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Sales to American clients at the subsidiary of IAC have increased eightfold since 1994. constitutes nearly 80% of business, an inverse flip from 20 years ago. It’s also coming from the U.S., where outfits such as Texas Armoring Corp. Sao Paolo alone currently receives 800 armored vehicles a month.īut where the perennial hot spot is Brazil, and need has been white-hot in Mexico, demand now comes from West African nations such as Nigeria, whose growing economy is the largest on the continent. They remain bolstered by demand from what feels like every corner of the globe: From Brazil to Ukraine, Nigeria to the Philippines, everybody wants protection from any imminent threat.Īn estimated 200,000 to 300,000 armored vehicles circulate on streets worldwide, with Brazil leading with the highest per capita number of armored vehicles in the world, according to Texas Armoring Corp. was founded in Ogden, Utah, in 1993 and AddArmor was founded in Jackson, Wyo., in 2017. Others sprouted more recently: Manhattan Armor was founded in New York City in 1979 International Armoring Corp.
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Some outfits, such as O’Gara Group, have been around for more than 100 years it was providing armored limousines in the 1940s, when Harry Truman was president - and a client. He’s built manufacturing plants in eight countries over the last two decades, and next year Burton will open an outpost in India. In Utah, ArmorMax Chief Executive Mark Burton is working on a government contract to deliver 140 Ford vehicles to various agencies by early 2020. In San Antonio, Lawrence Kosub at Texas Armoring Corp., which opened in 1997, is laying plans to open a facility in Central America that can manufacture 200 armored vehicles a year, up from the 50 he now produces annually. No comprehensive data exist for the industry at large, but interviews with many of them have set market growth expectations near double digits, year over year, for the foreseeable future. that indicates the real profits to be made. While brands such as Audi, BMW, and Land Rover already offer in-house bulletproofing options, it’s the rise of sales by the many private providers across the U.S.
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