ACCOKEEK -- Robert Bonaventure took a .22-caliber, nickel-plated pistol with an imitation ivory hand grip from the small blue box on top of his desk and studied it.
"We couldn't meet the demand," he finally said, cupping the gun in his hand. "Basically, we were sold out. We increased production by 10 percent, which was the maximum we could boost it, and we sold everything we could make."
In an industry taking billion-dollar hits from Pentagon cuts, Beretta USA Corp. stands out as an amazing success story.
But the secret to the company's success lies in its product.
While other defense companies struggle, for instance, to shift from producing missiles to electric cars and video games, Beretta only needed to make minor modifications to its military-issue 9 mm handgun to introduce it into other markets.
Beretta's success actually began more than 10 years ago with a carefully planned strategy. It went after and won a military contract to replace the vintage Colt .45 with a new semiautomatic that used the same ammunition as the pistols carried by NATO troops.
Beretta has used that high-profile contract to make a name for itself in the U.S. market and tap into law enforcement and what it calls the commercial markets -- the sale of handguns to private citizens.
Although its military contract -- a pact to supply 390,000 guns worth $110 million -- expired last summer, to hear Mr. Bonaventure tell it, things at the company he runs couldn't be better.
"There was no slowdown whatsoever," he said. "The assembly line kept moving right along."
He talks about record sales, an inability to meet demand, plans for another factory expansion, more jobs and the addition of new product line at its plant off Indian Head Highway in Prince George's County.
Sales reached $120 million last year and are growing at a pace of between 10 and 20 percent annually. Since 1985, when Beretta landed its military contract, employment has risen from 120 workers to about 500, turning out about 15,000 handguns a month.
This is in sharp contrast with most other Maryland defense contractors. The decline in Pentagon spending hit Maryland hard. It is the fifth most dependent state in the nation on military contracts. Companies like Westinghouse Electric Corp., AAI Corp., Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. have eliminated tens of thousands of jobs and closed plants to adjust to declining military business.
The increase in sales at Beretta is due in part to a flurry of orders from law enforcement agencies around the country. They include the recent $5.3 million order from the Department of Justice for 16,400 pistols to be used by Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service agents.
It was the Prince George's County plant's second-biggest contact, topped only by its Army contract.
Robert Steve, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington, said the government considered a number of other guns. "But three years of extensive testing in which more than 10,000 rounds were fired narrowed the choice down to Beretta," he said.
More than 1,800 law enforcement agencies, including most of the police departments in Maryland, have armed their troopers with Berettas.
Last month the San Francisco Police Department placed an order for 2,100, 12-shot, .40-caliber Berettas.
According to Lt. Lawrence Ryan, who is in charge of the department's budget, the order followed a 20-minute shootout between the police and a car thief at a shopping center in which one officer was killed and another wounded.
"We were outgunned," Lieutenant Ryan said. "We needed more firepower. The officer was killed while he was reloading his six-shot .357 Magnum."
He said three other gun manufacturers -- Smith and Wesson, Glock, and Sig-Sauer -- competed for the $561,000 order.
"We had a sample group of about 20 officers -- male and female, big and small -- that were involved in the testing and the Beretta was the overwhelming choice."
Beretta is currently bidding on a contract to be awarded by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 18,000 pistols. If successful it would bring in another $7 million in business.
Although it's not nearly as big, Mr. Bonaventure said another strong market involves the sale of handguns to private citizens who feel they need a gun for personal protection.
About 20 percent of Beretta's $120 million in sales last year came from that market, the fastest-growing segment of the company's business last year.
Proposed gun-control legislation in Washington and in Annapolis created a strong demand from people who feared that if they put off the purchase of a weapon, they might not be able to buy one in the future.
Sales have also been helped over the years by publicity, much of it onthe silver screen. James Bond carried a Beretta before most people in this country ever heard of the weapon, and Bruce Willis brandished one in the "Die Hard" movies, as did Mel Gibson in the "Lethal Weapon" series.
