CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NN, Inc. (NASDAQ:NNBR) ("NN" or the "Company"), a global diversified industrial company that engineers, co-develops and manufactures precision components and assemblies with six sigma quality, today announced entry into a brand-new market segment for the company. The company has successfully entered the Tier 1 contract manufacturing industry for firearm components in the United States market. The key components of this successful market entry are:

Turnkey Tier 1 contract manufacturing
Collaborative product development
Additive manufacturing during prototyping
High volume titanium machining
High volume laser welding and assembly
Multiple surface treatment advancements including ceramic surface coating, physical vapor deposition, and nanocomposite diamond-like carbon coating
ATF and FFL compliance program
CMMC Tier 2 certification program
TISAX Tier 2 certification program
ITAR compliance program
Encrypted communications portal that is CMMC, NIST, ITAR and HIPAA compliant
Attendance at weapons shows in the United States

NN has entered into a contract manufacturing agreement to mass produce completed firearms products for a leading provider of firearms products in the United States. This new business for NN was achieved after a multi-year effort that required:

New products
Titanium machining breakthroughs
Surface treatment breakthroughs
Specialized equipment investments
Multi-year collaborative innovation program with a leading brand owner

This new product category is included within NN’s business growth program in Defense & Electronics. This new business begins in Q3 and will continue ramping up through 2028. This new business is expected to add between $12 million to $15 million in sales.

Growth in Defense & Electronics is a key component of the company’s 5-point growth plan. It is a direct application and natural extension of its in-house capabilities into a new market. Including these new wins, NN has won 20+ new programs worth >$30 to $35 million per year over the last 3 years. The company also has an additional pipeline in Defense & Electronics of $75 million of opportunities and has recently hired a Defense industry specialist. Of note, the company is evaluating the manufacturing of munitions for attack drones.

NN has a multi-product game plan within its Defense & Electronics growth program.

Gold and silver plating of critical electronics modules that are contained in advanced weapon systems
Complicated metal fabrications that are key components within guidance and weapon systems
High-end machined parts that are components in firearms (the focus on this article)

The US defense market is at record spending levels with a 5-year outlook to keep growing. Specific to this new set of awards, the US firearms market is growing due to increased emphasis on baseline safety.

The company is employing a large portion of its US footprint to make products for the defense, electronics, and weapons markets. NN now has 8 plants that are ITAR compliant. This enables the company to have a wide aperture onto these markets with a broad product offering of machined parts, stamped parts, plated parts, and assemblies.

Harold Bevis, President and Chief Executive Officer of NN, Inc., commented, "This is a nice advancement for NN’s sales growth program into new markets. It is another direct payoff on the investments we are making to establish premier positions in high-value markets. A tremendous amount of collaborative innovation occurred between the brand owner and NN over the last couple of years on this program. Many prototypes and many samples were iterated in order to arrive at the perfect next-generation product performance.

"We are creating additional competitive barriers by adding distinguishing factory credentials for this new market – ATF and FFL compliance, ITAR compliance, CMMC Tier 2 certification, and TISAX Tier 2 certification. These credentials enhance participation in these markets.

"A fun fact that is due to the multipart complexity of this new product line is that these products are now the highest-priced products in the company’s portfolio of new products. Prices will range from $200 to $500 for each product."

Bevis concluded, "NN is underway with a multi-year program of sales-driven earnings improvements and this is another building block. Our Defense products growth program is achieving victories. The Defense & Electronics business is already nearly $60 million in sales, and we have a 5-year goal for it to grow to $100 million. It is one of our most profitable segments also due to higher value-add. Our 5 pillars of entrepreneurial break-out growth continue to be focused upon: data center and electric grid, defense and electronics, medical products, high-value vehicle products, and high-value stamped products.

"We will combine this new information along with recent new wins in Data Center and Medical products and adjust 2026 guidance, if needed, for sales, adjusted EBITDA, and New Wins when we release Q2 2026 earnings on August 6. We look forward to discussing this new advancement further at that time."

Suppressor Pieces and Assembled Product

Suppressor Pieces and Assembled Product

About NN, Inc.

NN, Inc., a global diversified industrial company, combines advanced engineering and production capabilities with in-depth materials science expertise to design and manufacture high-precision components and assemblies for a variety of markets on a global basis. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, NN has facilities in North America, South America, Europe, and China. For more information about the company and its products, please visit www.nninc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains express and implied forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the future growth of NN’s medical business, including NN’s expectations regarding current and future customers and programs, the size and future outlook of the medical market, including robotics-assisted surgery, NN’s competitive position in the medical market, expected new business wins for 2026, and NN’s 2026 performance and other statements that are not historical facts.

Forward-looking statements generally will be accompanied by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "guidance," "intend," "may," "will," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project", "achieve," "growth," "enable," "improve," or the negative of these terms, and similar words, phrases or expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that are outside of management’s control and that may cause actual results to be materially different from such statements. Such factors include, among others, general economic conditions and economic conditions in the industrial sector; competitive influences; risks that current customers will commence or increase captive production; risks of capacity underutilization; quality issues; inflationary pressures and material changes in the costs and availability of raw materials, supply chain shortages and disruptions, the availability of labor and labor distributions along the supply chain; our dependence on certain major customers, some of whom are not parties to long-term agreements (and/or are terminable on short notice); the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, as well as expansion of end markets and product offerings; our ability to hire or retain key personnel; the restrictions contained in our debt agreements; the level of our indebtedness and our ability to financing at favorable rates, if at all, or to refinance existing debt as it matures; our ability to secure, maintain or enforce patents or other appropriate protections for our intellectual property; the impact on climate change on our operations; economic, social and geopolitical instability, military conflict, currency fluctuations, and other risks of doing business outside of the United States; and uncertainty of government policies and actions in respect to global trade and tariffs, including the potential impacts of tariffs on the United States economy, the economy of other countries in which we conduct operations and our industry, cyber liability or potential liability for breaches of our or our service providers’ information technology systems or business operations disruptions. The foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" included in the Company’s filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law. New risks and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict their occurrence or how they will affect the Company. The Company qualifies all forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

Investor & Media Contact:

Joe Caminiti

NNBR@alpha-ir.com

312-445-2870

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/61d19ca6-3e6b-47f3-9c62-952b9e443c8a