Exhibitor spotlight: Blaser Group
Blaser Group Ltd CEO Frederic Hanner on live rifle configuration, putting retailers on his own stand, and why the Great British Shooting Show remains the biggest date in the company's UK calendar
The Blaser stand, just inside the doors at the NEC, where the group has exhibited since 2016
Photographs: Harbourside Visual, unless otherwise credited
Walk through the doors of the Great British Shooting Show and you are, almost immediately, standing on the Blaser stand. It is the kind of position most exhibitors would happily trade a chunk of their marketing budget for, and Blaser Group Ltd has occupied it for the best part of a decade. In the latest of our Exhibitor Spotlight interviews, we spoke to CEO Frederic Hanner about what the show delivers for the UK arm of one of Europe’s best-known firearms groups, and what he would like to see it deliver next.
A decade of exhibiting
Blaser has been exhibiting at the show since 2016, the year it chose the event as the stage for the UK launch of the F16 over-and-under. Hanner joined the group in the same year as country manager for J.P. Sauer & Sohn, took charge of the UK business in 2019 and relocated from the group’s headquarters at Isny im Allgäu in southern Germany to Surrey, where he still lives.
The footprint has not changed dramatically in that time, but the line-up standing on it has. “The stand was actually always pretty big,” he says. “We’ve added new brands to it over the years. The right-hand side has always been Blaser, and on the left side we now have Sauer, Mauser and Minox.” Liemke thermal has a smaller presence than it once did; in its place has come ICU, the Austrian cellular trail camera brand for which Blaser Group took on global distribution.
The result is a stand that covers most of a shooter’s kit list under one banner: Blaser shotguns, clothing and optics; Sauer rifles and shotguns; Mauser rifles; Minox optics; and ICU trail cameras.
Build your dream rifle, live on the stand
Blaser upgrades the stand every year, and the headline addition for 2027 is a physical version of something most manufacturers now confine to a website. “We’re looking at doing something new again with Sauer, which is a live configuration,” Hanner explains. “Build your dream rifle is what we’re calling it. You have all the moderators and so on, and you actually put the rifle together yourself.”
Visitors will be able to handle the finished result and walk away with a configuration code to take to their dealer. It is a neat answer to the limitations of an on-screen configurator. “Especially with different wood grades, you need to see it, you need to feel it,” he says. And there is a practical benefit to holding the thing you have just specified: tick every upgrade on the list, as Hanner points out, and “you might have a 10lb rifle at the end”.
Why Blaser puts its own retailers on the stand
Between 13 and 15 people work the Blaser stand across the three days, which is a significant commitment in itself. What is more unusual is who they are. “About half, if not two thirds, of those people are actually dealers,” Hanner says. “We invite our top accounts to be on the stand.”
Blaser covers accommodation and food, issues uniform and trains the retailers on the product. In return, the group gets experienced sales people who can talk to end users with real authority, and the retailers get three days of direct access to customers. “They can hand out their cards. They love it. They’re part of the brand, they see all the new product, and you have your top 10 accounts on the stand.”
It also solved a problem rather elegantly. “We used to fly all these guys in from Germany to help us,” Hanner says. “And I thought, we’re missing a massive trick here. Let’s use our UK retailers.” The upshot is that if a visitor from Cambridge walks onto the stand, there is a fair chance their local gun shop is already here, ready to be introduced.
What a successful show looks like
Blaser does not sell direct to visitors, so success is measured differently. Part of it is proximity: several of the group’s retailers exhibit immediately around the stand, and metal through the door is what the business ultimately lives on. “Getting the feedback from our retailers in the evenings, on how much they’ve done, is important to us.”
The rest is the quality of conversation, particularly around a launch. Hanner’s ideal exchange is a specific one: a stalker who already owns a rifle in a similar calibre, has watched a review of the Mauser 25 online, has come to the show to handle one in person, and will order it through their local RFD the following week. “Those are the conversations I’m looking for.”
Orders are taken at the show on behalf of dealers, and there is a dealer evening with drinks where further business is written. The real measure, though, arrives later. “We always see the uptick in sales calls two or three weeks after the show. That’s when the phone rings and the orders come in.”
Why the British Shooting Show works for Blaser
It is, Hanner says without hesitation, the most expensive show the group does in the UK, and a substantial chunk of the annual marketing budget. Planning starts more or less as soon as the previous show closes, and the 2027 stand is already being worked on with colleagues in Germany. It is, he says, an ongoing conversation rather than a project with a start date: there is always something to discuss, decide or rethink.
So why commit? “Because I believe it is the most focused industry show that covers both shotgun and rifle,” he says. “That’s the big thing for us.” Blaser’s UK business spans clay and game shotguns at one end and stalking rifles, optics and thermal at the other, and there is no other event in the calendar that puts all of those audiences under one roof.
What is new on the Blaser stand for 2027
There is no all-new rifle or shotgun to announce this time, but there will be plenty of reasons to stop. Expect model variants, a new stock or barrel, new clothing arriving as a soft launch rather than a formal unveiling, and new trail cameras.
The one to watch is a custom shop project. “We have a very cool Blaser rifle custom project for the British Shooting Show,” Hanner says. “Two custom shop rifles, very special guns, which we’ll reveal at the show. Then they’re there to buy. Whoever buys them first, buys them.”
Which is, on balance, a fairly compelling reason to be through the doors early.
Find out more at blaser-group.com.
Frequently asked questions
Which brands are on the Blaser Group stand?
Blaser shotguns, clothing and optics; Sauer rifles and shotguns; Mauser rifles; Minox optics; and ICU cellular trail cameras, for which Blaser Group holds global distribution. Liemke thermal keeps a smaller presence than before.
Can you buy a rifle from Blaser at the show?
Blaser does not sell direct to visitors. Orders are taken at the show on behalf of dealers, many of whom are working the stand or exhibiting immediately around it, and the rifle is supplied through your local RFD.
When is the next Great British Shooting Show?
The show returns to the NEC Birmingham on 12, 13 and 14 February 2027, where Blaser Group will be running its Build your dream rifle live configuration with Sauer and revealing two custom shop Blaser rifles.