Heckler & Koch to Build a US Factory in Georgia
billj 05.03.17
The German Paper Spiegel carries news that H&K is coming stateside, with a plans for a new $23 million factory in Columbus, GA. The original is in German, but the Google translation is serviceable:
For the first time, the gun company Heckler & Koch is building a factory abroad, which it operates itself. In the US state of Georgia, a factory for pistols, sports and hunting guns is being built for 23 million US dollars, said company manager Norbert Scheuch, confirming a report of the “world”…
Firmenchef Scheuch said on the grounds of construction in the city of Columbus: “The American market is by far the largest civilian arms market in the world.” Nearly 40 percent of the total turnover of more than 200 million Euros was made by Heckler & Koch in 2016 with sales for the US civilian market, with pistols and sports and hunting guns. This was a plus of almost 50 percent compared with 2015…
The investment in the new plant will help not to be hit by possible import problems by US President Donald Trump, Scheuch said. “Because of the ‘America First’ motto, it is becoming increasingly difficult to export to the US – the Americans want a local production locally.” In addition, this can be used to reduce potential negative effects through exchange rates.
I know Texas must’ve offered them the moon trying to get this deal, so I’m wondering how Georgia pulled it off. If anyone knows the inside baseball, please drop into the comments and enlighten.
At any rate, this is cool, but I do wonder a few things about it.
First, will HK fanboys insist that only the company’s German-made guns are worth buying? This hasn’t happened so much with Sig and others, but I could see the HK diehards turning their noses up at anything from the Georgia factory.
Another question: will HK lower prices and make some of their guns more available? In other words, will they stop hating customers?
My guess is that the answer to this last one is, “No.” H&K is always about the LEO/MIL market, and that probably won’t change with this new factory. They’ll just get more aggressive about going after police contracts in the US.
My final question is, why is HK so overrated, and not as good as my favorite gun brand? Ok that’s a troll, but still.
