Kimber Finally Turns Southward
BY HERSCHEL SMITH
8 hours, 35 minutes ago
Many times I’ve asked to know why firearms manufacturers would continue to do business in states that hate their business, fleece them with taxes, and force them to deal with collective bargaining. I’ve specifically mentioned Kimber, among other manufacturers.

It appears that Kimber finally figured it out.

Kimber Manufacturing, a company that makes a variety of firearms and ammunition, is transitioning its corporate headquarters from New York to its facility in Troy, Alabama.

The decision to change the location of the company’s headquarters was first announced last week, and much of the work has already been completed.

A release from the company notes that “leadership, R&D and manufacturing resources” are now in place at the 225,000 square-foot facility in Troy.

Kimber is now “adding staff across all departments” to complete the transition.

The gunmaker’s massive presence in the Wiregrass is still relatively new. Governor Kay Ivey first announced it in her state of the state address in 2018. At the time, it was described as a manufacturing capacity expansion, not a new headquarters, but the executives at Kimber appear to have grown fond of the Yellowhammer State.

The gunmaker was founded in Yonkers, New York, in 1979 and remained headquartered there until its recent transition to Alabama.

The company says it completed an exhaustive search for its new headquarters, and Troy stood out for its “proximity to top-tier engineering schools as well as gun- and business-friendly support from the city of Troy and the great state of Alabama.”

State Representative Wes Allen (R-Troy) praised the move in a statement sent to Yellowhammer News on Monday afternoon.

“I am very proud that Kimber is moving their headquarters from New York to Troy, AL. Kimber recognizes our business friendly environment, our strong support of the 2nd Amendment & our hard working people,” he remarked.

“This is a testament to the conservative leadership of Mayor Jason Reeves & the Troy City Council & the Pike County Commission,” Allen added in his statement.

As for the many positions that Kimber is now seeking to fill, the company lists “CNC technicians, machinists, quality control specialists, lean technicians, design engineers, compliance analysts, customer service representatives, materials planners, maintenance technicians, finishing operators, and assembly technicians,” as among the available jobs.

“Kimber is a great place to work, especially if you love firearms,” promised Pedi Gega, Kimber’s director of assembly and product finishing, in a statement.

“We have two indoor gun ranges, one outdoor range, a state-of-the-art design and prototype fabrication center, and a dynamic team of professionals who pride themselves in producing firearms with unmatched attention to detail, design and performance,” Gega continued.

Those interested in applying for a job at Kimber Manufacturing can do so here.

Give it time. I predict there will be little left in New York. Alabama and New York had a contest. Alabama won.

Intersting town to pick. Troy isn't very big. It's about 30 miles from Montgomery and Auburn. Troy is a college town. No lake nearby that I recall. Surrounded by rural farmland. There is hunting galore for deer with a long season. Waffle House is near the pinnacle of haute cuisine. All them New Yorkers in that part of Alabama? Hope they are into college football!

Come on down....

It would be interesting to see how many New Yawkers actually move to Troy.

Maybe now they'll turn their attention to producing reliable & accurate firearms.

SWEET HOME ALABAMA OH SWEET HOME

Smart move on managements part. Put another nail in the coffin of high tax states that dont even like the product they are making.
F New York
Congrats to Alabama.

When Weatherby moved to Wyoming from Kommiefornia, the lost 80% of their work force and they paid a price quality-wise with new rifles coming out of Wyoming. I think they've got that ironed out, bit lots of complaints out there with QA issues with new rifles.

But, they get addressed, right?

It starts with their management, they have an emphasis on $$ not product. They use way too much MIM for my likes. They have been abused by NY for a few decades, did the lightbulb just come on just recently?

I’ve only had one Kimber of NY rifle. That’s is needed improvement on their part.

very much so!

Very cool. My first thought was they were taking over the plant Remington left in Huntsville.

Great to have them move to AL........and to hear that they're expanding the mag box in the 84M to 3" and the 7-08 twist to 1/8!.......Well, great to hear they're moving to AL anyhow.........

I wouldn't be surprised if they brought a lot of their skilled labor with them. It takes a bit of time to break in a crew of machinists.

Kimber suffered the same quality plunge when they moved from Oregon to New Yawk. Those 8000 wonderful Oregon produced 1911's made Kimbers reputation. Then for 4 or 5 years after the move, their quality on 1911's got so bad, a friend who owned a gunshop said he quit carrying them due to so many complaints from his customers after sending their pistols to Kimber. They would get returned and told not to send them back unless they had run at least 500 rounds through them. I guess Kimber, after their move, thought they could get a trained monkey to assemble 1911's out of parts bins and everything would be hunky dory. Friend said a couple other gun shops around him quit carrying them also. Kimber finally found some good 1911 mechanics after a few years.

Outdoor Life just wrote that the Kimber sales manager has left to head up Sportsmen for Biden. Might be related.

Lower wages....local tax dollars given away.....savings not passed on to consumers.

Yippie.

You got it.

Lower cost of living. Lower taxes. No Yankees.

Having spent a good chunk of my life in the Wiregrass region, it will be interesting to see what kind of quality they put out.

The article says that Kimber "is transitioning its corporate headquarters" to Alabama. Does that include manufacturing? The article then talks about Kimber's state of the art, ranges, etc. The article concludes: "Give it time. I predict there will be little left in New York." It could just be a tax dodge, for now.

I can honestly say I have never in my lifetime heard anyone ever say "Damn Honey lets move to Alabama" it will be great !

Now that a vast part of the country has become Communist schittholes, you will see a lot of people moving into places that aren't.

You OBVIOUSLY have never been...Where do you live?

If they are indeed building a new manufacturing plant there the machines will all be tooled up and production ready before they are installed, there will be glitches as with any new procedure, the key will be how these glitches are handled, all eyes will be on these new products and they better be more than just Ok !

Good people in key positions will be the key to happy customers.

New York is one of the top 10 states losing population.

Just like coal country.....paradise.

Workers making scab wages tend to make scab products. I'm curious, many on here had Dads and Grandpas that had defined pensions and good healthcare. Almost all due to Unions. Do you and your kids have that in this era of record corporate profits? Its a race to the bottom, and the losers are the 99%.

I'll never, ever own a Kimber.

Talked with some of their head guys at the NRA Show a few years back. Asked if they were going to a bit more into predator hunting type rifles?

They told me in no uncertain terms that people that predator hunt usually bought cheap guns, and that Kimber's were above the class and pay grade of predator hunters, and they were not after that type of buyer.

Oh really?

They’ll be making happy face work instruction for the illiterate. Red/Green no-go picture graphs.

Yeah. The southeastern U.S. is one big poverty stricken wasteland. I wouldn't advise even visiting it.

Auto industry in Alabama.

https://www.madeinalabama.com/industries/industry/automotive/

In a generation, accelerating growth in this critical sector of Alabama’s economy has turned the state into an important production hub for the industry.

Together, assembly plants operated by Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai have propelled Alabama to a Top 5 ranking among the states for the production of cars and light trucks. In 2019, Alabama automakers combined to produce around 1 million cars and light trucks.

Toyota, Honda and Hyundai also produced nearly 1.5 million engines in 2019, another sign of the sector’s strength in the state. Capacity upgrades will soon take that figure close to 2 million engines per year.

Hahaha!

Mr Bluegrass........

Endorsed by the BHA no doubt!

I can honestly say that given similar jobs and a choice between Alabama or New York I’d choose Alabama all day long. Who the fugg wants to live in Yonkers NY?

Hope it was worth what the city and county had to give away to get them there.

Did the city and county actually give away something, or did they agree to not get something they didn't have anyway?

To move to Weeble Wobble???

Ha!

That's usually not a really workable solution for long in many cases; I moved more than a couple of plants around the country & there's a genuine acceptance issue, more for the families than the worker, for those coming from the north to the south. Many move back north within a couple of years, not all, but enough to matter. Same for management level people.

And yes, it's hard to get a new plant running w/o experienced people, for sure.

MM

For sure. All day, every day.

Good for Kimber.

That's not the least bit accurate; Kimber of America was formed & started production in Yonkers, NY is 1993 when Les Edelman started it under that name. Kimber of Oregon in Clackamas, went bankrupt in 1991.

As far as I know, they still have manufacturing facilities in Ridgefield, NJ too.

MM

Bullshit. Union membership, even at the height of the Union era was around 30%. Today it's about 9%. There might have been a place for unions 150 years ago, but no more. Today they are like an albatross around industry. GM for example, has a 15 BILLION dollar nut to crack in payola pensions, etc before they turn the first nickel of profit. I have to deal with unions with our employees and I have a fairly benign union to deal with (unlike the thigs at the UAW, or IAM), but unions basically "pay me more so I can work less." Your assertion that good healthcare/pensions are because of unions is nonsense. Those mainly came about in the post WWII era when companies had to lure employees. NOTHING to do with unions.

Prevailing wages in states vary.

Prevailing wages in cities vary.

Business freindly right to work states are drawing em in.

Unions had a place long ago in a galaxy far away.

Their historical changes in labor overall made impact.

They ride too much on that from the past.

Union labor is out of control for results attained mostly in this day and age.

12 to 15 bucks an hour in areas of the nation are probably really good starting out wages for entry level positions.

In other high cost of living area,s IE... mostly Liberal Socialist Democrat states and cities with huge tax burdens on the worker and company to support the nonworking leeches who vote in that state and their state worker pensions.
Then those higher wages they have, get kinda offset by the overall tax burden from sales taxes, fuel taxes, property taxes, income taxes .
And the inflated cost of everything also from a package of poptarts to a home and everything in between.
Ect ect ect ..



I think it is a great thing when a company moves from a over taxed Liberal Socialist Democrat state to conservative state that aint.
It is a shift of economic power, which translates into political power when more companies relocate to conservative states.

And the states give companies tax incentives to come to their states.
Which is not a bad thing.
Creating jobs where none like them existed before cant be a bad thing.
And if said companies make more profit from not paying union wages and taxes in liberal Socialist Democrat schitholes .
So be it ....
They are still paying a good prevailing wage for the area they relocate too in ratio to that areas cost of living

This is all only common business sense.....

Let the economic shift continue and let these Liberal Socialist Democrat states suffer the pain.
Loss of Benjamins is what they need to feel.
Then they can tax the schit outta the fools that have companies in em even more and that will force them leaving also in time.

These Liberal Socialist Democrat states are like a snake eating its own tail and they dont realize it will continue.....
Idiots ............

Yep. Eventually the Socialist Democrat states will run out of other people's money.

It seems to me Kimber sells 1911 Porn pieces. All dressed up and looking for a pard with kash.

I just hope with all the new northern people coming down that they don't screw it up like they did Nashville.

You decry your employees for wishing to work less but earn more, but you want them to work more and earn less, correct? There has got to be a counterbalance to the excesses of unrestrained Capitalism and a strong Union presence is one of the best ways to achieve that balance. My Father was Union then Company, I've seen the excesses of both. You are right, there was never a majority Union workforce, but in the 50's, 60's, and 70's when Union membership was high, non-Union employers had to keep pace. The direct correlation between declining working class standards of living and a steep decline in Union membership cannot be denied.

Northern unions are a cult. Their members have lost the ability to think for themselves and they're subservient to a collective.

Detroit and Flint Michigan, among others, were killed by the union cult. All of the big union cities are dying and the southeastern U.S. is collecting what's left of American manufacturing.

Oh it can't be denied alright, those jobs moved overseas.

Those Blue States don't know any better. I dare anyone that lives in a Blue state to tell me that living there in this century is better then when they were responsibly run last century.

Good. The interactions I’ve had with the Troy people have been hands down better than my prior Kimber CS interactions.

Are you still going to post here after the Democrats your union supports and pays for take away your guns?

You're ridiculous.

Companies don't want to be union free in order to pay workers less. They want to be union free so they can pay the good workers more thqn the poor ones. Unions try to dumb down all the workers.

Union free companies pay workers just as much as as unionized companies of the same size in the same industries. But their workers are better. If an industry has a mix, the union free companies eventually drive the unionized workers out of business.

Just take a look at what the NEA has done to our schools, they protect some of the worse teachers and faculty members , and thats just one example !

There are plenty of experienced production workers and tool room machinists like my son-in-law who got cut off at the knees by Remington in Huntsville. Even if he has to live in an efficiency apartment and commute on weekends for a while, I'm pretty sure he would be glad to make Kimbers instead of Remingtons. There are a few hundred guys just like him.

having worked in the non-union side of a mixed company we got to see the value of the union... we were paid more and had FAR better bonuses just to keep us motivated to reject the unions courtship. The company paid more to the Union side but they got FAR less as employees. The union made out well.

My few interactions with Montana, Alabama, and Troy/Yonkers was equally horrible and I just had a barrel set-back and rechambered because it was way out of spec. It made a trip to NY and a trip to Alabama without the first capable move on the part of the Kimber morons.

Success seems to be a firearm manufacturers downfall rather than their path to longevity in the modern business world. When Kimber, Dakota and a host of other young start up companies started making firearms, they were in tune to the customers needs and eager to produce a product that maybe wasn't well represented in the market at the time. They would bend over backwards to put the best product out there and work with the customer at almost any cost. The first Coopers that came out would rival custom rifles in quality of wood, fit and finish at more than fair prices. As a company like that grows market share, they catch the attention of investors who want in on the bandwagon, they view it as a IPO as sort. With larger corporate involvement, the ability to deal with the consumer directly starts to ease away. In the end they become a financial overgrown beast that it's own legs won't support anymore. Yep, the time to grab on to a new upstart product is in it's infancy before it grows into something it's creators never envisioned it to become by corporate investors.

I'd think that is a positive move.

I have one Kimber, a used Classic .308 I traded for.

It really shoots great with the replacement Broughton 5C barrel. The OEM barrel was terrible and Kimber wasn't too excited about fixing it. They said a 1 1/2" .308 was within spec. Their's maybe, not mine. Gun now shoots half inch (or even better) with the right loads, at least MOA with about anything/everything.

Amazing what a good barrel will do for a rifle....

DF

http://www.freedomdiary.com/regarding-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/

I like my K-22; sweet little rifle.

This is good news.

I was a Kimber master dealer for a couple of decades because they sold well and guys wanted them. They made some fine looking firearms but 80% of all the ones we sold would NOT reliably feed anything but ball. Guys didn’t appreciate dropping a grand or more on a pistol that needed to be sent back for feed ramp work. I forget the ass wipe that was the head gunsmith but he finally got canned. I finally got tired of selling new pistols that had to be sent back so that they’d work properly and quit selling Kimbers. There wasn’t much margin...I think 12% and the extra time dealing with the problems and shipping just didn’t make it worthwhile. I never would’ve carried one after seeing the shear number of failures that were inexcusable for a semi-custom pistol. Tight tolerances might make a pistol accurate but those same tight tolerances made them very susceptible to failures. Having literally sold thousands of Kimbers I’m comfortable saying that they were overpriced crap. We had to place larger orders $25,000+ each year and just because they cashed the check didn’t mean that you were going to get what you ordered anytime soon. It could take months to get certain offerings that were supposed to ship upon payment.

Not every pistol was crap but enough were to convince me that the extra trouble for us was not worth it. People get caught up in name and appearance but are willing to overlook unreliability in a firearm that they trust their life with. In comparison we were also a Glock stocking dealer and of the thousands of Glocks we sold I never a single one back. They fed everything reliably and a guy could’ve bought 2 or 3 or 4 new Glocks for the price of a single unreliable Kimber.

I’m not putting down anyone’s choice of pistol, merely relating my experience with thousands of their pistols.

And now, what remains to be seen will be if they just take the higher profit margin from doing business in a more "friendly" State and continue building guns as they have, or do they use the extra money saved to institute new mfg methods or quality controls and pass any savings on to the buyers of their products.

Any bets as to which way this will go?

Last time I listened to the Dothan Saturday morning AM radio farm show, it was the Wiregrass "Ay-re-ah". My ex's family from Coffee County all say it the same way. Good country, good folks. They know that nothing fixes an old rusty gun or tractor like Marvel Mystery Oil.

Hank, Kid Rock, now Kimber. Troy is big time. I live in the area too.

If this keeps happening there will be a serf rebellion in the north east. It would seem certain that these companies aren't being replaced by new or better companies.

That phrase is some sort of sick joke. I can't imagine any gun owner voting for those two (Joe and the Ho) firearm loathing clowns.

......... I was kind of shocked at seeing that... "Sportsmen for Biden" ????? Now there's an oxymoron. My only thought was, YGBFKM.

What timeframe? Kimber went really bad during the time they had external extractor guns.




I want to say that I am far from a Kimber fanboi, but I'm going to take a different view after being a gunsmith for more than 15 years & handling a lot of Kimbers..........but surely not the thousands (really?) that you claim to have sold.

Kimbers are not a semi custom pistol...........they have lots of models & with a very, very few exceptions, the guns are just put together from common parts, definitely not semi custom vs say, a Dan Wesson.

And they are not overly tight in anywhere that matters in spite of their telling lots of customers that they need to fire 500 rounds to break the gun in. That is complete BS.

Their problems mostly stemmed from simple fixes that would never have occurred in a true semi custom built by knowledgeable gunsmith level people, not just production hacks.

And bad magazines. I cannot say that LOUD enough..............bad magazines.



I can understand that from a business perspective, for sure. But given the number of guns that they built, they weren't, taken on the whole, overpriced crap.................there were just many small things that needed to be tweaked & done better in assembly.

I've never seen a one come across my bench that wasn't easily fixed, but I have seen a few reliable reports of major parts being bad, like slides & frames




Yes, many people believed the Kimber propaganda................Kimber was never a "premium" or high end 1911, IMO, but basically OK. I personally have 2 currently & both are 100% after a basic going over & defeating the FPS's. I carry them & would bet my life on either, with Tripp magazines.




Yes, you are.

MM

Thousands of Texans moved here after the spill. They came over to work the spill, took a good look around and never left. Then they started telling former neighbors and friends who are still joining them.

Those Kimber folks will discover the coast as well. With what amounts to a daily commute in NY, they can be on the Florida or Alabama coast.

I question some of Kimber's decisions.

Getting into the revolver market wasn't a good idea in my opinion. Especially since the revolver they're making is fairly clunky looking and has an MSRP of $900.

Bbq and winning football had to be the lure that brought kimber south. If the savings results in a reasonably priced 1911 that'll work I can guarantee the wiregrass will be covered up with them.

At what price do you consider a good, production, U.S. built, 1911, reasonable?

MM

What about Spattermatic's stock? Where did it make trips to? What happened to the customer service regarding it and the moron he had to deal with?

My experience with Kimber 1911's was when the NY models first started appearing. After digging into one pretty deep I decided that I was through fitting extended safeties, beavertails, dovetailed sights, lowering ejection ports, yada, yada, yada into Colts & Springfield's.. I bought a matched pair of Kimber ...... & took my Colts & a few Springfield's to the next gun show.
I still have the pair & treasure them. The mechanics, fit, accuracy, & dependability blew me away at the price point. Later, I bought a commander length, custom shop gun, & while it never gave me any problems, I just didn't like it & sent it on.

I've read all the Kimber bashing over the years & never understood, but hadn't bought many of the later ones so couldn't judge.. But, so much of the bashing I've heard was over MIM. Likely, IMO, by folks that know about as much about MIM as I do about brain surgery. I've yet to see a photo of a bucket, or even a handful of broken MIM Kimber parts from the hundred thousand round a month training facilities around the country. Where are all the so called broken Kimber parts?

I wish them luck Or just plain success in their new location.

Internet wise, I'm Remington, S&W, Kimber & Glock lucky. Ruger unlucky. Odd, as I was a huge Ruger fan early on, & for years afterward. Did expectations play a role??

Huh. You “signed up” here in 2020.
Yet, you seem to know a number of things that a newby wouldn’t. What’s your other identity on here, sockpuppet?

MIM is cost cutting. Perfect for a 400 dollar pistol not a 1k+ pistol.

You are correct! That's why, every time we start a "retirement plan" thread on here, most of the responses are "I don't have anything saved. I have to work until the day I die" or something similar.

You think Kimber is going to lower prices just because their costs are lower? ROTFLAO

Kimber sounds like a chick name anyway. To that end, my best friend's sister brought one in 380 to our place up in PA to practice, three years in a row and it jammed every single time.

Yeah, but not this week....

DF

Before some of you Yankies make fun of Alabama. Here are some facts. Huntsville has two rocket engine manufacturing companies. Decatur has Atlas V and Delta IV rocket manufacturing. Birmingham still makes steel pipe for natural gas pipelines and ductile iron pipe for water mains. Mercedes, Hundai, and Honda makes cars in Alabama. Then there are 100's of car parts suppliers manufacturers scattered around. There are three tire manufacturers in Alabama. Stainless steel plate is made in a little town north of Mobile that is used to build SpaceX's moon and Mars rocket at Boca Chica, Texas. The Air Force's tanker planes are made in Mobile as well as ship manufacturing in Mobile. Ceramic parts for jet engines are made in Alabama. There are also several paper mills making toilet paper, paper towels, and paper plates and cups.

Alabama's cost of living is the 4th or 5th lowest in the nation. Two people making minimum wage in a household can afford to buy a lower middle class home.

Now, yes Alabama has a lot of rural poor pockets still remaining, and about 1/3 of the state is minorities that have a tendency to be perpetual poor and uneducated. Alabama does have voter photo ID requirements, but the ID's are drivers license or a free non-driver photo ID at the drivers license office so that solves the "poor can't afford ID crap". Also, if you are on welfare in Alabama, you have to either actively seek a job or get free technical school training for 2 years. Can't be on welfare but 2 years unless you are mentally or physically disabled. If you drop out of high school before you are 18, you loose your drivers license. So the graduation rate drastically improved after this law was passed. Now it is in the middle of the country in high school graduation rates.

Alabama has a fairly strong agriculture business with not only cotton, but soybeans, peanuts, peaches, pecans, cattle and chickens. The timber industry is very strong in Alabama. Southern pine for lumber as well as feeding the paper mills. Coal and limestone as well as marble are mined in Alabama. Iron not so much anymore. Still there but not as productive.

Alabama is not the same state if was in the 1950's or 60's. It is hard to live down. Oh, Alabama is the most unionized state in the south. It is on par with Indiana as far as union workers. Mostly steel and utility workers as well as dock workers.

Shhhh . Stop talking it up you don't want the floodgates to open with Yankee ingrates. BTW you left out Toyota in Huntsville and world class golf courses.

There's still some serious discussion going on about whether or not it was a mistake to close the damyankee hunting season in 1865!

The Yankees were winning.

They should put a confederate flag on their logo now

Y'all talk funny down there though.

Is there an NHL team in Alabama? Golf sucks.

He forgot to mention the oil covered beaches and monster hurricanes that ravage the state. Or the lousy tourism and seafood industries, or the marlin and tuna fishing, or... never mind

I'm sure your dumb ass believes you might have done something.

LOL

What's been going on lately in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and other northern cities is the result of the north winning the civil war.

I can't speak for the other cities that you listed, but Detroit has been quiet.

jimy must not pay much attention, there are a whole lot more New Yorkers moving to Alabama than there are Alabamians moving to New York. The bigger problem is keeping them from bringing their voting habits with them.

I wouldn't worry about finding skilled workers who are familiar with firearms. The average New Yorker would scream and run away if you sat a 1911 on the table in front of them, most of the locals around Troy could put on a blindfold then strip it and reassemble it.

2.5 hours from Troy they can be sipping bushwackers on the best beaches in the world, there's nothing within 1000 miles of Yonkers that compares to them. Unfortunately it seems like half of New England lives along the FL panhandle coast already, you hear more New York and Boston accents along Hwy 30A than locals.

This move happen quite awhile ago, my Kimber Classic is barrel stamped Troy AL Think I've had it for over a year. I had a problem with the safety and called them about it. They emailed me a prepaid shipping label to Troy and had it back to me in 10 days including shipping time. Best CS I've ever had!

Most white Conservative Southerners take their job seriously


“Q”

Or...the result of you cornponers being too lazy to pick your cotton and too dumb to whup them dammyankees!

Only Mississippi keeps Alabama and Florida from being the ugliest of states



mike r

Oh my.

LOL

Show me...I haven't seen any outrageous QA issues on the Weatherby Nation forums. But, if there is an issue Weatherby has a reputation of making it right.

I don't have a kimber but have been eyeing their revolvers.

I’d have to look into politics of the different states. Word on the street here is that Kimber suffered a two month shut down during Covid. Maybe bullschitt shutdowns of the likes a factor. Among other tax related obstacles. Either way a win win to me. Cleaning out the closet.”

Search function is your friend and define "outrageous". Weatherby themselves admitted as much to me because they lost about 80% of their skiked work force when they moved to Wyoming...

You brought it up...put up or shut up.

I can live without your seal of approval...