Today is apparently the Day of the Long Knives around the Remington empire. Hot on the heels of Big Green’s apparent chloroforming of Advanced Armament Corp. comes word from deep within DPMS that their employees have been axed, too. Rifle production at their St. Cloud, Minnesota facility ends in September and parts production will shut down next April. All DPMS manufacturing is reportedly moving to Alabama (we assume that means Remington’s Huntsville operation). Which makes you wonder 1) what other companies are getting the bad news today (Barnes? TAPCO? Para?) and 2) when will Ilion hear that giant sucking sound of jobs moving to low tax, non-union, gun-friendly southern states?
I’m not surprised, The Freedom Group of companies should be renamed “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”.
if this is true as much as it sucks, it will likely be good in the end. capitalism will sort this out for us and the growing firearms industry. if dpms goes than the market will dictate if another company rises to fill the void hopefully creating new innovative and maybe better products.
+1000
You framed this perfectly. If only our idiot politicians and 47% of the population understood as much.
As a Huntsville resident, this is good news.
It seems like Remington is in a flat spin headed into the ground.
Truly a shame!
Is it? sometimes creative destruction is a good think.
Is it just me, or does it seem as if Freedom Group acquired good companies just to axe ’em? My inner “conspiracy theorist” alarm is going off again….
This is just how cerberus rolls.
Companies like Cerberus buy based upon break up value. So, yes, it’s entirely conceivable that they will sell off what they feel are less profitable lines of business, or lines of business that don’t fit into their overall strategy (whatever that might be). I don’t know if they have a need to raise cash – but that could also be a reason.
NO they generally buy what they see as undervalued and poorly run companies which they think they can quickly turn around and spin off (or operate as a cash cow). Don’t seem to be doing so well with this bus. school model.
That’s buying based upon break up value.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/breakoutvalue.asp
Though Cerberus is not publicly traded, they buy publicly traded companies that they feel are close to or below their break up value and then either hold or sell those properties.
What they’re doing now is a sign of a cash flow issue. Either they are trying to raise capital for future deals or (more likely, IMO) their balance sheet is in the red and they are selling off non-performing assets or assets that are a drag on their core business to generate capital to reinvest in their core business.
I don’t think id ever do business with a company named “Cerberus”.
Its like…
“Hey, man, why don’t we sign our company over to LuciferIndustries, they make a killing”
or
“nah, lets not make dinner tonight honey, lets go down to the ChokeAndPuke diner instead.”
lol, true…
that’s how microsoft became the behemoth it is today.
“We’re totally going to cash-flow manage this business to profitability! Accounting needs to manage operations.” – every business that ever went bankrupt
One thing to keep in mind that some of the posts seem to be missing…it’s not that the DPMS brand or the AAC brand is getting axed…it’s just the people and plants in their respective states.
Honestly as much as I loath Freedom Group/Remington Outdoor Company, consolidating things could actually help straighten things out since personnel and logistics and everything will be more under one roof.
Of course I’d rather see something happen like with Windham Weaponry where somebody can step back up and keep these people employed and making good products under a new independent company.
Again, how’d that work out for Marlin?
Windham Weaponry ar’s are very competitively priced and oft offer superior quality.
I agree. I own one and it’s great.
Which means that Freedom Group is starting to look at the breakup value of the business. That’s not a good sign for any of the Freedom Group properties.
If you don’t like freedom group don’t buy their product.
It isn’t hard to enter the firearm market, you can easily see that with all the AR competitors and 1911 competitors.
I don’t understand some of the conspiracy theory talk going on.
Freedom Group is smart to be streamlining their manufacturing processes though.
Less overhead and more money to dedicate to marketing and R&D, if we are lucky maybe even lower prices.
I think a big reason there doing this too is frankly they want to get out of the North. High taxes and obscene gun laws are forcing them to move.
I say New York deserves it. After all, Cuomo did, in effect say to get out if you don’t agree with him right?
The plant in st. Cloud is non union, and actually is in a Gun friendly state here in MN, we don’t have much for restrictions, and you should see the support DPMS gets when they have they’re Outbreak Omega Zombie shoots, it gets bigger every year. I only have DPMS AR rifles because it’s local built and a lot of friends work there, sad day indeed.
The Peoples Republic of Mennesoda may be gun friendly but it is much more an antibusiness damn progressive/populist political cesspool.
Walter Mondale, Eugene McCarthy, George Papandreou, Warren Magnuson, Hubert H. Humphrey,Jesse Ventura, Al Franken etc etc a long long parade of mutts elected by the clueless.
Chicago syndrome (as Seattle, Portland etc) where a Marxist big city drives the rest of the “real” state into mediocracy.
This is a case where a profitable company, in a very conservative part of the state, which has received multiple tax credits for years, moves to become more profitable. Why pay a workforce $11 an hour when you can pay $9? That money is funneled straight to the top. This has nothing to do with Al Frankin you uneducated goon.
It is our politicians that are not gun friendly and the libs in the cities, Duluth, Rochester and anywhere near a reservation. There is a reason why the rest of MN is called greater MN. I live not far from St. Cloud and most of the state minus heavily populated areas are red in voter color.
Not tax friendly
Is this because they F’—d-up the R51 so bad?
My earlier post was somewhat tongue in cheek – but it’s probably a sign of cashflow problems.
Don’t forget tens of thousands of Rem 700s.
-The owner of a 700 LTR with a new Timney trigger.
Being from MN I am not surprised at all at this move. Someone tell me why, a for-profit corporation, would not move from a non-business friendly state, with a far-left leaning inner city populous that is radicalizing even more to the left. Anyone looking at this from a business perspective could easily see why this is taking place. Unions are one thing…taxes are a whole other animal.
Sales tax here in Stearns Co. is 7.375% and for the midwest that is high. I can’t imagine the business taxes DPMS has to pay here. This isn’t Remington’s fault, it’s the state of MN tax happy politicians fault and in our state that’s an even number of both republicans and democrats.
The other problem being that the St Cloud area is one of a dozen or so municipalities in the state that levy there own sales tax. Wonder if that carries into business tax as well.
Perhaps it’s time to slit the throat and wrists of Remington, the faster they bleed out, the sooner it’ll be over…
The citizens of Ilion have Cuomo and Bloomburg’s minions to thank for that sucking sound. I can only hope they will all vote accordingly.
My long-time friend and DPMS employee will be losing his awesome job come the first week of August this year. He spends his work days shooting rifles just down the road from me as I am a hop and a skip from the DPMS property and am a regular at the Del-Tone range which is neighbors with DPMS. Another group of happy and well paid employees losing their jobs because of politicians and the top brass of the Freedom Group who care nothing about jobs or citizens but just what they can get out of the deal. Enjoy our jobs Alabama, at least until your state taxes the gun companies too death there to.
Why would alabama tax their gun business to death?
While I don’t like the subsidies my state (alabama) is giving to all these companies to come here, its not in the electorates favor to increase any taxes, unless you are in Birmingham or Mobile.
By moving the production of these things to the same morons who turned out the r51, I’m really worried about the quality future of these brands. The guys in St Cloud have done alright by me, but I am not buying a gun put together by the r51 monkeys.
You realize the people that do machining and assembly are NOT the same people that do the design work? In the case of the R51 seems to have been long on styling/stylists and short on engineering/engineers.
The engineering department, the accountants (cost and profit mongers), and the managers (got to get my production numbers). Each have a hand in screwing up products. Yet, the machinist and assembly personal get blamed for the products shortcomings. Then there’s the unions….
Actually, it was a turn of the (previous) century design they just rewarmed. It looks the same as the original Remington 51.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remington_Model_51
We started the 51 at AAC. They proper f’ed after knowing better.
Not really a great loss. Lots of better made AR’s out there. I basically always lumped DPMS in the Bushmaster category.
Well it’s time to buy there stock! Moving to a friendlier state where it is easy to do business, and leave those stupid liberals to themselves. That whole state sucks anyway along with the freaks in California. Shit I have to be careful about what I said about California, I use to be one, glad I got out!
Barnes Precision Machine is safe from them and people should know that their rifles are probably in the top 5 in the AR market and gaining ground everyday…especially with their.308 coming out late summer. Check them out and you will see why people are spending their money on their products and loving their purchase decision. They are the real deal and big in the 3 gun arena. Check em out…you will see why.
I’ll bet this has more to do with the tax situation in Minnesota than anything else…This is not a business friendly state when it comes to the tax code.
As an Alabama resident, I welcome this news. It’s hard for me, living in a VERY free, red state, to imagine the chagrin of all those folks who are losing jobs. Yes, maybe most of Minnesota is GEOGRAPHICALLY conservative, but unfortunately for you, politicians are elected by PEOPLE….and the MAJORITY of the people in your state (and others…I’m not just picking on Minnesota here) are morons! It’s kind of amusing to think that the South lost the War of Northern Aggression primarily because all the factories, arms, and ammo makers were in the North. Seems like that’s all changing at a crucial point when the political time bomb could go off at any moment. The Tree of Liberty will not thirst much longer…..
I’m soon moving from Virginia to Wisconsin, both states that are relatively conservative and pro-gun outside the cities, but stridently liberal and anti-gun in the population centers. Virginia’s grown much worse in this regard in the 20 years I’ve lived there, as has North Carolina (from which I came), as Northeasterners flocked to both states looking for jobs and lower taxes. In the process, these same geographic refugees brought with them the social attitudes and voting habits that brought down their fomer states, and they’re committing the same political “crimes” in their new locales. Wisconsin, like Minnesota, has a long history of liberalism, but at least I’m moving into a known quantity. In Virginia, I feel like the rug was pulled out from under me.
I’m sorry to hear of the lost jobs at DPMS, especially because I have an LR-308 that is a beautiful gun. But, whether you’re a large, finance-dominated business like the ironically named Freedom, or an entrepreneurial startup just trying for smart-but-reasonable growth, you can’t ignore the poltical and economic environments outside your own four walls and still survive for long. Sad to say it, but we should be happy that the jobs are staying in the States, rather than moving to Asia or something.
Cerberus is most likely being offered large monetary incentives by the State of Alabama to move those jobs to Huntsville.
For years I’ve heard people say here in the south, “the south will rise again”. The irony… All the gun manufacturers are moving to the south. I wonder if this will spark a new type of weapon like the repeating rifle and other manufacturing advancements in the North during the first civil war . The south with current style weapons and the north with high tech electronic blasters or some other crazy future tech. LOL.
People up here keep voting Dem more jobs will leave… Like Mc Union, $15 to put pickle on a bun….
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