They desperately need to innovate.
The Millenialls and Gen Z is by and large NOT interested in classic wood and steel firearms. Hunting guns are referred to as “Fudd” guns by them in reference to the dopy cartoon Elmer Fudd. Self defense and tactical oriented guns are what these new generations are after.
I believe if they brought out a quality well designed AR-15 style magazine fed semi auto shotgun in the same vein as the foreign Turkish and Filipino guns but with the big Remington name it would be a huge seller.
As for me, I love the 1100 series but I am extremely skeptical of what quality this new Remington will produce. Maybe they’ve decided to increase quality control but do keep in mind now more than ever guns of all types are being made to a price point and most new young buyers are not at all discerning. I would wager 75% or more of the new customers won’t even know Remington even went out of business to begin with.
You say "Self defense and tactical oriented guns are what these new generations are after", yet that is exactly what the 870 is if the owner wants it to be.
Too many people online are going "Fudd. LOL" it seems and are not thinking about this from a business perspective.
When you are starting up a business, either new or from out of bankruptcy You NEED cashflow. Start making ANY money, or at least reduce your losses, as soon as possible. The 700 and 870 lines are the obvious first choice. All those employees and tooling need to be doing something. So have them start making something you know works and is going to be REALLY hard to screw up. Great, now you have income and might even be making some money. Now you have some time to innovate.
You point out that young buyers are not discerning. I would ask is that a change in preference or a symptom of something else?
When it comes to handguns, young buyers are INCREDIBLY discerning. Sure if they just need something that goes "pew" they'll settle for what is available... which is the exact same as past generations. If they have the choice, they will become discerning and pick whatever fits them the best. Just look at the different colors available.
The gun buying public being undiscerning at times is merely a symptom of, among other things, the AR-15. It can be customized like Lego bricks, but this also means it has the character of a Lego brick, none. As long as all the parts fit together and work like you want, it makes literally no difference what parts you use. The only ARs that retain character are those from before the AR became a set of Lego bricks. They won't care about a Remington AR any more than they care about an Anderson AR.
Mag fed shotguns are temperamental beasts. Especially when you shoot target loads. You can't just grab whatever says "12 gauge" on the box and expect it to work with no problems. (You can say the same about tube fed guns, especially the autos, but you get get away with it more often than not with them.) This would be a bad direction to go for a company wanting to build a reputation.
If you want innovation, Remington could easily do it by competing with the CMMG Banshee. How? The R51 Gen 2.
The bugs are already worked out of the core design.
They could sell the R51 before for an inexpensive price. (I hope they bring it back.)
The hesitation lock design
How does this mean innovation?
A full sized PCC using the R51 action as its core. You'll get the benefits of the CMMG Banshee, lighter weight and lower felt recoil, at a much lower price. Unlike other pistol actions, the R51 uses a fixed barrel. So it doesn't matter if the barrel is 4" long or 16" long. The most they might need to do is adjust the slide(bolt carrier) weight and when the slide(bolt carrier) picks up the bolt. I imagine in a carbine they would go with a slightly heavier slide(bolt carrier) that travels slightly further at a lower velocity before picking up and unlocking the bolt. This would be easy to prototype as all you would have to do is have some slides(bolt carriers) made with different lengths for where the bolt gets picked up. Drill some holes and use steel/tungsten inserts to test different bolt weights for prototyping. I'm sure there are calculations and simulations they can run to get it roughed in, then do this just for the final fine tuning.
The design is already hammer fired, so they can keep it with the magazine in the grip or use a Ruger New Model PC-9 or AR-15 type trigger group and have the magazine well in front of the trigger group.
Obviously they would have to adjust the grip or mag well to use double stack mags.
They would also need to tweak the disassembly. The R51 is NOT a fun gun to take apart. Not sure if having a takedown function like the Ruger would be the way to go or not? I never use it on mine and don't consider it a requirement. So forgoing the complexity and weight of a takedown feature might be the way to go.
Thank you for listening to my rambling TED Talk.
