Remington has filed for federal bankruptcy protection. “The filing allows Remington to stay in business while restructuring its massive debt,” money.cnn.com reports. “The company has been planning to reduce its debt by $700 million through the Chapter 11 process and contribute $145 million to its subsidiaries.” Bottom line . . .
“Remington plans to keep on making guns.”
Which it did last year, just not as many as the year previous. In 2017, Remington suffered a 30 percent slump in annual firearms sales. How much of that was due to a general industry downturn and how much to Remington products’ desirability (or lack thereof) is unknown. Whatever the cause, as of March 25, Remington Outdoors reported negative operating cash flow of $7.4m.
Despite efforts to unload Remington after the Newtown massacre, Big Green is still owned by Cerberus Capital Management. The same company that ushered Chrysler into Chapter 11.
Remington is the largest company in Cerberus’ firearms-related conglomerate, originally called The Freedom Group, now called Remington Outdoor Company. Sub-brands include Bushmaster, Advanced Armament, Marlin Firearms, H & R Firearms, Dakota Arms , Para USA, Parker Gun, Tapco, Barnes Bullets and Mountain Khakis.
It remains to be seen if other bits of the ROC — or even the whole shooting match, involving some 3k employees — will sink into Chapter 11. Or whether Remington Outdoor will begin selling off its subsidiaries to finance Remington’s recovery. Or if steady-as-she-goes will right the floundering firearms farrago.
Watch this space.
Nothing to do with a Trump Slump. Nor, despite all the media glee, any March for our lives. (Really? Like all that paper work could have been done up on a Sunday?)
It’s no more news than Toys R Us, and the same cause. As long as you can buy wildly inflated companies by borrowing against that wildly inflated value, businesses will keep getting trashed, we’ll import more, and the rich will keep getting richer. Business as usual…
Correct,Remington built this by themselves,when you do not produce what consumers want and then time after time produce Flops that have to be recalled,that’s a recipe for success, NOT.
Good Riddance !
Correctomundo, Zaphod. Private equity firms like Cerberus load up their acquisitions with piles of debt to finance a leveraged buy out and then suck out capital. The sweet spot for a leveraged buy out is to suck a ton of value out of the LBO target then flip it in a stock IPO to unsuspecting investors. We can mumble about Remington’s recent mistakes & inconsistent quality but I worry about the workers at the various Freedom Group companies (Remington, Marlin, Barnes, state al). Don’t forget that this bankruptcy makes the pension funds of Remington & Marlin unsecured creditors. Destroying the pensions of people who made firearms seems a hazardous way to make a living.
With the 700 and R51 disasters, this is hardly a shock. What IS surprising is Taurus is still in business. Now theres a 3rd world garbage producing company that deserves to go under.
Now hang on, Taurus used to be garbage, but the fact that they still exist means they were able to get their ship sailing again. Something Remington failed to do in time.
I have several Taurus and they perform well and are not overpriced like Remington, S&W, Colt. If I were to go to the range and shoot thousands of rounds a month then maybe their life expectancy would be less than the more expensive makes.
Just dont shake that Taurus or drop it. You might end up singing soprano.
Also, you obviously have never dealt with Taurus “customer service.” Heres a hint, 45 minute phone wait times, after you give up on that you can go online and after a 22 minute wait a chat bot named Fran that will ask you to call the “customer service” number.
The wizards of Miami have had my recall Millenium over 6 months. They did call one month ago and said they would be sending a replacement G2. A month ago.
Buy a Ruger or Walther for 50 more bucks and to Hell with the Brazilian hucksters.
Do “several Taurus” = “Taurii”?
I’ve had SIX perfect Taurus’…it helps if you’re not inept. Oh and do Remington 700 or R51 ring a bell new toucan?!?
FLAME DELETED Taurus produces guns with American workers right here in the U.S.A. And I might add have come up with many innovative firearms. They were one of the first that was smart enough to put a manual safety on some of their striker fired guns.
My Rossi (Taurus) 91 was frowning at you. But has quickly forgotten because of how much fun we have.
Taurus has it’s market and prices accordingly. It’s a good way to stay in business.
Meh… Remington has been a blazing dumpster fire for years. Literally nobody cares.
Sad to see such an old company, with so much history, go down due to bad leadership. Oh well.
I wonder which company would be the best fit for Marlin. Someone needs to buy them up.
Henry would be a good match.
Hope they spin off Marlin to a company that can bring back the quality they once had. Looked at one of the Marlins .44’s and the furniture fit/checkering was bad.
Remington is in talks to be purchased by Michael Bloomberg, an entrepreneurial billionaire. The quality of their products will go up significantly and bring Remington back to its glory days.
The gun control front was just a ruse to make gun companies go out of business and acquire them on the cheap.
Do you have any evidence to support this?
Look at the name. Of course its not true.
Recalibrate your sarcasm meter.
Well played, NotFakeNews. The Sarc is strong with you. How about the image of Bloomberg dropped hog-tied by Snake Pliskin ala Escape from New York in front of an MS13 clubhouse without his security detail……
Oh well…plenty of others picking up the slack. Buy what folks want and you stay in business. Simple…
Remington has not produced a successful, innovative product since the 1960’s, and the successful products they have produced have been overpriced, or very low quality; it’s a wonder they didn’t go bankrupt sooner.
The VersaMax is a pretty big exception to that. I’ll have a full article up later, but that’s the shotgun that finally, just this year, got me to switch from a pump to a semi auto.
Check out the CZ 712 it’s a great 1100 clone. I have one you can check out.
The VersaMax is fairly different from the 1100. In fact, it’s an improved Benelli clone. I had an 1100 and I like the VersaMax quite a bit more.
Versamax is nothing like a Benelli, unless you’re comparing to an M4. Most Benellis are inertia operated. Versamax has a gas system where the amount of gas is controlled by the shell covering a different number of ports based on length. The gas Benellis don’t have that, although their ARGO system is supposed to be anothet way to automatically adjust the gas.
Anymouse, without looking it up, I forget exactly which model it’s a clone of. It probably is the M4. It’s a close enough copy that I’ve personally used parts made for the Benelli in my VersaMax.
With the upgraded design and a bit of user magazine tweaking, the R51 has turned into a pretty fine and fun pistol!
They still could use some better customer service however.
I hope somebody steps up and saves Marlin from this mess.
Marlin does not exist, except as a name. Remington (Cerberus/Freedom Group) finally shuttered Marlin’s North Haven, CT plant in 2010. All the manufacturing of Marlin-brand products is performed by Remington at Remington plants in Mayfield, Kentucky and Ilion, NY.
Amazing how the “Big Boys” have made crap guns that have killed people in the past. And continue to make crap guns, the sig 320 recall?
But Hi Points that are cheaper in cost have an excellent safety record, and do the job of defending their owners. I know the Hi Point is not a completion gun. Its a self defense firearm.
However there was a “poor mans 3 gun” completion last year using Hi Points and break action shot guns.
http://manateegunclub.com/event/young-guns-and-safety-presents-poor-mans-3-gun/
https://www.thegunwriter.com/22771/poor-mans-3-gun-will-solve-riddle-person-pistol/
Why bother? Remington hasn’t cared about making guns for years. Therein lies the problem. Thanks, Cerberus!
Remington doesn’t care about making guns, only making money. And it doesn’t do either very well.
As jwt noted, the Versa Max is a super shotgun. The 870 is probably the biggest-selling shotgun in world history. The 700 action has been the basis of many highly accurate custom builds. With those things and more going for it, Remington should be on top of the world. But it isn’t.
My store has two Marlin 336s for sale — since 2015! They don’t sell because the lack of quality is readily apparent even after a cursory glance. The same can be said for the 700s that we’re offering.
When customers ask me to recommend a good, inexpensive woods rifle, I show them a Savage. Not a Remington.
I sold my 700 and bought a savage 11 axis. Best choice I made in bolt guns.
It’s scary that one cooperation has control over all those gun company’s. It’s easier to shut down the one then shut down the many. Tic toc tic toc the pendulum swings to the left
Remingtons massive lawsuits over the unsafe Remington 700 which killed people and maimed them for life and which would have cost the company just 5 cents to fix back when they first marketed it certainly did not help the company financial wise and their blind greed over rushing to market their R51 plasticky piece of shit before they even tested it was just pure genius.
Their quality control has been so bad I even saw one R51 with the front sight installed backwards, now that really takes the cake. And remember they paid the top ceo’s millions to run the company into the ground and walk off with all its cash laughing all the way to the bank while its worker slaves did not make enough to buy toilet paper.
It’s the American way in the 21st Century. Bust the workers unions, enslave them, starve them to death, give them no benefits, produce trash and then steal all the companies profits for the greed monger ceo’s and then go out of business. Its called standard operating procedure.
Whatever happened to that Remington ACR that was lighter weight and multi-caliber? The Magpul Masada was extremely popular and a lot of young people wanted to buy one as their first gun. Now Magpul isn’t as popular and people don’t care about the ACR anymore. They failed to deliver when the demand was very high.
The timing of this big announcement was horrible. Unless the plan was to make it seem that the walkers caused it. In the general public’s eyes, it will seem exactly like this, watch CNN and NBC claim they won! Cerberus tossing us under the bus as a way of showing their true colors?
I feel so bad for Marlin, first the ultimate indignity of being moved into the Remington plants. Now, this. I like good lever guns, Marlin was prior to being abducted by big Green.
Anyone have insight into who may have the operating capital or funding to acquire the pieces of the broken company? Or is the product too far gone already? The tooling is key, as is the ability to assemble a great gun once more.
Not concerned about the 870 anymore; it’s become an instant rust-o-matic with ejection issues too. The Hawk 981 is a copy that may be better quality. Same with their Pardner brand. The 700, phew; I will take a new Model 70 anyday for better quality.
Damn Cerberus for buying up all these other brands, taking everything down in one fell swoop. Those bastages !
How does this impact my R1’s “lifetime” warranty?
They meant the company’s lifetime not yours.
Big Green is still owned by Cerberus Capital Management. The same company that ushered Chrysler into Chapter 11.
Explains everything.
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