Kynoch
member
I have seen quite a few giddy and rather ignorant "pro-gun" articles celebrating the "move of Remington Arms" from Ilion, NY to Huntsville AL and I wanted to point out a few things that some or all the the articles miss:
* Remington is moving their Advanced Armament Corporation, Bushmaster, DPMS, Panther Arms, LAR Manufacturing, Montana Rifleman, Para, Remington 1911 and Tapco businesses to AL. Only the Bushmaster (which was earlier relocated from Windham, Maine) and Remington 1911 handgun businesses will come out of the Ilion, NY plant.
* The Ilion, NY plant has over 1M square feet of design, administrative and production floor space and it's full with Remington and some Marlin and some H&R production. At about 800K square feet, the Huntsville, AL couldn't even hold all that's located in Ilion -- particularly once it received the contents of the seven other aforementioned businesses.
* Remington is moving somewhere between 85 and 100 jobs (of about 1,500) to AL to support Bushmaster and Remington 1911 production -- less than 7%! Production output and employment is at historically high levels at Ilion.
* Given the expansion published expansion plans of Ruger and Beretta, it's clear some if not most if the Huntsville plant is intended for new growth. It would make little sense to fill it with existing business from Ilion.
* Many have said there is no reason to leave Ilion open. That's pure bunkum. Here's just a few:
-- A paid for physical plant of over 1M square feet.
-- Huge severance, recruiting and training costs associated with moving a large plant.
-- The actual costs of moving materials, machinery, finished goods, etc.
-- Horrendous clean-up costs associated with closing a plant that was built in 1915.
-- A dedicated and well-trained workforce.
-- The cost of product quality and productivity issues that crop-up when such moves are made.
-- Fewer members of US Congress (if Remington left NY) to do the company's bidding should it seek future gov't contracts. Even anti-gun politicos fight to keep/win jobs and contracts.
-- No further chances to take advantage of NY tax incentives and other incentives as it recently did when it improved the Ilion Plant.
-- In sum, moving a plant the size of Ilion during a historically busy business time for gun makers makes no sense.
* Some like to blame the hideous "SAFE Act" for this change. Keep in mind that this SAFE Act wasn't the work of Remington employees. Nor can it keep Remington from producing firearms in NY that are legal in other states. The Federal Interstate Commerce Law prohibits NY State from doing this.
Some need to consider things with just a bit more depth and breadth. While it might make some feel good that some Remington production is "going South", I like to think a bit further out where the SAFE Act is trashed and a business that has been in Ilion NY since 1816 through the US Civil War, WWI and WWII remains in place to produce fine firearms.
* Remington is moving their Advanced Armament Corporation, Bushmaster, DPMS, Panther Arms, LAR Manufacturing, Montana Rifleman, Para, Remington 1911 and Tapco businesses to AL. Only the Bushmaster (which was earlier relocated from Windham, Maine) and Remington 1911 handgun businesses will come out of the Ilion, NY plant.
* The Ilion, NY plant has over 1M square feet of design, administrative and production floor space and it's full with Remington and some Marlin and some H&R production. At about 800K square feet, the Huntsville, AL couldn't even hold all that's located in Ilion -- particularly once it received the contents of the seven other aforementioned businesses.
* Remington is moving somewhere between 85 and 100 jobs (of about 1,500) to AL to support Bushmaster and Remington 1911 production -- less than 7%! Production output and employment is at historically high levels at Ilion.
* Given the expansion published expansion plans of Ruger and Beretta, it's clear some if not most if the Huntsville plant is intended for new growth. It would make little sense to fill it with existing business from Ilion.
* Many have said there is no reason to leave Ilion open. That's pure bunkum. Here's just a few:
-- A paid for physical plant of over 1M square feet.
-- Huge severance, recruiting and training costs associated with moving a large plant.
-- The actual costs of moving materials, machinery, finished goods, etc.
-- Horrendous clean-up costs associated with closing a plant that was built in 1915.
-- A dedicated and well-trained workforce.
-- The cost of product quality and productivity issues that crop-up when such moves are made.
-- Fewer members of US Congress (if Remington left NY) to do the company's bidding should it seek future gov't contracts. Even anti-gun politicos fight to keep/win jobs and contracts.
-- No further chances to take advantage of NY tax incentives and other incentives as it recently did when it improved the Ilion Plant.
-- In sum, moving a plant the size of Ilion during a historically busy business time for gun makers makes no sense.
* Some like to blame the hideous "SAFE Act" for this change. Keep in mind that this SAFE Act wasn't the work of Remington employees. Nor can it keep Remington from producing firearms in NY that are legal in other states. The Federal Interstate Commerce Law prohibits NY State from doing this.
Some need to consider things with just a bit more depth and breadth. While it might make some feel good that some Remington production is "going South", I like to think a bit further out where the SAFE Act is trashed and a business that has been in Ilion NY since 1816 through the US Civil War, WWI and WWII remains in place to produce fine firearms.
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