(Originally Published Nov. 27, 2006 by the Pacific Coast Business Times)
A press release from a Camarillo-based body armor company suggests a level of product shipments that may be higher than the number it will ultimately deliver to a Mobile, Ala. law enforcement agency.
The company, Pride Business Development Holdings, is publicly-traded. A spate of releases this fall announced that its Bodyguard Inc. unit had begun delivery of bullet-resistant vests to law enforcement agencies and other customers in the United States and Mexico.
A Nov. 9 release from Pride said that the company commenced delivery of vests to the Mobile County, Ala. sheriff’s department under a contract between the Mobile County Commission and one of Pride’s exclusive body armor dealers.
“Pride expects to deliver up to 350 of its bullet resistant vests per year under the contract,” the release said.
But the Mobile County Commission has not ordered that many vests, and the sheriff’s department does not have that many sworn deputies, according to interviews with Alabama officials. Kate Johnson, the Mobile County Sheriff’s public relations officer, said the department has just 150 sworn deputies of various ranks.
Johnson said that the department has ordered and issued five vests so far under its contract with Azar’s Uniforms, Pride’s dealer for the contract. Fifty-eight more are being shipped, Johnson said, for a total of 63 to be delivered in December. She said that the department would likely buy more vests if others currently owned by the department don’t pass required testing. If they do pass, the department would not replace them, she said.
Pride President Ari Markow said in a telephone interview that the expectation of delivery of as many as 350 vests per year was made based on projections from his employees in the field.
“I’m standing by my numbers based upon what people I find to be reliable are telling me,” he said. “I would assume every officer needs a vest.”
Markow said that he has delivered at least 19 vests so far under this contract. According to Kathy Eddy, the director of public affairs and community services for the Mobile County Commission, the bid was not awarded directly to Pride Development but instead was awarded to a distributor that sells Pride’s products. A copy of the contract provided by Eddy states that on Sept. 11 a contract was awarded to Azar’s Uniforms for full cover body armor.
Eddy said that Azar’s Uniforms owner Mark Azar told her that he hopes to sell around 60 to 70 units. Azar did not return a phone call for comment for this story by press time.
“[The press release] was just overly enthusiastic,” Eddy said.
Product specifications accompanying the contract show that the Mobile County Sherriff’s Office chose “a soft body armor model currently manufactured by Smith & Wesson Bodyguard, located in Camarillo, CA, as an acceptable minimum standard.”
But the status of Springfield, Mass.-based Smith & Wesson’s relationship with Pride is not clear. The two companies have been engaged in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Smith & Wesson.
The firearms manufacturer alleged that Pride was illegally using its own Bodyguard trademark and using Smith & Wesson’s brand name to market body armor after rights to the name had been revoked.
According to filings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, a confidential settlement was reached in that case. Despite the settlement, the case is not yet out of court.
The Bodyguard contract with the Mobile County Commission was awarded before the case was settled and because the settlement is confidential it is not known whether the use of Smith & Wesson’s name in the Alabama agreement was one of the alleged violations.
Azar’s contract with the Mobile County Commission was for one year, but there was a provision to extend the contract for up to two years if all of the parties agreed to do so.
Pride also announced that it received a $1.5 million order to deliver Bodyguard armor for use by the correctional system of Mexico City and that it had commenced delivery of its concealable vests to a private security company contracted by the U.S. Border Patrol to transport prisoners at or near the U.S. border with Mexico. Those announcements were made Nov. 15 and Nov. 2, respectively.
Pride’s quarterly report for the period ended Sept. 30 was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 20. That report shows that Pride lost $8.5 million in the quarter, and more than $19 million for the nine-month period ended Sept. 30. In the 2005 fiscal year, it lost $900,000 in the same quarter and more than $2.3 million in the same nine-month period.
