Big-Game Passion Turns To Big Business for Magnus Creator

From One Idea - Mark Sohm holds his invention that started it all for Magnus Inc. - the spot welder fixture. "It's the same way we're doing it today, only this is the simplest version," explained Sohm. "I started with nothing and it was the simplest way to spot weld the broadhead."    The spot welder fixture keeps the broadhead in place so it doesn't move while being welded.    "We've come a long, long way since then," said Sohm. "I refer to those days as the caveman days. I've done every job here. I've straightened over a million broadheads in my life and I've done it all here, but I can honestly say I really do love what I do. I've been fortunate and have received a lot of help from different people. Great Bend has been very good to us."

The young bowhunter watched and waited in his tree stand for a moment he knew might never occur - the moment when he quietly would take aim with his bow, send an arrow whispering through the air, honing toward its target and instantly harvesting the mighty animal he had been tracking for weeks. No matter the meticulous planning and preparation involved, however, the only real certainty for the big-game hunter were the minutes, hours and days that drifted by, leaving him in peaceful solitude to wait, observe and think.

Twenty-three years ago Mike Sohm was that young big-game hunter and his tree-stand thinking led to his genius invention of a better broadhead that eventually led him to form Magnus Inc., the only broadhead manufacturer with a lifetime replacement guarantee.

Initially, the bow-hunting hobbyist began manufacturing his broadhead for his own use in 1984. Word spread quickly from that point forward and all at once, there was demand for his special product.

"I wasn't happy with what was out there, so I just started dinking around with it," said Sohm. "It was just word of mouth from there, getting some out to some guys. The very first year was about $780 worth. I couldn't even tell you how many broadheads that was."

Today, Magnus sets the excellence standard in premium broadhead quality, selling to the largest national sporting goods chains like Cabela's, Bass Pro Shop, Gander Mountain, Sportsman's Warehouse, Academy Sports, Scheels All Sports and Mills Fleet Farm. The company also sells to about 1,000 independent archery pro shops across the country. And has distributors and dealers in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Belgium, Ecuador and Canada. For the last five years, Magnus has grown by an average of 150 new dealers every year.

Magnus manufacturers 46 models of broadheads, appealing to the traditionalist as well as the modern shooter for recurve and longbows, and for every type of big game. There's different sizes, grains and diameters; there's two blade, three blade and four blade; there's even screw on tips and glue on tips.

Machine Matters - Senior machinist Mike Ward operates a CNC 10-Axis Screw Machine at Magnus. Ward has been with the company for about two years. Sohm designs new broadheads for the company's line, but Ward is integral in that process by providing details in the design process. Bowhunters tend to be a particular type who rely on exactness when out in the field. Magnus broadheads are known in the industry as providing that fine-tuned quality they seek. That process takes quality control at every facet of production.    "I've been fortunate to have good people around me," said Sohm. "We wouldn't be around today if we didn't have Mark Nichols and Mike Ward in the back; if we didn't have the production that we have. It's a total team effort and all parts of the team have to be working for there to be success."

"There are days I still drive up to our building and say, 'Man, this got way out of control,' but it's out of control in a good way," said Sohm.

His initial creation was a rudimentary process where he manufactured broadheads with a spot welder fixture in a spare bedroom at his parent's house in Otis. Business expanded, and he moved the operation to their garage. A decade after turning out his first broadhead, he left the security of his 14-year employment as a mechanic at Fuller Brush and opened Magnus full time at its present location, 800 Washington.

"When I left Fuller Brush, my parents thought I was nuts, but they supported me," remembered Sohm. "It wasn't monetary help, but they both helped with my business and provided constant encouragement for me."

His mother, Lois, who died three years ago, was the first employ he hired when Magnus began operating full time 13 years ago. His sister Susan Mohr followed as the second employee for Magnus several months later. She now lives in Pennsylvania, but continues working for the company as an assembler, receiving parts and shipping back finished product. Sohm's other sister, Diane Rexwinkle, has been employed with Magnus for nearly as long and continues to work in the company's factory, with about a dozen other production employees. Sohm still receives family support from his father, Lowell. The two live together in Otis and Mike refers to his dad as his fishing partner and best friend.

Motor City Magnus - Mark Sohm stands with friend and Magnus spokesman Ted Nugent during an archery trade show. The two became friends nearly 20 years ago when the rock-and-roll legend called Sohm to design a line of broadheads for him. "I'm a big-time Ted fan," said Sohm. "I'm a guy who used to not even listen to his music, but you end up liking him because he's just a great guy. He's passionate in everything he does and he's extremely intelligent."    Nuge is as passionate about hunting as he is about rock and roll with an extensive Web site committed to both areas at www.tednugent.com. Last month, Nugent launched his first new album in five years, titled, "Love Grenade," which includes an old standard, "Journey to the Center of Your Mind," that the Amboy Dukes, one of Nugent's early bands, recorded in the late 1960s.    "He tours in the summer and hunts in the winter and he does speaking engagements," said Sohm. "When my dad listens to him talk, he always says, 'He's telling the truth.'"

Sohm's business received its biggest break 20 years ago when legendary rock guitarist and wild game hunter Ted Nugent contacted Sohm to make a line of broadheads carrying Nugent's name. Magnus discontinued that line a couple of years ago, but from that call sprung a friendship that still carries forward today. Nugent continues to serve as a spokesman for the company, promoting its superior products.

"That association with Ted is what kicked it in," said Sohm. He's a really good guy and the greatest field tester in the world. I've been around a lot of guys in this industry over the years and there's nobody as passionate as Ted is about his hunting."

What helped take Magnus over the top, however, was the introduction of the Magnus Stinger five years ago. The Stinger is precision machined from knife-graded stainless steel and sports an aircraft aluminum ferrule and a diamond tip, giving it superb strength. The company now offers six models of the Stinger line of broadheads, both two-blade and four-blade. The Stinger line has been the largest seller for Magnus, almost immediately out of the gate when it was introduced. That coincided with the hiring of national sales manager Mark Nichols, an avid hunter who knows his way around the sales business and has been able to help grow the company's dealership base by an average of 150 new businesses a year. Magnus also benefited with the hiring of senior machinist Mike Ward and Sohm hired his former co-worker from Fuller Brush, Neal Dreiling as the company's production manager a few years ago.

Straight as a Broadhead - Magnus production manager Neal Dreiling checks a broadhead for straightness, only one of many steps the company takes to ensure quality control.    "I worked at Fuller Brush with Neal for 14 years," said Sohm. "I told him, 'One day I'll be coming to have you work for me.' He had the most patience in the world when doing his job. He's been here with us a couple of years."    Magnus is coming out with two more quality products. This month, it introduces its knife tool and broadhead sharpener to a worldwide market. Next month, it expects to present a special broadhead made strictly for turkey hunting. The new products will help increase sales during the slower times of the year, which are January through April and November through December.    The sharpener will expand Magnus beyond the archery niche for the first time as it can be used in hardware, food service, and other sporting goods areas like camping.

More recently, the Magnus Stinger BuzzCut was introduced, with the same quality as the Stinger, but with a serrated main blade. It has become a popular item for hunters as well.

Besides design superiority and its use of the highest grade of materials for production, Magnus keeps its edge over the competition with its unprecedented quality control process. Magnus employees test each broadhead that leaves the factory by balance and spin testing and visually checking craftsmanship of every head. Most broadhead manufacturers batch-check every 100 or so, but Magnus tests every single one. At the customer's request, it also replaces any of its damaged products, no matter the reason the product was damaged.

"That's something I adapted from Fuller Brush," explained Sohm. "Fuller had a lifetime guarantee on its mops and I adapted it to fit what we sell. That's an important assurance to our customers."

Magnus provides its superior product and services, all the while keeping its prices at slightly under those of most premium broadheads.

Tip Testers - Two Magnus employees dial in the tips, checking broadheads for concentricity, ensuring that they do not wobble. Every broadhead goes through the same test and must pass before being boxed and eventually shipped to customers. The company makes 46 types of broadheads today after Sohm started with two in 1984. "Bowhunting was a passion for me and it still is," said Sohm. "I am able to hunt more than I used to because I have good people around me now. I make it more of a priority than I used to. When you get into a profession because of the sport and then you don't have time to do the sport, it gets frustrating. But, with the people I have here now, it's given me more time to do that."

In keeping with unprecedented quality control, Magnus field tests every one of its new product lines before sending them to production. Experienced big-game hunter Woody Sanford performs research and development for the company. He lives in Alaska, providing ample opportunity to test products because of proliferation of wild life, having access to carcasses for field testing from Alaska Fish and Game. Shooting broadheads into a frozen moose carcass, for example, tests the durability and penetration effect. In that way, Magnus ensures that hunters are able to harvest wild game humanely with its products.

Sohm said it's only been within the last three years that he feels his company has turned the corner, about the time he teamed up with Community Bank to advance his business plan. He said the bank is more like a business partner, rather than as just a lending company. "I would not have survived in business if not for the bank's help," he said.

Parts Together - Renee Mick assembles a three-bladed broadhead that will be packaged and shipped out of the warehouse. Assembling broadheads requires the ability to marry quality with the pace of production. The assembled heads make their way to specific blister packs in shipping where they are shipped out daily to all parts of the United States and several other countries. "When we first moved here, we were actually in the two-shed tier back there with five people working," remembered Sohm. "It was 110 degrees there in the summer and about 35 or 40 in the winter. Those were the days you wondered if you were going to make it. Persistence and perseverance were the only things we had to keep going."

"Every year you continue on, you get more confident in what you are doing," said Sohm. "I've had the wolves howling at my doors many times, but I didn't know anything else but to keep going. You keep your word with customers and produce what you have agreed to produce."

Now that Magnus is on solid financial footing and has secured its position in the premier broadhead market, it would seem that Sohm could think about something else during those lengthy stays in his tree stand - but that's not the case.

"When I'm sitting in that tree stand nowadays, I still think about broadheads," said Sohm. "That's why I really love fishing, actually, because I don't think about broadheads. I have thought about making a better lure, while fishing, but then I think that I don't even want to go down that path. I'll let someone else worry about that one."