P1070073

Magpul is without a doubt one of the most recognizable and widely admired brands in the firearms industry. Just about everyone uses their products (myself included), and they have done more to change the look and feel of AR-15 rifles than any other company in the last decade. When Colorado’s legislature went off the deep end in the post-Sandy Hook legislative fervor, Magpul announced that they would be pulling up stakes and leaving their home state for good. They wanted to show the legislature that their actions had real and lasting consequences, and Magpul is making good on that promise. Now, word comes that Magpul has finally decided on a new home for their corporate headquarters as well as a home base for manufacturing: Austin, Texas.

From the press release:

Austin, TX – Magpul Industries today announced the following facility updates:

Magpul’s corporate headquarters has moved to Texas and is located at 8226 Bee Caves Road, Austin, TX 78746. This property was placed under contract in March 2014 and closed in November 2014. During this acquisition period, Magpul’s corporate headquarter functions were transitioned to a temporary facility in Texas to facilitate the final corporate relocation.

Magpul’s Wyoming manufacturing and distribution center will open in January 2015 and is located at 7201 Commerce Circle, Cheyenne, WY 82007. A 50,000 sqft addition is scheduled to be completed in December 2014 and Magpul manufacturing and distribution functions will be transitioned to the 185,000 sqft facility beginning on January 12, 2015. All of Magpul’s existing Colorado facilities will close during the first quarter of 2015. Magpul will open a single administrative location in Colorado to support the relocation and this site will then serve as a regional support office.

“These new facilities in Texas and Wyoming immediately enhance and expand the company’s business operations,” says Duane Liptak, Director of Product Management and Marketing for Magpul Industries. “Magpul remains committed to completing the final phases of this transition without disruption to our customers and business partners.

Over the last couple years, Texas has become the Mecca for firearms. The majority of the staff for this website (TTAG) has moved to the Austin / San Antonio area, and more and more companies are following suit.

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65 COMMENTS

    • Right across Bee Cave Road from my neighborhood . . . wonder if they’ll have a “factory store” on premises?

    • Are there any other business that made a similar move, faster? No offense, Ralph – it’s just that your irritation towards Magpul’s move hit me a bit…sideways. It takes a ton of time and money to move any kind of business, let alone a manufacturing. But I’m sure I’m not telling those older and wiser than me anything new. Have a good Thanksgiving!

      • My companies — much larger than Magpul — moved major manufacturing facilities around the country. So, yeah, there are companies that made much bigger moves much faster. Years faster, actually.

    • “Play stupid politics, lose a business’ taxes.”

      Hey, Nick –

      Perhaps you could suggest to Magpul they have in their advertising the taxes they will be paying in Texas and not in Co.

      And the number of jobs Co. lost and Texas gained…

  7. Sweet. Bet they got a deal from Gov Perry, who did so well on his last road trip, in CA. Glad they put jobs into Wyo, too.

    Simultaneously turning Austen a little more red-state at the same time. Double win! Both states on my short list for retirement relo.

    Hope some readers will post the link on Hickenpoopers website, as a reminder of consequences.

    • Wyoming offered Magpul a $13 million grant and loan package to relocate Magpul’s manufacturing to Wyoming. On top of which, Wyoming has no state income tax. CO does.

      Texas’ zero state income tax is 5% better than Colorado’s piggyback tax. I’m not sure that TX had to put anything else on the table just to get a headquarters relocated to the state. Grants and loans have their greatest impact on manufacturing, not executive, clerical and administrative.

  8. Boy, I’ll bet they had plenty of offers from states wanting the business.
    More proof that Texas fosters a business friendly atmosphere.

    I’ll continue to support Magpul by buying more products.

  9. Congrats magpul! I wonder if the governor of Colorado will express ‘confusion’ like when Beretta moved out of their home state.

  10. Now. Magpul should refuse to sell anything to Colorado state agencies anything Colorado citizens are not allowed to own.

    • I’d make that a bit more specific. Not sell to them anything they aren’t allowed to sell to us.

      I am allowed to OWN any magazine out there, provided I have owned it continuously since 1 July 2013. (Mags of >15 capacity are the only things they messed with, and mine are grandfathered). I can’t go buy one today, however, without violating the stupid law. (I know there’s plenty of black market out there, and apparently there’s a loophole (if you want to call a way around a law that shouldn’t exist a loophole) in that you can still buy the parts then assemble them.)

      Since I cannot buy a mag >15 rounds in capacity, Magpul should not sell them to any government agency or agent in Colorado. Speaking of which, I regret they left, because some idiots elected to public office made it necessary. But I am also glad that given the circumstances they were in they had the will to do the right thing.

      • Magpul shouldnt sell anything more than 10 rounds to government agencies in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Too bad the gun industry doesnt put some action behind their words supporting gun rights by not selling to state governments where they restrict their citizens constitutional rights.

      • Steve, you can always go to Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, or Texas and buy what you want. Their all within a day’s drive, and nobody in Colorado will know any different. Or you could have a friend or relative send them to you from elsewhere. How will HickenBlooper know?

  11. Great news. Magpul is a great American sucess story. An industry powerhouse that started out by making glorified rubber bands.

      • That’s nice, but supporting large businesses requires expensive infrastructure of all kinds, and if those paychecks don’t ultimately make up for the amount of tax money and infrastructure utilized, then the burden is shifted to other taxpayers.

        Now, I’m not saying that this particular deal is a rip-off, it’s just these increasingly costly sweetheart pay-offs are another step in the U.S. sliding down to second-world status–where pay-offs, sweetheart deals and cutthroat regional competition for jobs goes hand-in-hand with working poverty, corruption and a lack of infrastructure.

        • Not sure about magpul’s difference but if its anywhere near the ratio of Toyota’s move to Plano it will be good for Texas.
          For Example: Texas and the city Plano put a combined 46.75 million to get Toyota over here, in a one time expenditure. Its estimated that in 10 years Toyota will be bringing in 7.2 Billion.

          http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-15/toyota-texas-move-could-generate-7-2-billion-analysis-finds.html

          They should make it all back. And then quite a bit more. I would assume that the Magpul deal should be similar at a different ratio.

        • It’s not like Texas doesn’t have ANY taxes; of course we do. We just don’t tax INCOME. Plus, our corporate tax rates are lower that most other states, and regulations are also business friendly. The many benefit is that because of the above, Texas has the best “local” economy in the country, therefore, more people work, more people buy homes (property taxes) more people use the toll roads, etc. All in all, a big win for both Texas and MagPul, but even more so for we Texans.

  14. Sadly, gun grabbers in Colorado are probably thinking/saying “good riddance Magpul … we don’t want your ‘blood money’ anyway.”

    • They’ve already done so. The claim is that Magpul wanted to leave before CO went full retard and that the law was an excuse. Why Magpul would need an excuse is beyond me, but then again, I’m not leftarded.

  15. It’s a loss for those of us here in Colorado. I will continue to support magpul of course but one wonders if the democrats who forced this issue even think twice about the loss of hundreds of good jobs. As Bugs Bunny often said, “what a bunch of Maroons.”

  16. This is good news, right up the road from my office no less. Nice to have these kinds of businesses moving here to balance out all the ones from NY and CA.

  17. Why Austin??? Why move from one, once freedom loving, place that has been taken over and turned into a left/liberal enclave, only to move into the exact same situation ? With all the variety that Texas holds within it’s vast borders, it seems they could have picked a more conservative and gun friendlier city than Austin. Just sayin’………..

    • Do you live in Austin and speak from your first hand experience there? I do, and while it’s true there it’s way too much hipster trash here it’s not nearly as bad as you hear from folks that don’t live here.

      For christ’s sake, I had to stop shooting IDPA because there are too many people around Austin that participate and I get tired of waiting between shooters.

      ….to be honest, I was surprised at this announcement also. I figured they would move somewhere cooler like Denton or west Texas.

      • I lived there for three years. That was enough for me. I do recall that once you got out of the university/capitol area, there were some pretty normal looking neighborhoods out there. But they still elected lefties like Kirk Watson as mayor.

    • I agree. the politics there don’t match most of the rest of the state. It is very pretty in that area, and I like to visit, but I could never live there

    • Why Austin? Because the MagPul execs didn’t want to live in El Paso or Amarillo or wherever. Note that manufacturing went to Wyoming, and it’s only corporate HQ jobs moving to Austin. So they picked the city they wanted to live in. Getting key employees to move to another state is tough, so they probably figured getting people who had been living in Boulder to move to Austin would be an easier sell than getting them to move to Laredo or Waco.

    • Magpul’s HQ has an Austin ZIP code, but is NOT within the Austin city limits. (I live across the street from this building.) Like most of Travis County that is outside Austin, this part of the county is reliably Republican turf, and for a lot of reasons I don’t see Austin trying to annex it anytime soon.

  20. Good for Magpul. I guess I just do not get the myth that Texas is so gun friendly. It seems from the contributors out of Texas that they go through more hoops than I do in Indiana. Kentucky is not bad when it comes to gun laws either. The Brady Bunch hates Kentucky.

    • Having lived in both states, I don’t think the laws in Texas are much different than Indiana. The only notable exception I can think of is the lack of handgun open carry in Texas.

  21. The gun grabbers have awakened a sleeping giant in Texas gun owners. As reported here TX bought more guns than any other state in the late unpleasantness that was last year. We’ll have Open Carry of some sort by September. And it will only get beter from there. You’re welcome. Carry on. And Happy Thanksgiving!

  22. @Nick, your post makes it sound like both the HQ and the manufacturing are in Texas, and clearly, that is not the case. Might want to change that. Or don’t and leave it half baked.

  23. I am thrilled to hear this. Hopefully they are hiring as the wife wants to move to Austin and I need new employment.

    • I would certainly bet they’ll be hiring, since I’m sure some of their current employees will refuse to move. And somebody is ALWAYS hiring here in Austin.

  24. I like it when firearm and related manufacturing capacity moves from blue states to red states. If things turn bad, which I really hope they don’t, having that kind of.manufacturing capacity on our side of the border is gold.

    • Yes, during the previous unpleasantness – aka The War of Northern Aggression – firearm manufacturing was one of the sore spots of industry within those Red-to-be States. That problem seemingly is being solved …. finally.

  25. Austin Texas?!?!?! You gotta be shiiitin me. They leave liberal Colorado to move to AUSTIN! The only place loonier and more liberal than Austin is probably the Gay Bay. What are the guys at Magpul smoking?

    • Austin is beoming the Silicon Valley of guns. We have Solid Concepts (first 3D printed metal gun), TrackingPoint (lock-on target rifle), TTAG (America’s most popular firearms blog) and lots of nearby gun companies. The guys behind the SIG arm brace are building a world class indoor range. Etc.

      • @Robert: where is this new shooting range going to be? That is one serious problem with Austin: not enough shooting ranges….especially in south Austin and with ranges past 100 yards.

      • ….I should also add to Robert’s comments: I work in an engineering/manufacturing company in Austin where we produce weapon mounted thermal optics for the military. We will bring similar products to the consumer space soon which cost munch less than the $6k-18k thermal scopes in the market now.

    • @Dan, it ain’t about the city Dan, it’s about the State. Although I couldn’t live in that liberal shathole either….

        • Saying that Travis county is deep red is a bit of a stretch….in fact I think Travis county voted majority Obama in last election.

          Travis county is surrounded by deep red.

          Magpul’s office may actually reside in the town of Bee Caves. I have no idea how they swing politically but I’m guessing similar to Austin.

        • (reply to NotoriousApp)
          Magpul’s HQ is most definitely NOT not in Bee Cave; it’s an unincorporated area of Travis County that’s within the Austin ETJ but not the city limits. (As previously indicated, I live across the street from their new HQ.) And Bee Cave is certainly not Austinian in its politics in any event.

          WRT Travis County, if you subtract Austin (actually, just subtract the University, downtown, and E/SE Austin areas), the rest of the county and metro area is actually pretty GOP-friendly. Congressman Lamar Smith, anyone?
          The point of all this is that just as all of NY isn’t NYC, and all of Illinois isn’t Cook County, all of Travis County isn’t Austin — and like RF, Magpul chose to locate in a part of Travis County that’s close to but not part of Austin.

  26. WOW Colorado! That would be Liberal, Democrats you have to totally impressed with yourselves!!!! 85 MILLION dollars going to other States. You had a chance to rid of that dumbass Governor and you DID NOT.

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