Taurus Armas S.A.

Taurus Armas is the largest firearms manufacturer in Brazil, and the bulk of what it ships goes to civilian buyers rather than to armies. The business started at Porto Alegre in 1939 as a tool and die forging shop called Forjas Taurus, moved into revolvers within a decade, and today runs its principal plant at Sao Leopoldo in Rio Grande do Sul. Shares trade on the B3 exchange under TASA3 and TASA4, and Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos has held voting control since a 2015 capital increase that Brazil's competition authority cleared without conditions. Output has passed two million units in a strong year and reaches more than seventy countries, with the United States accounting for the largest single share of sales, which is why the group built a plant at Bainbridge, Georgia. A joint venture with India's Jindal Defence began pilot production in Haryana in 2024.

The commercial catalogue is where the volume sits. Polymer striker pistols in the G3 and GX4 families, hammer fired TH models, the TX22 rimfire, the 1911 and the 92, and a revolver bench that runs from the compact 605 and 856 through the Tracker and the Raging Hunter to the Judge, which chambers .45 Colt and .410 shotshells. Bolt action rifles joined the line more recently. Two further brands sit inside the group. Rossi, bought in 1997, covers lever guns, rimfire rifles and shotguns, while Heritage Manufacturing, acquired in 2019, sells single action revolvers in the United States.

Military and police work is a smaller and quite separate line. The SMT 40 submachine gun in .40 S&W went to the Policia Rodoviaria Federal and to several state police forces, and the T4 carbine, an AR pattern rifle in 5.56, was developed for armed forces and police tenders. Sales to security agencies pull in the rest of the group too, because Taurus Blindagens in Parana produces ballistic vests, ballistic helmets and riot shields for public security buyers and private security companies.

Three segments outside weapons round out the accounts. Taurus Helmets is the motorcycle helmet business, and its San Marino line has been among the best selling helmets in Brazil for decades. A metal injection moulding operation supplies sintered small parts to the firearms lines and to outside industrial customers, a process very few gun makers run in house. A plastics and container arm produces injection moulded goods, and the company runs its own AMTT Taurus retail stores. Quality problems have shadowed the record and are worth stating plainly. A 2015 class action settlement in the United States covered roughly a million pistols, several Brazilian police forces later withdrew Taurus pistols over firing mechanism defects, and those episodes still colour how procurement officers read the brand. Revenue in 2025 came to about 1.46 billion reais, with the weapons segment supplying the great majority of it and helmets, moulded parts and retail making up the balance.