Suppressor Manufacturer Gemtech Will Close Headquarters In Idaho
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 4 months ago
TFB:
What a difference a year makes. Last June we announced that Gemtech was breaking ground on a new world headquarters. Last night we learned that in six to nine months Gemtech will no longer exist in Idaho. At a company meeting yesterday, the remaining Gemtech employees were told that the facility would close and that all business would be moved to Smith & Wesson’s headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Some manufacturers are so tone deaf it amazes me they’re still in business. S&W has been told time and again by me and literally everyone else that they need to move operations completely and with prejudice away from their current state and come South. Or West. Idaho would be fine, or somewhere in the Northwest redoubt, or South would be better.
Leaving the liberal politics behind would be a requirement, of course, but instead of doing this, S&W is buying smaller companies and moving them to Massachusetts.
Procedure: [1] Find the worst possible thing you could do to alienate your customer base, and [b] do it. If you’re dumb.
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On July 1, 2018 at 10:34 pm, BRVTVS said:
Alienating gun owners seems to be Smith & Wesson’s forte. http://www.businessinsider.com/smith-and-wesson-almost-went-out-of-business-trying-to-do-the-right-thing-2013-1
On July 2, 2018 at 10:56 am, moe mensale said:
Perhaps S&W thinks they can squeeze economies of scale and efficiency from bringing Gemtech to Springfield. They are a public company, after all. Maybe they had a corporate brain fart. I don’t know.
As far as S&W leaving MA, it’s not a simple task uprooting 2,000+ employees (or training their replacements) and moving millions of dollars of equipment. Although Remington has done an admirable job getting itself mostly out of NY. S&W, like Remington, has its reasons why they won’t cut the cord.
MA wasn’t a bad place to work and live in up til the mid 70s when Mike Dukakis showed up. That’s about the time I left.
On July 2, 2018 at 11:06 am, Herschel Smith said:
@moe,
I’ve got it. But none of that is really the fault of Mike Dukakis. The people voted for him.
A company, like individuals, must keep it’s ear to the ground. Mass. has never really been friendly to gun owners. Much less so now. The people are to blame. Their world and life view is collectivist. Incorrigibly so in my opinion. It cannot be fixed.
It’s never really a politician’s fault. It’s always the people who elect them to begin with.
On July 3, 2018 at 7:22 am, DAN III said:
On the advice of my broker I sold my S&W stock 3 months ago. Glad I did.
On July 3, 2018 at 7:27 am, DAN III said:
Mr. Smith,
“It’s never really a politician’s fault. It’s always the people who elect them to begin with.”
And re-elect and re-elect and re-elect ad infinitum.
On July 3, 2018 at 8:36 am, Fred said:
Many don’t understand what’s happening. They will be caught behind enemy lines. Although battle lines are developing everywhere, there are hard lines around certain regions. They should get out, now.
At some point, if they stay, S&W will likely be forced to make weapons for bad people they don’t like, with little or no compensation. This is the history of the leftists program. One has to begin to doubt those who stay but claim affinity for liberty.
They could have taken the opportunity to relocate the corporation on paper by incorporation in Idaho. Then begun to build, organically through cash flow, operations out west until it made sense to begin to shut down the ops back east. But hardly anybody who has to make quarterly numbers for Wall Street thinks this long term and plans for years down the road. Of course, most who have moved planned for only a year or two and it appeared to be ripping the bandaid when they did move which to some extent I’m sure it was.
If I were an intrepid newsman, I would follow up with those that have moved for a sort of after action roundup of lessons learned and mostly to ask, ‘Was it worth it?’ To which I’m certain the resounding answer would be, Yes. I would be interested in reading such an article.
On July 3, 2018 at 12:59 pm, moe mensale said:
“The people voted for him.”
@Herschel,
Not all of them. :) I agree that Dukakis has nothing to do with the S&W issue. The firearms politics started to slowly change after his election though and the result is where they are today.
There may be economic (or otherwise) agreements tying S&W to MA going back decades that few know about. I don’t know. But I don’t see S&W getting into another “Clinton agreement” at the federal or state level ever again considering how close they came to bankruptcy.
On July 3, 2018 at 1:19 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@moe,
I suspect much like many of the states, the collectivists in Boston and other urban hives voted for the communists, others in rural and suburban areas didn’t.
The communists have been quite successful at building hives who beg for crumbs that fall from the master’s table. Yes?
On July 4, 2018 at 12:16 pm, moe mensale said:
@Herschel,
You’re correct. I grew up north of Boston almost on the NH line. The commies are pretty much inside the I-495 belt and on Cape Cod.
On September 23, 2018 at 8:33 pm, Robert Barr said:
Now rwill people believe that the Gemtech buyout was just another Anti-2A Gun Grab.
How can a Company’s Fiduciary dissolve a tens of millions sale of product to the UAE?