"Earlier today we announced the consolidation of multiple company plants into our Huntsville, Alabama facility. This was a strategic business decision to concentrate our resources into fewer locations and improve manufacturing efficiency and quality. We are working hard to retain as many from the affected facilities as possible."
The companies being relocated and their current locations are:
Advanced Armament Corp, Lawrenceville, Georgia; Montana Rifleman, Kalispell, Montana; TAPCO, Kennesaw, Georgia; LAR Manufacturing, West Jordan, Utah;
Para-Ordnance, Pineville, North Carolina; and DPMS, St. Cloud, Minnesota. Additionally, the Bushmaster production and Remington 1911 production lines will also be relocating from Ilion, New York.
A Remington source tells The Outdoor Wire Digital Network the company will be offering relocation opportunities but an attractions of modern state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities like the one in Huntsville, Alabama is their innate ability to eliminate head count without negatively impacting production outputs.
Usually in a company like this that is an umbrella, there is a lot of 'overlap' in areas of quality, support, IT, and admin, plus there is a cost in shipping and travel to various meetings. getting it all under one roof means that they can slash alot of that portion of their force.
I am betting that is what the bean counters think, but I do not like it, either.
Oh, crud.....forgot to mention that doing all of that with the non-union stuff allows to do that with the union stuff, and break the union.. Not saying anything negative towards the union, but that is a 'side benefit' of all of this I am thinking.
I wonder how much of this has to do with a friendlier political climate in the South. I believe Colt either has opened, or is planning to open, a plant in Kissimmee, Florida. The state corporate income tax is 5.5% and there is no personal income tax at all. If I was a firearms executive, I'd be thinking pretty hard about that.
Surprised they haven't moved to South Dakota. We have a political climate second to none and no corporate income tax.
Surprised they haven't moved to South Dakota. We have a political climate second to none and no corporate income tax.
Give it time and lobby the legislators to "buy" the businesses with tax and/or economic incentives for a few years. It generally pays off in the long run, especially when it comes to creating jobs and making things for ourselves...something we as a nation need to be refocusing on.
I do know that states like SC and AL give incredible tax breaks to companies. Good example is one county over that is considered 'depressed.' to get a manufacturer there, the state gave the company about 25 total acres, repaved the road out front, and created/paved the parking lot, laid the foundation, and the electrical & water lines to the plant. They gave them free electrical and water for 5 years, and a $500 tax bonus for a few years for every person they hired from it or the adjacent three counties that touched that county. Basically, the company was only responsible for the building from the foundation up
South Carolina is also 'right to work,' meaning that anything that union offers they must also offer to the non-union employee for free, and no closed union shops (meaning no union). Bad thing is, it is in this state better called 'right to fire,' you basically sign a a document that they can let you go at any time and for any reason...suck it up buttercup. End result is that unless you are a pregnant minority with a disability, you are at their mercy. the boon is is that jobs that pay well are there in a place where they would normally never be. So there is good and bad in it, and it is pretty obvious which is which
Oh boy, MRC is going to Huntsville? That's not going to help the jobs around here.
Surprised they haven't moved to South Dakota. We have a political climate second to none and no corporate income tax.
Companies want to be near Interstates and populated areas, and as close to their customers as possible.
That means stayng in the Eastern part of the country for the most part
Oh boy, MRC is going to Huntsville? That's not going to help the jobs around here.
Bean counters don't care one iota about any jobs except their own. Centralizing and outsourcing look good on paper, they'd move all the plants to one big one in Bangalore if they could.
Freedom Group just might be our biggest enemy.
Oh boy, MRC is going to Huntsville? That's not going to help the jobs around here.
Only the Division that makes barrels.
We have some firearms/ammo manufacturing in SD, especially in the Sturgis and Rapid City area, along I-90. I am glad Dakota Arms wasn't on the list of relocating companies, although it isn't the same company it once was.
So are they still making rifles (production and Custom Shop) in Ilion, NY ?
Like change wasn't needed, and badly, their quality has gone to chitt.
New product design sucks as does marketing, a management change, focused on pride, quality and American made high standards would go a long way in restoring the name to its once prominent place on the top of the list of first rate arms builders.
Moving the buildings will help nothing if they haul all of the dead wood along with them.
Appears to be a very good business decision.
Like change wasn't needed, and badly, their quality has gone to chitt.
New product design sucks as does marketing, a management change, focused on pride, quality and American made high standards would go a long way in restoring the name to its once prominent place on the top of the list of first rate arms builders.
Moving the buildings will help nothing if they haul all of the dead wood along with them.
I agree and that is likely part of the reason for so doing
The market sets the price based on perceived need and ability to pay.
Margins and the potential for existence, are only created by containment of costs.
Costs are either income producing or sloth.
There, 4 years of schooling in 3 sentences, yet so many companies fail.
Like change wasn't needed, and badly, their quality has gone to chitt.
New product design sucks as does marketing, a management change, focused on pride, quality and American made high standards would go a long way in restoring the name to its once prominent place on the top of the list of first rate arms builders.
Moving the buildings will help nothing if they haul all of the dead wood along with them.
I think you have it backwards. QC didn't take a hit until Freedom?Cerberus started closing plants and consolidating operations in new locations.
There's plenty o blame to go around, but in the end management is supposed to be in charge, yet strong arm unions and poor management decisions have allowed cost to spiral up ward and quality to lapse.
With luck this move is just what they need for a vast improvement, in both management and a skilled and productive work force.
Modern production cells, robotics and high tech machines together can far exceed old methods in both quality and production with far fewer employees.
I hate to see folks lose their jobs like this, but bean counters aside, they can hardly be blamed for leaving the hostile, anti-gun, anti-business climate of New York.
I don't know what kind of union they have in NY, but a moderate, responsible union can be an asset to a company and the employees, helping to create a stable situation for both. It's only when the unions become radical, trying to run the business and putting the union ahead of the employees welfare, that things go south, literally and figuratively.
The problem with Remington is that the bozos that are ruining the company will likely remain.
When management and employees agree that a company can produce a poor quality product, in a market full of top quality products they are destine to fail.
I'm afraid Remington has spent far to long counting beans and far little time on product improvement.
If both don't change they are destine to fail no matter where they go.
In my mind this move is 20-30 years to late to save Remington, I hope I'm wrong.
I spent most of my working life as a bean counter with a turn around firm. It cost $4,000-15,000 to train an employee in a mechanical production line, so it takes lots of savings to justify closing a plant & starting up a new plant. When Olin put Winchester Brand up for sale, I spent several weeks trying to figure out how it was possible to buy & keep the plant in New Haven. It quickly became evident that Olin was going to sell to FN. When your plant is obsolete it cost no more to & maybe less to start a CNC line with a new work force than retrain an old work force. I know several of Celebus's management team, they are smart people who will do a good job with Remington.
I am now nearly '70 now, when I started hunting with a centerfire the Remington 721/700 considered junk. I learned to shoot with a m12 & my 1st centerfire was a pre 64 m94.
AAC and TAPCO from GA. That hurts.
Gahuntertom,
Compared to the model 12 and per- 64 win that you grew up on, the Remington's of the day were junk. The quality of the model 12 will never be seen again.
When management and employees agree that a company can produce a poor quality product, in a market full of top quality products they are destine to fail.
I'm afraid Remington has spent far to long counting beans and far little time on product improvement.
If both don't change they are destine to fail no matter where they go.
In my mind this move is 20-30 years to late to save Remington, I hope I'm wrong.
I doubt that the employees were consulted on the decision to make crap; that has to come from above. If management encourages sloppy work, fails to provide proper training, and makes poor design decisions, the worker bees have to dance to the tune the bosses play. Apparently, the Freedom Group management feels that they can produce junk and sell enough of it to stay in business. Nothing about this move looks like it will address their quality issues. What a waste.
Cerberus is chuck full of dumbasses. If someone whispered a pipe wrench and hammer drill were the two only things needed to barrel an action they'd do it.
How ignorant are they if the pre-64, crapola, NH mediocrity and success in SC isn't taken into account?
I predicted this shortly after the douchenozzles bought the company.
They ruined ours about 8 years ago.
This was a strategic business decision to concentrate our resources into fewer locations and improve manufacturing efficiency and quality.
Maybe this decision will provide enough profit to be able to contract with Timney or Shilen to manufacture your triggers. Possibly in the south, Remington will be able to afford steel for the triggers of M700 SPS rifles, after these triggers break off it is obvious from the looks and weight off parts they are not real steel.
I worked for Sperry computers in the 70's - due to bean counters thinking that there was no future in desk top computers they went under.
I worked for Westinghouse, due to bean counters putting the companies resources into speculative land purchases, they went under.
If the head of your company is a bean counter with no knowledge of what the company is doing, make sure your resume is good and that you have it out there for others to see.
The bean counters are just that, and just like Chili, the business world is a better place with out them.
Huntsville is growing with high tech manufacturing companies. The state of Alabama is very business friendly. The state of Alabama is very gun friendly. I am pleased to see them in my part of the country. If I owned Remington, the first thing I would do is hire the best mechanical engineer in the land to figure out, once and for all, how to build a safe and decent trigger/safety.
May they will be up grading machinery to produce a better product. Moving to CNC made parts makes a lot of sense. Much of the old infrastructure is pretty dated.