Savage 10s haven’t helped Remington much either...
Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
11–20 of 346 posts
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#12Before anyone jumps to conclusions, it seems their trouble began well before COVID: > Firearms maker Remington Arms Co. filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time since 2018, weighed down by more debt than it can repay even as fearful Americans buy more guns than ever.
Kind of amazing for a gun company to go bankrupt when the industry is seeing record sales, even ignoring the spike with Covid.[1]
[1]https://www.ft.com/content/141a70c4-1608-4013-9188-f89600679...
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#13Can't tell from the article (due to the paywall), but any sign that the Navajo Nation might still buy 'em? I've heard before that they want to (specifically to address rampant unemployment/poverty among tribal members).
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#14What is the larger significance here? Does this mean the gun industry is struggling? Sounds unlikely given the spike in purchases.
Maybe it's just another old company that once had a good reputation but has lost its way. PE probably involved.
Or maybe there is some market shift. Like, fewer hunters purchasing lever actions and more urbanites buying semi-auto pistols.
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#15I wonder about the process here. If they filed for bankruptcy in 2018, and have to file again today in the middle of the hottest gun market in years... doesn't that mean they screwed up the first restructuring? (I guess I don't know how many of the people rushing to the store are actually buying the kind of expensive guns Remington sells, though. I'd believe a story where it's few to none.)
This is just financial engineering from a private equity company. They are simply bleeding out the brand reputation for as long as they can.
Same playbook as every other one.
Buy a brand. Cut costs and ship all work to the cheapest labor market. Count on brand loyalty and reputation to carry sales as the quality goes down. Eventually the brand will no longer be worth much due to the lower quality product, but by then the private equity firm has made solid returns on its investment. At that point they sell off the last scraps and find another quality brand with quality products and good jobs to destroy.
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#16Before anyone jumps to conclusions, it seems their trouble began well before COVID: > Firearms maker Remington Arms Co. filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time since 2018, weighed down by more debt than it can repay even as fearful Americans buy more guns than ever.
Same thing for Gibson Guitars, bought by KKR in 2013 and BK in 2018. Gibson Guitars was founded in 1894, but a lot of the guitars they make today don't work, and are way overpriced also. KKR renamed them to "Gibson Brands", so I guess some MBA with a PowerPoint thought related merchandise was more important than, you know, making guitars.
They... don't work? How exactly does such a straightforward physical item not work?
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#17Never owned a Remington myself, but they've not been held in high regard for a while. Some say it was linked to it's acquisition by Cerberus Capital. Ultimately, though, it seem alike the company was asking customers to pay premium prices for average guns. What justifies spending 800 - 1200 dollars on a Remington 700 as compared to $500 on a Ruger American?
Same, as far as firearms are concerned. But I do own several other Remington products and the quality is astonishing. One of which is a pocket knife and it's staggering how well made it is. And how outrageously sharp it is for that matter. 3 days before the pandemic started I nearly cut off my left index finger with it...
I will say, those are licensed products. They may be good, but that's luck of the draw, they have just sold the brand name off to some 3rd party to make a specific product.
For what it's worth, I bought a remington-branded bone saw ~3 years back, and it was absolute garbage. It failed to even finish field dressing an elk, and all that was required was one cut of a few inches. It's a shame, their older products were right up there with the likes of Starrett as the pinnacle of precision manufacturing in the US, but poor management can kill any company regardless of the quality of their products.
It is sort of ironic that, even given the US's crazy gun culture, most of the iconic American brands have been acquired (Winchester->FN) by other firms or been diluted to irrelevance (Marlin->Remington).
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#18Their ammo is good, especially .22 and .22 LR. But I've never known anyone who owned one of their firearms.... which really just says it all.
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#19Surprising, since lockdowns and "protests" have greatly increased the rate of gun purchasing. In my state, all firearms were out of stock at the local shops for months.
> "protests"
Pretty sure there are in fact protests. Regardless of your view on them, which I won't get into because this is HN and not Reddit.
Re: Remington Arms Declares Bankruptcy
#20Never owned a Remington myself, but they've not been held in high regard for a while. Some say it was linked to it's acquisition by Cerberus Capital. Ultimately, though, it seem alike the company was asking customers to pay premium prices for average guns. What justifies spending 800 - 1200 dollars on a Remington 700 as compared to $500 on a Ruger American?
>>Some say it was linked to it's acquisition by Cerberus Capital.
History repeats itself. As if these companies care about the brand reputation over decades, they just want to milk it and then sell it to idiots (public) that recognize the name. People are buying more guns than ever, so it was probably a planned bankruptcy