Beware the ides of May. As thefirearmsblog.com is reporting, Remington’s Day of the Long Knives plant closings include their facilities in Elizabethtown, West Jordan, Kalispell, Kennesaw, Lawrenceville, St. Cloud and Pineville covering AAC, Bushmaster, DPMS, LAR, Montana Rifleman, Para, Tapco and Remington’s 1911 production. All are apparently being relocated to Big Green’s new Huntsville, Alabama plant. Existing employees are being given the chance to apply for the jobs in Alabama.
Someone needs to rescue these companies. Or go back in time and convince them not to sell out.
Need a “crowd funding” effort to buy out Freedom Group. You’d be out no money unless the deal went through, and get stock based on the amount you put in
“Remington and TFG: We’re Gonna F*ck the Remains of a Once-Great Company”
NEVER GO PUBLIC. NEVER!
Agreed. I can’t decide whether to feel sorry for the owners who decided to succumb to the payout or not. It’s easy to play Armchair Owner and call them sell outs but I bet most of us haven’t had 7+ figure offers dangled in front of us either…
I’ll say it again…hopefully ROC can get it’s act together once they consolidate. And I hope that smaller companies or people who love guns and have money will come in and buy these places up and produce good products.
this is america remember when every corner had a gun smith or an ammo maker? we need to get back to self sufficiency and keep local suppliers in bussiness might be a tad more expensive in the short haul but people we have all seen where the run for the lowest cost price point gets us …….here!!!
Enjoy your locally-sourced musket then.
Employees if they are good can form their own company or go to competitors, the more I hear about the freedom groups properties the more it makes sense that they are consolidating.
They had too many branches doing too much stuff.
You mean too many branches producing essentially the same stuff.
I like 1911s. A lot. But how many divisions do you need building 1911s?
Considering how many OFWGs will buy the same 1911 with a slightly different name or color scheme over and over and over again for a grand+, apparently a lot!
Para isn’t just another 1911 ‘bot. For years their claim to fame was large capacity 1911s in multiple barrel lengths and frame sizes. That’s how I got to liking them so much, their 14.45s and 12.45s.
In my opinion they’ve appeared to struggled since they left Canada. But their customer service has been excellent the last few years. Travis Tomasie does customer service like no one else in the industry. Unmatched.
I will always have at least on 14 round Para in the safe.
I looked at a Para 14.45 at Cabela’s recently, and it seemed nice. Upon further (online) research, however, it seems that there are a lot of reports of feed issues with the double stack Paras. Have you encountered that?
I have two double stack Para’s and have never experienced any feed issues with factory ammo. Unless mildly worked on by a smith they do not like reloads.
I own a Big Hog 6″ barrel and a 14 round mag. I’ve never had a feeding problems with it.
Well Remington is consolidating to save money. Also so they can make all the money directly to their company bank account. It is sort of 1 company buying up other companies getting their patton’s and then closing said companies so they can make and sell they products themselves. Sort of… This is as always mho. 🙂
David: yes, to a point; there are often non-compete clauses in employment contracts, especially for the people who are most able to start designing around existing patents and other IP.
I guess its because I don’t have an MBA that I can’t see the cost savings in spending millions to build a huge new facility, and then moving a bunch of unrelated companies who all do different things under a single roof, and incurring the cost of moving key employees, hiring and training new employees, and all the other costs associated with a start up, versus staying put with an experienced staff. Nor do I understand the part about not selling Para pistols–is this to assure a steady supply during the inevitable disruption when operations are moved, because the pistols simply aren’t selling, what?
Oh wait, I’ve got it. The main reason the South lost the War of Northern Aggression was that all the major arms factories were in the north–and ROC intends to correct that imbalance before the next one, amiright amiright?
You may be on to something there…although I think the next one is more likely to be West vs. East. But easterners tend to think the Mississippi is in the midwest, so by that foreshortened perspective, half the South is actually West. Good to go, then. 🙂
Wisconsin is as Midwest as it gets, and the Mississippi River makes Wisconsin’s *western* border.
So the Easterners have that Mississippi placement about right…
Speaking as a Wisconsinite, I’d say the East starts just east of Ohio.
West vs. East? More like central vs coast. Or more correctly, rural vs. urban.
That would hardly be a war though. After all, “a country boy can survive.”
I do have a MBA, and without knowing all the financial details it is difficult to speculate. (nor am I saying that simply because I have a MBA that I agree with the move.) With that said, I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t have done this if they didn’t have a projected initial return on investment (ROI) within 3 years.
Remington isn’t spending a dime to build new facilities. Additionally, they are receiving 68.9 MILLION DOLLARS from state and local authorities to incentivize them to move:
http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/alabamas_incentive_offer_to_re.html
Killing an old industrial town in upstate NY makes kids safer. Yay SAFE Act and Premier Cuomo!
It really hurts, what has happened to Para. After Ted Szabo died and the company moved from Canada, things went downhill. They’d made some really super guns, and the LDA trigger was arguably the best DA trigger on any semiauto. I’m glad I bought mine before everything went south (literally).
Agreed on the LDA. My dad has a Canadian made LDA Carry 9. Great little gun.
Something fishy is going on at Cerberus Capital Management. Perhaps just plain ole cost-cutting among their vast portfolios. These recent company-level restructures can only be coming from the top.
Like watching a frog boil.
…a big green frog.
I worked for a corporation (MG) that acquired a company ‘PD’ using stock to leverage the purchase. The value of the stock tanked and the former owner of PD wound up being the principle shareholder of the corporation. The corporation declared bankruptcy and the owner of PD bought his company back at 10 cents on the dollar.
This Freedom Group mess sounds similar.
I suspect that a lot of this consolidation and cutting at FG was planned years ago, but got delayed by the Great Gun Drought of 2013. With AR-15s flying off the shelves at whatever price, there was no need to consolidate. Now there is.
Sucks.
If only one job could be saved……
Honestly? Let Remmington die. I am sure that all of this looks great on an excel spreadsheet but they did this to Marlin and um… we saw how that worked out. With the notable exception of AAC, all of freedom group’s companies are mediocre anyways.
That just means a bigger market share for the other manufacturers. They’ll expand and pick up a lot of the talent that Remington has been wasting. Let the market correct itself.
It really sucks. It makes me wonder if this is a stealth gun control conspiracy to destroy the industry from within. Just a thought. Anyway, if Remington makes substandard weapons, let’s support companies that make quality weapons. I acquired an Ithaca model 37 instead of a Remington 870. The gun was expensive but well worth the money. There we no plastic where metal should be and no aluminum. The only plastic parts on the shotgun are the stocks. The gun is all steel and light as well. This is the best of both worlds.
There’s nothing wrong with current 870’s, yet.
You’re on the right track, I think. It seems as if it is a conspiracy to buy up companies who’re doing well, making great products, and let them die.
Back door gun control? It sure seems possible, looking at what’s happened.
I think Ruger is expanding! I am one who owns several Rugers, love there weapons most generally they are top line.
But last I knew, Ruger gave NO warranties on its guns.
Sorry, but I cannot ascribe to Remington/Freedom Group the level of incompetence implied.
They seem to have bought up good companies so they can let them wither on the vine. And that is EVIL, not a doubt in my mind.
Incompetence is a natural byproduct of bureaucracy, and Cerberus, Remington, et. al. are bureaucracy personified. They are run by accountants, for accountants. Nothing about this is surprising to me.
Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence or stupidity.
😉
No one ever buys a company to let it wither – they have a profit motive involved in their planning. But no plan survives contact with the enemy, or the market. It seems the market is rejecting their plan, and they are trying to extricate themselves. It may be that they have come to the realization that they know nothing about guns, and they have bought into properties they don’t understand and can’t monetize. In which case you set up the most favorable terms of sale possible.
They’re trying to preserve the Remington brand, because it has the most value. They’ll divest themselves of most of the “chaff” then try to fatten Remington up so that someone else will buy it.
Either that, or we’ll see an IPO on Remington.
They seem to be trying to figure out how to get their money out of this line of business. I suspect they’re “riding a tiger” – they can’t stay on, but they are afraid of what happens when they get off.
Interesting article here.
http://weaponsman.com/?p=15623
Having previously worked at an FGI company I can only say, “When was the last time Remington made a strategic move that flourished?” Next stop………………………..China!!!!!
Nuff Said!!!
No one has mentioned one of the biggest potential motivators behind the move. Could it be that the losing states don’t respect Remington customer’s second amendment rights? And as previously mentioned, Huntsville is giving them a sweet deal in addition to lower taxes. Labor costs should be lower as well due to the more affordable cost of living vs the East Coast.
One thing to consider is that they are buying up all of the competition, kind of like Standard Oil did at the beginning of the last century.
There is no reason whatsoever to own several outfits that make the same basic product “except” to cut back on the competition.
As far as the move to AL that will be a good thing for them and the sooner other New England based companies do the same, the better off the gun industry will be in the future. Many outfits are moving to Texas as well and when you consider the amount of Oil that flows thru Texas and the size of agriculture and the Firearms Industry there, they could easily do just fine on their own without the rest of us.
You all remember the story about “not needing to have brains to be boss, just and asshole?” Well this is what happens when you consolidate too much of anything in one place.
By the same token all this would be academic if we just outlawed Liberals!
Randy
Remington themselves are going full R51. Never go full R51.
I see it as unions making inroads in southern states. Plus Remington sending rifles to be made by CZ. Formally great weapons now mediocre @ best. I purchased a double stack para-ordance last year to carry for duty, sold for an XD due to reliability issues. Now getting a Glock to simplify the amount of spare parts & ammo to keep. Plus enough out there I don’t need to worry about parts in 5-10 years.BTW had several 870’s come in for pd use. Dep’t. sent them back the QC was crap sights drilled all the way into the chokes & teceiver on the ghost ring. Traded for 590’s made right. 870’s had front bead drilled 25-40 degrees from center.
This is an edited post now. Can anyone locate the original letter that came with the original post? It was written, supposedly by someone who works at Para.
Love my LAR GRIZ OPS-4 Upper, sad that Remington bought them out….. Now I can no longer order direct as I had done in the past, the corporate polo shirts changed that on day one. Now they are giving them the option to reinterview for their jobs? Hilarious and pathetically sad.
Always thought it strange that Remington rolled out the R1 since they had Para.
Remington is not only relocating, they are union busting… If they transfer the employees to a new location, they take the union with them…
Everyone can apply for their jobs at the new location, I’m sure there are no re-location expense reimbursements from Remington, lower wage, and no union…..
Exactly this. It is a move to crush the unions. Ignoring the fact that some of these people had decades of experience building these products. Instead, they will have poorly trained poorly paid people just happy to have a job building poor quality products.
I thought they was moving because NY has just become to Liberal.
When we look at manufacturing in general, many companies are moving South because of the lower taxes, lower level of union influence, and more business-friendly laws. Look at the auto industry: TN- Nissan & VW, AL- Mercedes, Hyundai, Toyota, MS- Nissan, GA- Kia. I don’t profess to know the reasons for Remington’s decision, but Alabama recently passed many new firearms-friendly laws and New York just passed many firearms-unfriendly laws. Alabama has lower taxes and lower cost of living than New York. Also, Huntsville is home to Redstone Arsenal, the Marshall Space Flight Center, numerous high-tech employers, and has more PhD’s per capita than any city in the USA. In summary, low taxes, good workforce, and friendly laws. Perhaps these were enough reason for Remington to make the move.
So when exactly is the move to take place? I’m looking in to buying a para 14-45 sometime in the near future and have high hopes that the new factory will spin up hopefully better products with, as David from Alabama, as well as others have said, the more friendly laws, the omission of the union dominated workforce and the more higher educated personell. I do realize it may take some time for the FG manufacturers to train in craftsmen that can make higher quality weapons but like I said, I have high hopes that they will and the products coming off the line at that time will make the new standard of quality we expect out of a $1000+ product.
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