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AirGunEric · Site Admin

Was at the SHOT show 2 weeks ago, and came across a barrel manufacturer; "ESS Solutions". (The purpose, in general terms, of the SHOT show is for vendors/manufacturers to meet with existing suppliers and find new ones for different products- booth holders pay a good chunk of change for a booth to sell themselves.)

Anyways, one of my ideas in going down there was to discuss having some barrels made, a small batch at first, then go from there. So, someone (someone here) was extremely helpful and spent time drawing up the specs. on the barrels to be done- which I then sent off right away to ESS.

As this is occurring, I go hunting for reviews on these ESS Solutions barrels (owner claimed they made barrels for a number of "big name" manufacturers, although no proof of this was apparent)- only found a few reviews, all of which indicated people had problems with their barrels, but all also stated that ESS "was working" with them (at the time of the posts, some of which were many months old) to resolve the issues- but none seemed to post any final results on what they ended up with at the end of the day. But, as it seemed apparent this company/gentleman was willing to work with people to resolve any issues that might come up- and the barrels I was pursuing were not so complex, it seemed alright to go along with them.

Did not hear back for over a week- sent an email a couple days ago asking when they might be able to respond, as when I submitted the drawings, the response was "I will talk with our engineering department and get back with you". Then, what appears about 30 minutes ago? An email from the owner stating they cannot do any barrels as they "received a large order and all machines are occupied until September 2012."

Not sure about people in generals' business skills- but I find it unbelievable that someone would take one large order and tie their business up for 9 months on it. What occurs if this customer doesn't come back? They are out of business. You can't ignore the entire world for 9 months and then re-appear with a big "ta-dah, here we are again"- everyone will have moved on, and it would be unlikely anyone aware of how they prioritized this "large order" would trust them to get a job done for them if something similar were to come up again.

Forget the arguments of scalability and increasing capacity, forget that there are no positive reviews online that I could find of the actual barrels produced by ESS, forget that laying all ones eggs in one basket is a risk that no business with any measurable business acumen that is not a controlled sub-division of another company (who is their main or only customer) would even think of taking- this guy is, in my opinion, likely to find himself in deep doo-doo sooner or later- his entire future is tied up in what appears to be one customer/transaction for 9 months.

In any event, ESS Solutions gets a big "thumbs down" from me for wasting my time, and likely many many other people who approached them at the SHOT show whose time was a complete write-off on them.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Did a bit more inspecting online- what I could find seems to indicate that what people ultimately ended up with from ESS Solutions was either not what they requested, or just not worthwhile. Alot of conjecture from people who had not actually received a barrel from the company that because they were apparently "trying hard" it must all be good- a trap I obviously fell into as well...

In my opinion- no one should waste their time on this company - and just so there's an bit of an explanation for this post being put up here- it is so that the next guy who does a Google Search on ESS solutions of Providence, Rhode Island, a manufacturer of gun/rifle barrels and apparently some firearm accessories, will hopefully find more information on the company (i.e. this post on ESS Solutions) than I did a couple weeks back...

Slavia · Moderator

Any idea on who their "big" customer might be?

SMP · Silver Status Member

WOW....What a huge friggin PITA!

Your absolutely right, devoting 100% of your production capacity to service 1% of your client base is colossally stupid. Because your bread and butter is now talking to Shilen, Lilja and LW because THEY can't afford to put their customers on ice for a year.

or whats even more likely is Cottage Industry XYZ is going to become aware of an unserviced market and their going to ramp up to fill that market. And if they do a decent job of it then ESS Solutions will reappear to discover the market they originally existed to service has disappeared.

Good Ol free market economy at it's simplest.

Sounds like you were spared by fate from a bad deal all around.....Still a bummer though

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

It could be that they cannot supply/make to your designs and rather than say "we can't do it" and made an excuse that they were to busy.

As it appears that some people don't get what they want, so it could be they have a limited number of barrels and sizes and alter them to what the customer wants.

They could be buying surplus stock from somewhere?

Al

AirGunEric · Site Admin

As it appears that they have only produced what appear to be M4/AR and AK/SKS type barrels in the past- it is entirely plausible they simply don't know how to do anything else. No one I have found can actually state they have ever seen the business, only pictures. I worked very briefly for a company 20 years ago that had a great, glossy flyer of a 200,000 square foot stand alone building with their name Photochopped above the front door- not the 3500 square foot warehouse space they in fact occupied...

That being said- how difficult could it be to produce QB-type barrels?

But in any event, fate may have saved me from a bad deal- I will find someplace else (LW perhaps).