Marlin to Shut Down Connecticut Plant and Lay Off 265 Workers
Marlin Firearms, now owned by Remington Arms (part of Cerberus Capital Management’s Freedom Group), is going to shut down its North Haven, Connecticut manufacturing facility. This marks the end of a legendary period of gun-making in New England. Marlin has produced firearms in Connecticut since 1870, when the company was founded by John M. Marlin.
A Marlin spokesman indicated that the plant will be closed by June, 2011, and all 265 employees will be terminated via phased lay-offs starting in May, 2010. The Marlin plant closure, announced late Thursday (March 24th), came as a surprise to both Marlin employees and North Haven community leaders. Marlin plant workers reported being “blindsided”. One worker told WTNH Channel 8 that: “We never saw this coming… we were told to attend a mandatory meeting at 3:30… And then boom [that was it].” Remington has not yet issued an official statement about the factory closure, but one insider speculated that the plant was closed to “avoid union wage pressure driving retail cost upward and making the product less competitive in the modern firearms market.”
Marlin is currently head-quartered in Madison, North Carolina. There is no indication that the production of Marlin rifles will be halted — production will likely be shifted to Freedom Group factories in other states. The Shooting Wire reports that: “According to Remington Arms sources, the facility is being decommissioned and the manufacturing relocated to Remington’s Ilion, New York facilities; the Marlin lines are not moving offshore.” The production relocation will apply to Marlin products, and, presumably, to the other brands made by Marlin: Harrington & Richardson, New England Firearms, and L.C. Smith.
Marlin’s founder, John M. Marlin, learned his trade during the Civil war, working at the Colt plant in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1870, according to Marlin’s website, Marlin “hung out his sign on State Street in New Haven, manufacturing his own line of revolvers and derringers.” The Marlin enterprise was purchased by Frank Kenna in 1924, and the Kenna family maintained ownership until Remington acquired Marlin in 2008.
Click Arrow Lower Left to Play Report from WTNH-TV Channel 8 in New Haven:
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