the maximum facility amount of $5.0 million, a 100 basis point increase would result in an impact of $50,000 additional interest expense for the year ended March 31, 2023. The interest rates on our Construction Note Payable are not indexed to market rates.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
The consolidated financials are submitted as a separate section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K beginning on page.

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
Not applicable.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
As of March 31, 2023, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures, as required by Exchange Act Rule 13a-15.Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of the end of the period covered by this report. Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
a) Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rule 13a-15(c) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, as of March 31, 2023. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information we are required to disclose in the reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our CEO and CFO, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures, and is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms.
Based on this evaluation, and because of the material weaknesses described below, our CEO and CFO have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at the reasonable assurance level as of March 31, 2023.
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance of the reliability of financial reporting and of the preparation of financial statements for external reporting purposes, in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Internal control over financial reporting includes policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect transactions and disposition of assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with the authorization of its management and directors; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding the prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on tis financial statements.
Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our CEO and CFO, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on criteria established in the framework in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, and because of the material weaknesses described below, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of March 31, 2023.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risks that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
These material weaknesses did not result in any identified misstatements to the financial statements, and there were no changes to previously released financial results.
Material weaknesses and management’s remediation plan
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, within the meaning of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) Auditing Standard AS 2201, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The following material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting were identified in the normal course as of March 31, 2023:
The Company failed to maintain an effective control environment due to the following:
● the Company’s management and the governance did not maintain appropriately designed entity-level controls impacting the control environment to prevent or detect material misstatements to the consolidated financial statements. These deficiencies were attributed to limited personnel to assist with the accounting and financial reporting function and inadequate oversight and accountability over the performance of control activities, including establishment of a Whistleblower Hotline and lack of formalization of certain key governance elements: management delegation, annual board committee charter review, acknowledgement of code of conduct, and approval of the annual budget;
● the Company failed to maintain properly designed segregation of duties, both within manual processes and system access;
● the Company failed to maintain effectively designed controls over journal entries, both recurring and nonrecurring, account reconciliations, and periodic flux analysis. Journal entries were not always accompanied by sufficient supporting documentation and were not adequately reviewed and approved for validity, completeness, and accuracy. In most instances, persons responsible for reviewing journal entries and account reconciliations for validity, completeness, and accuracy were also responsible for preparation.
● the Company failed to maintain effectively designed controls over the period-end financial reporting process, including adequate tie-out and review of documentation that supports the financial statements; and
● the Company failed to maintain effectively designed controls over information technology general controls in the areas of user provisioning and de-provisioning, application change management, operating system and logical access controls, and segregation of duties for information technology (“IT”) systems that supports the Company’s financial reporting process.
Management’s Remediation Initiatives
We have concluded that these material weaknesses arose because we did not have the necessary business processes, systems, personnel, and related internal controls.
In response to the material weaknesses, management, with the oversight of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors, has begun the process of, and is committed to, designing and implementing effective measures to strengthen our internal controls over financial reporting and remediate the material weaknesses. The Company is committed to ensuring that a proper, consistent tone is communicated throughout the organization, which emphasizes the expectation that previously existing deficiencies will be rectified through implementation of processes and controls to ensure strict compliance with U.S. GAAP and regulatory requirements.
Our current and planned internal remediation efforts include:
● Retained a third-party consulting firm that specializes in internal audit work, and more specifically internal controls work. This firm will assist management with its risk assessment of internal control over financial reporting as well as documentation and testing of our internal control structure and evaluation of material weaknesses, with special focus on assisting management in the establishment and evaluation of proper segregation of duties procedures and monitoring and controls over ITGCs for the systems that support our financial reporting process.
● Management has presented, and the Board of Directors has approved the formal management delegation, and the Company has formally initiated the implementation of a whistleblower hotline prior to the filing of this document.
● Approved, adopted, and implemented accounting policies related to journal entries and invoice approval.
● Improved formalization of procedures and documentation for all journal entries, account reconciliations, flux analysis and variance thresholds, vendor set-up.
● Initiated IT Remediation Project with third-party consultants to design and implement controls over user provisioning and de-provisioning, application change management, operating system and logical access controls, segregation of duties, and third-party service provider report review process.
● Implemented improvements surrounding review and approval of controls with a review element, including proper segregation, enhanced documentation, and consistency of application.
While these actions and planned actions are subject to ongoing management evaluation and will require validation and testing of the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls over a sustained period of financial reporting cycles, we are committed to the continuous improvement of our internal control over financial reporting and will continue to diligently review our internal control over financial reporting.
The effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2023, has been audited by Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, P.C., an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in its report included herein.
Changes in Internal Controls over Financial Reporting
There was a change in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f)) that occurred during our most recent quarter that has materially affected or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Commencing in our fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2022, we have undertaken measures to remediate the previously disclosed material weaknesses. Management intends to implement certain remediation steps to address the material weaknesses described under Management’s Remediation Initiatives. However, management has not fully implemented those remediation steps and expects remediation efforts to continue into fiscal year 2024.
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors of
AMMO, Inc.
Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited AMMO, Inc.’s (the “Company’s”) internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). In our opinion, because of the effect of the material weaknesses described in the following paragraph on the achievement of the objectives of the control criteria, the Company has not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by COSO.
A material weakness is a control deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The following material weaknesses have been identified and included in management’s assessment.
● Controls were not appropriately designed or implemented at the entity level, affecting the control environment to prevent or detect material misstatements and to set the tone of the organization, including establishment of a whistleblower hotline and establishment of management delegation of authority policies;
● Controls were not appropriately designed or implemented to maintain effective segregation of duties, primarily related to insufficient personnel / resources;
● Controls were not appropriately designed or implemented over the year-end financial reporting process, including ineffective design of review and approval authorization controls;
● Controls were not appropriately designed or implemented related to journal entry access and approvals; and
● Controls were not appropriately designed or implemented related to information technology general controls. These controls specifically related to (i) user provisioning and deprovisioning, (ii) application change management, (iii) operating system and logical access controls, and (iv) segregation of duties for information technology systems that support the financial reporting process.
These material weaknesses were considered in determining the nature, timing, and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the 2023 financial statements, and this report does not affect our report dated June 14, 2023, on those financial statements.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows of the Company, and our report dated June 14, 2023, expressed an unqualified opinion.
Basis for Opinion
The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audit also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
/s/ PANNELL KERR FORSTER OF TEXAS, P.C.
Houston, Texas
June 14, 2023

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
We are reporting the following information in lieu of reporting on a Current Report on Form 8-K under Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On June 12, 2023, the Board approved a one-time cash bonus payment to Robert D. Wiley, the Company’s Chief Financial Officer. The Company will pay $129,000 to Mr. Wiley on or prior to June [ ], 2023. This amount represents twenty percent (20%) of the total base salary paid to Mr. Wiley in the three years ended March 31, 2023.
In addition, on June 12, 2023, the Board approved, and the Company and Mr. Wiley entered into, a Third Amendment to Employment Agreement (the “Amendment”). Pursuant to the terms of the Amendment, the Company shall pay Mr. Wiley an annual salary of $325,000. All other terms of the Employment Agreement remain in full force and effect. The foregoing description of the Amendment is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Employment Agreement, which is attached to this filing as Exhibit 10.6.

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Information responsive to this item is incorporated herein by reference to our definitive proxy statement with respect to our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholder to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Information responsive to this item is incorporated herein by reference to our definitive proxy statement with respect to our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholder to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
Information responsive to this item is incorporated herein by reference to our definitive proxy statement with respect to our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholder to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
Information responsive to this item is incorporated herein by reference to our definitive proxy statement with respect to our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholder to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
Information responsive to this item is incorporated herein by reference to our definitive proxy statement with respect to our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholder to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
(a) Financial Statements and Financial Statement Schedules are set forth under Part II, Item 8 of this report.
(b) Exhibits
Other Schedules are omitted because they are not applicable, not required, or because the required information is included in the Consolidated Financial Statements or notes thereto.
Reference
Filed or Furnished
Exhibit
Number
Exhibit Description
Form
Exhibit
Filing
Date
Herewith
2.1#
Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated April 30, 2021, by and among Ammo, Inc., SpeedLight Group I, LLC, Gemini Direct Investments, LLC and Steven F. Urvan (1)
8-K
2.1
5/6/2021
3.1
Certificate of Incorporation (Amended and Restated) filed with the Delaware Secretary of State on October 24, 2018
8-K
3.1
10/26/2018
3.2
Bylaws
8-K
3.03
02/09/2017
3.3
Certificate of Designations with respect to the 8.75% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock, par value $0.001 per share, dated May 18, 2021
8-A
3.1
5/20/2021
4.1
Compilation of JSC Agreements dated November 4, 2020
10-Q
4.3
11/13/2020
4.2
Form of Underwriters’ Warrant Agreement issued December 3, 2020
8-K
4.1
12/4/2020
4.3
Description of Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
X
4.4
Promissory Note issued by Ammo, Inc., Firelight Group I, LLC in favor of Hiawatha National Bank, dated October 14, 2021.
10-Q
4.1
2/14/2022
10.1+
2017 Equity Incentive Plan, as amended
S-8
4.1
3/30/2023
10.2
First Amended and Restated Factoring and Security Agreement, as amended, by and between Ammo, Inc. and Factors Southwest, LLC
8-K
10.1
3/11/2021
10.3
Revolving Inventory Loan and Security Agreement, as amended, by and between Ammo, Inc. and Factors Southwest, LLC
8-K
10.2
3/11/2021
10.4
Exclusive License Agreement between AMMO Technologies Inc. and University of Louisiana at Lafayette, dated November 16, 2017, as amended in 2018 and 2022
10-Q
10.1
2/14/2023
10.5+
Employment Agreement of Fred W. Wagenhals
X
10.6+
Employment Agreement of Robert D. Wiley, as amended
X
10.7+
Employment Agreement of Jared R. Smith, dated December 15, 2022
10-Q
10.4
2/14/2023
10.8
Lock-Up Agreement, dated April 30, 2021, by and between Ammo, Inc. and Steven F. Urvan
8-K
10.1
5/6/2021
10.9
Voting Rights Agreement, dated April 30, 2021, by and between Ammo, Inc. and Steven F. Urvan
8-K
10.2
5/6/2021
10.10
Standstill Agreement, dated April 30, 2021, by and between Ammo, Inc. and Steven F. Urvan
8-K
10.3
5/6/2021
10.11
Investor Rights Agreement, dated April 30, 2021, by and between Ammo, Inc. and Steven F. Urvan
8-K
10.4
5/6/2021
10.12
Construction Loan Agreement by and among Ammo, Inc., Firelight Group I, LLC, and Hiawatha National Bank, dated October 14, 2021.
10-Q
10.1
2/14/2022
10.13
Settlement Agreement, by and among AMMO, Inc., Steven F. Urvan and Susan T. Lokey, dated November 3, 2022
8-K
10.1
11/7/22
10.14
Amendment to Settlement Agreement, by and among AMMO, Inc., Steven F. Urvan and Susan T. Lokey, dated November 21, 2022
8-K
10.1
11/22/22
21.1
Subsidiaries of the Company
X
23.1
Consent of Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, P.C Independent Registered Account Firm Relating to Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company for the year ended March 31, 2023
X
31.1
Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
X
31.2
Certification of Principal Financial Officer pursuant to Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
X
32.1*
Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
X
32.2*
Certification of Principal Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
X
101.INS
Inline XBRL Instance Document
X
101.SCH
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
X
101.CAL
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
X
101.LAB
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document
X
101.PRE
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document
X
101.DEF
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
X
Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document)
X
# Certain schedules and exhibits have been omitted pursuant to Item 601(a)(5) of Regulation S-K. The Company will furnish supplementally copies of omitted schedules and exhibits to the Securities and Exchange Commission or its staff upon its request.
+ Management compensatory plan or contract.
* Furnished herewith.