More news on Marlin Closing, in Conn.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGdPLmmpsEk0M-aK4NVxVXPK1WTAD9EMG9N80
NORTH HAVEN, Conn. — Marlin Firearms Co., a 140-year-old company which made a gun that was a favorite of Annie Oakley, is closing its Connecticut plant, company officials said Friday.
Workers at the plant in North Haven say they've been told all 265 employees will lose their jobs.
Jessica Kallam, a spokeswoman with Madison, N.C.'s Remington Arms Co. Inc., which owns Marlin, said the Connecticut plant will close by June 2011 and employees would be offered severance and help finding jobs. She said Marlin is relocating its manufacturing operations to an undetermined site.
Kallam could not confirm if all employees in Connecticut are losing their jobs.
She read a company statement that says Freedom Group, which owns Remington, must reduce its costs to remain competitive.
"Although long term prospects of the business look positive, economic factors beyond Freedom Group's control related to increasing costs and pricing pressures within the firearms industry are impacting the entire Freedom Group of companies," the statement said.
Remington Arms bought Marlin for nearly $42 million in 2007.
Marlin's Web site says John Marlin opened the company in 1870 in New Haven after having worked at the Colt plant in Hartford during the Civil War. The company says its lever action 22 repeater was a favorite gun of Annie Oakley.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m3d26-Marlin-Firearms-closure-announcement-hits-hard
Marlin Firearms closure announcement was not funeral announcement
March 26, 12:56 PMSeattle Gun Rights ExaminerDave Workman
Hunters and shooters in the Pacific Northwest aren’t much different from their contemporaries all over the country, so the announcement that the Marlin Firearms Company is closing its doors in North Haven, CT by June of next year initially hit a lot of people hard in these parts, including me.
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UPDATE!!!! According to a late Friday post by Dave Petzal, the initial news was not so gloomy as everyone believed at first, including me! It appears Marlin is moving from the North Haven plant to another location. My best guess, based on some preliminary information, is that it will be in a more business- and labor-friendly state, perhaps down in North Carolina where Remington has a facility.
Bottom line: Marlin is going to remain alive and kicking! This is one clarification I’m delighted to add to my column.
Last year's surge in gun sales was largely dominated by sales of AR-15 type rifles, home-defense shotguns and semiautomatic handguns. However, Marlin builds traditional lever-action big game rifles, and one superb bolt-action big game rifle, along with so many quality .22-caliber semi-auto and bolt-action rimfires one can hardly keep track of them all, and I've never seen one that was not accurate.
Well, the good news is that we'll evidently continue seeing those guns in the marketplace. It is the Connecticut plant that is closing. That part of the story appears to be locked in place. That, of course, is the sad part.
Connecticut is apparently not the best place to conduct business, which precludes any hope that an offer from our state’s office of economic development could lure Marlin here for a new start at the west end of the country. (Want to own a small business in Washington? Start a big business and just wait.)
Full disclosure: I own two Marlin bolt-action rifles, the superb, albeit short-lived, MR7 and the very accurate XL7, and I’m very fond of them both. It is in the lever-action arena where Marlin has earned its reputation, of course, and one simply does not erase a legend.
Workers at the North Haven company say they learned about the closure plans Thursday. They told local news media layoffs will begin in May and the company will close by June 2011.
There was no immediate comment from Remington about the likelihood that Marlin production would be moved to a new location, a more business-friendly environment, but others are certainly talking about likely relocation. (They're not talking about Washington, of course; too bad, it would be nice to see a Marlin factory in these parts, and Washington sure could use the jobs!) The Associated Press quoted Marlin's Jessica Kallam — who I could not reach Friday — that the production would be relocating.
The situation appears to be compounded by the fact that Connecticut is a difficult state for any manufacturer to sustain its business model.”—North Haven First Selectman Michael J. Freda
For anyone devoted to civil rights, that is good news. For those afflicted with hoplophobia, that’s bad enough to elicit fear and loathing; so much that they feel compelled to try their hand at dictating how Starbucks ought to run its business.
Now, in addition to buying a cup of java from Starbucks, one may want to invest in a Marlin rifle. Or make that a couple of Marlin rifles. Looks like they'll be around for a long, long time.
