MANUFACTURING essentially eliminated several of its prior partners .
Around the same time , G . I . Sportz ’ s management team identified its largest competitor , KEE Action Sports , as the next acquisition target in an attempt to source paintballs instead of manufacturing them . With the financial support from Fulcrum , G . I . Sportz was able to make the purchase of KEE in July of this year .
Today , G . I . Sportz , as a paintball company with the three acquisitions and the subsequent growth , will end the calendar year with around $ 140 million of sales . Thomas gives a lot of the credit to Italia , who Thomas praised for his business acumen .
“ Richmond Italia has been arguably the most successful entrepreneur in paintball ,” said Thomas . “ He started out as a paintball player , as well as a paintball field and store owner . Basically , the customers that we sell to today ? He was one of them .”
According to Thomas , Italia ’ s sharp business acumen rubs off on
G . I . Sportz ’ s suppliers as well “ We ’ re very good at treating our suppliers like partners ,” said Thomas . “ We pay our bills on time and we see a lot of these guys on a daily basis . We ’ re not a company that just buys from them and then are on cruise control . We ’ re always trying to grow and do more things .” “ Italia is like the golden goose .
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