What do you Kiwis think about this?

NIOA will expand its presence in New Zealand with the acquisition of a leading firearms and ammunition wholesale distributor as part of a strategy to extend its operations to include a permanent presence in New Zealand.

Australian-owned NIOA has acquired a 100 per cent stake in Sportways Distributors.

https://www.nioa.com.au/latest...-firearms-wholesaler

Sportsways has been second rate for a number of years as it has lurched through ownerships and closures. I dont know much about NIOA, but my thought is if they offer one competitor too Hunting and Fishing and Gun city, then it cant be too bad.

At least the Hunting and Fishing franchise and Gun City have a good coverage of well stocked retail stores and both offer good service in obtaining stock from within their outlet chains and obviously from national agents for the various components and commodities they retail.

Never had any dealings with Sportways and not sure if NIOA set up retail store chains or not. They won't compete with H&F and GC if they don't.

Hopefully they will start bringing in Winchesters again...

Hopefully they will restore some semblence of service that has been missing from Sportsways for too long now.

NIOA are one of several importers and distributors in Oz. AFAIK they only supply retail and don’t have a direct retail presence here. They also supply a lot of military and police requirements, so that may be another angle.

Some other importers might be spewing. Like he current importers of leupold.