Magtech

 created in 1990
São Paulo, Brazil
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

• 1926 Costabile and Gianicola Matarazzo, founded Fábrica Nacional de Cartuchos e Munições
• 1936  sold their operation to Remington Arms and Imperial Chemical Industries
  – renamed Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos (CBC)
• 1979 sold & now is privately owned
• All ammunition made in Brazil
• three production facilities
  – São Paulo
  – 2x Rio Grande do Sul
• 2009 CBC purchased Sellier & Bellot
• produce over 1.5 billion cartridges annually

About Magtech

Magtech is the international ammunition brand of CBC (Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos), the Brazilian ammunition maker founded in 1926 in São Paulo by two Italian immigrants to make hunting ammunition. Remington Arms and Imperial Chemical Industries became shareholders in 1936 and kept their stakes until 1979. Over the following decades CBC added firearms manufacturing in 1960, a primer composition plant in 1969 and a propellant plant in 1987. In 1990 it created the Magtech brand along with a U.S. distribution center in Minnesota. The brand introduced many American shooters to CBC’s brass-cased handgun and rifle ammunition.

CBC has since become one of the largest small arms ammunition groups in the world. It bought the German military and police supplier MEN in 2007 and the Czech maker Sellier & Bellot in 2009. It took control of Taurus in 2015 and in 2023 bought Sinterfire, a maker of lead-free frangible bullets. In 2024 CBC partnered with the Colt CZ Group, selling Sellier & Bellot to Colt CZ and becoming Colt CZ’s second-largest shareholder. Through Magtech, CBC remains one of the major ammunition brands in the American market.

Key Facts

• 1926: CBC founded in São Paulo, Brazil
• 1936: Remington Arms and ICI became shareholders, until 1979
• 1990: Magtech brand and Minnesota distribution center created
• 2009: CBC acquired Sellier & Bellot
• 2015: CBC took control of Taurus
• 2024: Sellier & Bellot sold to Colt CZ Group; CBC became Colt CZ’s second-largest shareholder

Learn More

• Taurus

Sources

• Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos (Wikipedia)
• Company history, CBC and Magtech official websites (accessed October 2026)

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