Randy Luth founded Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services (DPMS) in 1985 in
Osseo, Minnesota, as a
precision machine shop for manufacturing
M203,
M14 and
M16 parts for U.S. military contracts. In the later 1990s, the company employed 30 people selling
Colt 1911 and
AR-15 parts and accessories and moved the company to
Becker, Minnesota. DPMS later began producing
AR-15 style rifles. DPMS moved to
St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 2004. In 2007, the firm was named one of
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal's "50 fastest-growing privately held companies". DPMS doubled its revenue between 2004–2007 and employed 65 people in 2008.
Freedom Group purchased DPMS Panther Arms on December 14, 2007, the same year it purchased
Marlin Firearms. Freedom Group was a consortium of firearms manufacturers and was part of
Cerberus Capital Management, a New York private equity investment firm. Cerberus combined DPMS with
Bushmaster Firearms International,
Remington Arms and Cobb Manufacturing to form the
Freedom Group. Remington was the company's immediate corporate parent. On December 20, 2012, Cerberus announced they were selling their Freedom Group brands, including DPMS, based on pressure from a California pension board. ==Products==