Aug. 20, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by Silencer Central.

It’s a good thing this company is used to moving fast and adapting – because one of Sioux Falls’ most rapidly growing businesses has had even more demand to manage this year.

Silencer Central again ranks on the newest list of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing U.S. companies, reaching No. 1,339 based on 385 percent revenue growth from 2020 to 2023.

This time, though, there’s even more to the story.

“For years, people decided not to buy silencers because they thought it was too much of a process and they didn’t like the wait time,” said Brandon Maddox, who founded Silencer Central in 2005.

“We created a model that made the process as seamless as possible for them, but we still couldn’t control how long it would take for government approval.”

Before the past year, it generally took 10 months for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to approve a customer’s application for a silencer.

Now, it can be done within a week.

“It’s insane,” Maddox said. “And all it took was a process change.”

With the new process, a customer’s background check is run the day an application is received. If the FBI clears it, the application is approved.

“So nearly eight in 10 silencers they process now are pretty much in real time because the background check doesn’t raise any red flags,” Maddox said. “The rest are then reviewed manually before a decision is made. It’s crazy. I would have never guessed we’d see a scenario that allows us to essentially do our work in real time.”

While it’s great news – especially for customers – it also has meant Silencer Central has had to go from a nine-month window to fulfill orders to essentially being ready to mail its products as soon as the customer is approved.

“We had to redesign a lot, from our warehouse to our customer service, and it was stressful at first because the consumer is tailored to the Amazon model, so it created some unique challenges,” Maddox said.

But Silencer Central responded, and “I think 2024 has been one of the best years for the organization, just purely on growth and sales, growth in partnership and growth in our team and culture,” said Brandon May, chief operating officer.

“We focus on people, process and technology. That’s the three-legged stool that’s allowing us to scale and have the capacity for growth.”

In hiring, for instance, Silencer Central is focused in key roles on adding people “who come from high-growth organizations,” he said. “They can come here and see not where we are now but where we will be in two or three years and understand what it takes to get there.”

Partnerships with third-party vendors also have been a strong focus, ensuring that “we have multiple sources for every product we make, every accessory,” May continued. “And we’ve scaled up manufacturing, and that’s been huge.”

There now are 24/7 shifts running at manufacturing sites in four states to keep up with demand.

“Essentially, we flipped our operation on its head,” May said. “When we had 260 days to service the customer, it was entirely different. Now, we had to revolve our whole model around same-day service because essentially as soon as it’s received it can be sold in most cases.”

In the Sioux Falls distribution center, “we’re ramping up a second shift so we can ship almost 18 hours a day to keep up with the demand,” he continued. “We’re shipping same day to all 42 states where we’re licensed because the consumer wants it.”

It’s all adding up in a big way. May estimates that since he started with Silencer Central less than three years ago, revenue is up close to 200 percent.

“We’re building the foundation for even more – we have the core technology and the process and the people, and that’s been our focus,” he said. “If you want to buy a suppressor in most markets, you’re not going to be able to because of how the demand has changed. But we ramped up when we needed to and now have product and material when no one else does.”

The company also is robustly growing talent at all levels. There’s a 160-person team in Sioux Falls that’s expanding nearly daily.

“If you’re someone who operates well in the ‘gray,’ who likes challenges and wants to be part of an organization that thrives on doing better every day, and if you want to put your mark on one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., this is the place to be,” May said. “We’re pulling from large organizations and appealing to people to come here because in many ways we’re still a green field and you get to help build it, and that’s been a key point in recruiting.”

To learn more about opportunities to grow your career at Silencer Central, click here. 

And don’t expect the company to slow down anytime soon.

“We’re looking at expansion in 2025, including our distribution center,” May said. “We own additional land near our headquarters, and we need to keep building to support our growth. We’re dealers, manufacturers, software as a service and a distribution channel, so we need to make sure we can continue to push out thousands of products throughout the U.S. each year. That’s our biggest and next opportunity.”