Nioa Defence caught in Stinger-Taser crossfire
Courier Mail, Page: 23. Monday, 14 April, 2008
Controversy comes with the territory when you’re an arms dealer.
So it is with the Nioa family business, which grew from supplying gun shops frequented by farmers and hunters in the 1970s into the country’s leading private dealer of small arms.
The business drew attention in 1998 with revelations it had earned more than $1 million in compensation under Queensland’s gun buy-back scheme while director and family patriarch Bill Nioa was the scheme’s chief valuer.
Allegations of a possible rort involving overvalued machine gun magazines sparked a police probe; charges never materialised.
The Nioa family’s links to the National Party, then in Government, were highlighted.
These links came via sons Tony and Robert, who had bought into their father’s business after running car accessories and fuel outlets around Wide Bay.
Tony had been a Nationals ’ candidate for Hervey Bay, his wife Kathleen a press secretary for Senator Flo Bjelke-Petersen and her cousin Luke Shaw was a controversial member of the Joh jury.
Youngest brother Robert, the one most interested in firearms, was married to the daughter of another gun enthusiast, then-federal Nationals MP Bob Katter.
A decade on and Mr Kaller has turned his back on the Nationals, while Robert has managed to steer Nioa Defence into lucrative police contracts amid wall-to-wall state Labor governments.
Robert now stands as a second generation managing director and sole shareholder of Nioa, with the passing of his father and eldest brother James, and middle brother Tony selling his stake in 2002.
After Port Arthur inspired gun regulations in the mid-1990s triggered a slump in the commercial market, it was Robert who saw certainty in military and law enforcement contracts.
He also recognised the chance to grow as disheartened wholesale competitors bowed out.
Today, with a staff of 35 and personnel across the country, Nioa Defence sports contracts with the Australian Customs Service, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Defence.
Nioa boasts strong relationships with WA, NSW and Queensland police services in particular.
So when QPS recently called for tenders to supply stun guns, Nioa’s decision to plump for the Stinger porate regulator alleging they misled the market about production dates of an earlier stun gun model in 2004 and 2005.
Despite this, police departments in the US have S-200 a rival to the Taser was significant.
It lent credibility to the flagship of Stinger Systems, a small Florida maker struggling through lean sales of its other products, which include electrified riot shields and prisoner restraints. But it also drew Nioa into the crossfire between Stinger and Taser International, known for fiercely protecting the worldwide monopoly it has enjoyed for more than a decade.
Stinger Systems was banking on significant order volumes for the S-2 00, which it began producing in October, to attract the investment it needs for continuing research and development.
But then in January, the company and its president Robert Gruder copped a lawsuit from the US corcontinued to sign up for the Stinger. The company says it has also sold units in South Africa, the Philippines, Columbia, Romania, Spain and Georgia.
Following a Courier-Mail story on Nioa and Stinger late last month, the newspaper was contacted by Taser’s Melbournebased Australian distributor George Haightley. He relayed, among other things, information about the US Securities Exchange Commission’s complaint about Stinger, forwarded to him by Taser International’s founding chairman Tom Smith.
Stinger’s Mr Gruder later shot back, by email, that Taser "also had an SEC investigation on them".
Robert Nioa says the lawsuit amounts to "a minor matter of US corporate governance" and would not affect delivery of the S-200.
He says he has tracked Stinger and its fortunes over the last five years.
He even communicated briefly with Taser International before submitting his tender to the QPS.
But he says he opted for the S-200 because he thought it was superior, as well as being cheaper to maintain and buy upfront at $600 a piece.
Taser prices have varied between $1200 and $1800, he says, but have come down to $800 for the QPS tender.
Robert believes NSW and Victoria will follow.
This would mean about $30 million in opportunities if Nioa were to win supply contracts with police along the entire eastern seaboard.
Robert Nioa says Taser will have "a propaganda machine" firing at Stinger every step of the way.
But then he, of all people, is hardly gunshy.
Home > Media monitoring > 2008 > Nioa Defence caught in Stinger-Taser crossfire