Remington Lays Off 122 Workers
Russ Chastain 03.14.17
Remington has reportedly laid off more than ten dozen employees at its factory in Ilion, New York, due to lessening demand for their products. The following is from a company statement:
The small arms industry is facing significant near term challenges related to slowing order velocity and high channel inventories; a dynamic from which Remington is not immune.
After exploring all the options available to us, we are compelled to reduce our work force by releasing 122 team members today at our Ilion, NY site. As we move forward, we will continue to monitor all segments of the business for growth opportunities.
More than one article covering this attribute it to flagging gun sales in general, supposedly because Republican election wins diminished public fear of government-led firearm bans. But at least one article noted that although NICS checks are currently lower than they were one year ago. They’re still higher than they were at this time in 2015.
Personally–and this is simply my own opinion–I believe Remington’s decades of bad policy are finally catching up to the company. For instance, after spending many years denying the well-documented fallacy of the Walker trigger in the Model 700 rifle, they finally replaced it. Yet they failed to offer a responsible recall program to correct the millions of dangerous guns they’d previously sold. Oh, and then they had to recall rifles built with the replacement trigger!
Add the waning popularity of new Remington semi-automatic shotguns due to reliability issues, and you may well have “broken the code” in figuring out the source of Remington’s current woes.
At any rate, the cutbacks aren’t too good for the 122 folks who are now looking for employment. I wish them all the best.
