RemArms to Shut Historic Remington Plant in Ilion, New York

The longest-operating gun manufacturing plant within the nation will shut its doorways in March after 195 years of creating Remington weapons. RemArms, the reimagined model offshoot of the Remington each hunter and shooter has recognized for 2 centuries, introduced the change in a letter to union leaders Thursday, reviews the Utica Observer-Dispatch. 

“I’m writing to tell you that RemArms, LLC has determined to shut its complete operations at 14 Hoefler Avenue, Ilion, NY 13357,” the letter reads. “The Firm expects that operations on the Ilion Facility will conclude on or about March 4, 2024. The Firm didn’t arrive at this choice calmly.” 

The choice is noteworthy for Remington followers, however not altogether stunning given the latest turmoil at Huge Inexperienced. The Remington Outside Firm filed for chapter in July 2020, shedding 585 staff with out severance advantages and halting operations in Ilion. In fall 2020, an funding agency named The Roundhill Group bought the manufacturing plant, together with a second Remington facility in Tennessee that made handgun barrels, and renamed the corporate RemArms. (In the meantime Ruger purchased Marlin, which had been below Remington possession since late 2007. Remington Ammunition is now a separate firm from RemArms firearms.)

In Might 2021, 230 RemArms staff returned to the Ilion plant to proceed operations. The corporate was targeted on mass-producing Mannequin 870s shotguns and Mannequin 700 rifles, and restocking cabinets earlier than searching season rolled round, director of product administration Adam Ballard informed Area and Stream on the time. (Outside Life has since examined the RemArms 870 Fieldmaster, which has changed the RemArms 870 Categorical.)

Round 300 staff clocked in on the Ilion plant on daily basis, making it the most important employer in rural Herkimer County, New York. A lot of these staff are represented by the United Mine Staff of America. The UMWA negotiated on behalf of the staff in the course of the 2020 chapter, ensuing layoffs, and acquisition. UMWA worldwide president Cecil E. Roberts launched a press release in response to the information.

“This can be very disappointing to listen to that RemArms LLC is closing its Ilion plant,” he wrote on Thursday. “The employees in Ilion enabled RemArms to rise from the ashes of the Remington Arms chapter in 2020-21. With out these employees and their dedication to producing the most effective firearms on the earth, this firm merely wouldn’t exist … This announcement by the corporate is a slap within the face to all of them. The timing provides insult to damage for these affected. Merry Christmas from RemArms.”

A RemArms consultant didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. An auto-reply e mail to Outside Life acknowledged, partly, “RemArms is happy to increase our amenities in Georgia, a state that not solely welcomes enterprise however enthusiastically helps and welcomes corporations within the firearms business.”

The assertion was a part of a November 2021 press launch from Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s workplace asserting that RemArms could be shifting its world headquarters to LaGrange, Georgia, and constructing a sophisticated manufacturing facility there, as properly.

Eliphalet Remington II based Remington as a rifle barrel producer in 1816; the Ilion plant turned operational in 1828 and produced hundreds of firearms for the Union Military within the Civil Struggle. The corporate additionally produced a few of the nation’s first commercially accessible typewriters in Ilion from 1874 to 1886, though it’s unclear whether or not they had been manufactured in the identical plant.

Learn Subsequent: The 28 Most Notable Weapons from Remington’s 200-12 months Historical past

“The Ilion facility and its workforce really stay a valued asset to the corporate,” then-Remington CEO James Marcotuli informed capturing editor John B. Snow in 2016, in the course of the gunmaker’s two hundredth anniversary. “There’s a ton of expertise and data there. We’ve been producing Remington merchandise in Ilion since 1816. In that point, we’ve produced greater than six million Mannequin 700s, practically 4 million Mannequin 1100s, and 11 million Mannequin 870s.”

A clarification was made on Dec. 1, 2023: A earlier model of this text mislocated the phrase “shotgun” when referring to Mannequin 870s and Mannequin 700s. It has been up to date to replicate the suitable class of firearm for these fashions.