Posted on 04/06/2007 5:02:18 PM PDT by neverdem
Remington Arms Co., the N.C. gunmaker that has equipped U.S. soldiers for 150 years, agreed to be acquired by a New York equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP for $118 million.
The company produced its first profit in three years in 2006 after struggling with rising materials costs and increased competition from Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., maker of the .44 Magnum popularized in the "Dirty Harry" movies.
Cerberus is entering the $2.1 billion U.S. firearms industry, whose sales grew an annual average of 28 percent from 1998 to 2005, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Remington is the country's largest and oldest maker of rifles and shotguns.
Remington was sold by other New York-based private-equity firms Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. and Clayton Dubilier & Rice Co., according to a company statement Thursday. The company is based in Madison, 25 miles north of Greensboro.
Remington was founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington II, who built his flintlock rifle in Ilion Gulch, N.Y., after placing second in a shooting match and attracting the attention of other contestants. The company was rescued by the U.S. government after Russian revolutionaries defaulted on a contract in 1918 and benefited from its purchase during the Great Depression by DuPont Co., which made improvements to gun powder.
Cai Von Rumohr, a Boston-based analyst at Cowen & Co., said Remington may be able to gain market share after U.S. Repeating Arms Co., which licenses the Winchester brand, discontinued three models and closed a factory in New Haven, Conn., where the rifles and shotguns were made for a century and a half.
The Remington transaction includes $252 million of debt. Cerberus spokeswoman JJ Rissi declined to comment on the deal's financial breakdown.
Remington, led by Chief Executive Officer Thomas Millner, stopped making handguns in the 1990s. Stricter federal and state laws governing the sale of pistols prompted gun manufacturers to narrow their focus on shotguns and rifles used for hunting and target shooting. The company's guns include the $812 700 BDL Custom Deluxe and $996 11-87 SPS Super Magnum.
In December, Smith & Wesson agreed to buy Thompson/Center Arms Inc. for $102 million to enter the hunting-rifle market. Springfield, Mass.-based Smith & Wesson, whose revenue is about half that of Remington, is known for its revolvers and pistols.
Last year, Remington posted net income of $300,000 after three years of losses. Sales rose 8.7 percent to $446 million. Smith & Wesson last month said it anticipates earning $12 million on $225 million of sales in fiscal 2007. The company had 2,150 employees at the end of February.
Clayton Dubilier bought Remington's assets from DuPont in 1993 for $300 million. The Wilmington, Del.-based chemical company purchased a 60 percent stake in the gunmaker in 1933 and acquired the remaining shares in 1980. During its 191-year history, Remington branched out to produce typewriters, sewing machines and cash registers, businesses it later divested.
Remington expects to complete the transaction by June 28.
someone will have to explain how a rifle company is threatened by a handgun company. I'll bet Smith and Wesson is the only company the writer has any knowledge. The hint is the mention of a firearm used in a movie.
S&W bought Thompson/Center firearms. They make rifles.
Also the holding company that bought Remington also owns Bushmaster and is rumored to be looking for a handgun mfg to purchase.
Cerberus is also looking to buy Chrysler Group.
Buy a Jeep, get a 700BDL!
I got the 870 special 12 ga. pump 3” mag. Love it
Did a six year-old write this article?
They don’t make a rifle that’s competitive with Remington unless it might be some blackpowder inlines.
Didn’t Smith just buy Thompson Center this year? How did a less than twelve month purchase threaten Remington? I think the author simply doesn’t know another gun manufacturer or they would have mentioned Thompson Center.
I don’t care for the 870 because of the position of the safety. Small problem but I like using a safety without moving my trigger finger. Otherwise great shotgun with lots of add-on toys.
Your right Rem and TC make different rifles. But with the EBR market going wild I expect S&W/TC to come up with some cool stuff and Rem now has ‘access’ to Bushmaster.
Ping
Curious, how we see valued such a brick-and-mortar firm vs. Google’s IPO which saw the company worth (on paper) as much as $80 BILLION.
AOL wrote off $54 BILLION Q1 2002.
Yahoo! wrote off $54 Million not too long after that.
The online era’s chant was, ‘Information Just Wants To Be Free.’ But it really didn’t.
It is possible that purveyors to those who seek to maintain and manifest the Second Amendment are being undervalued by the ignorant and apathetic — and acquired on the cheap by some whose loyalty is not American Principles—but power and profit. These could include Soros.
Methinks the American Public had better pay closer attention to our ‘smokestack industries.’
I got the 870 Marine Magnum. I love it.
Actually S&W is competing with Remington. As already stated S&W bought out Thompson Center who makes much more than just “blackpowder rifles”. In fact TC just came out with their boltaction ICON rifles when S&W bought them. S&W also bought out another company that makes shotguns, so their getting into that too. BTW they’ve been marketing their own AR15 for a year now, very nice rifle but pricy, I’ll Stick with my RRA.
Still S&W’s main item is handguns which they aggresively compete with Ruger and then the hoard of foreign companies. Hard for most domestic manufacturers to stay profitable when haveing to deal with idiotic regulations, union pay and benefits, litigation, and a bunch of hostile politicians and then compete with the Sigs, Glocks, HK’s and Taurus’s of the world.
Actually I knew all that I just hate to type that much :). I figured that I had given everyone enough info for them to follow.
They already have.

Read the Shooting Times Test results here: http://www.shootingtimes.com/longgun_reviews/swmp15_121906/
Anyone know about remington cartridges....I just picked up two
boxes of 9MM [ for $7 each I might add ].
I like! I might have to go empty out the wallet and pick one of those bad boys up at the gun shop.
Good idea. After I pick up an M1 Carbine, I think I’ll save up for an Armalite lower receiver.
I was impressed with the long term reliabilty test. One of the major gun schools ( can’t recall name ) has been using them for house class guns for a year or so. They seem to be very impressed.
Which manufacturer of M1 Carbine do you want? I’m going to get one but can’t decide which one. I know only six made their own barrels.
I have a 1100 12 ga. love it...
I have a hunch Shooter is going for one of the M1 Carbines out of a CMP sale :)
See post 24, forgot to add you on reply list
I’m sure he is too. They have them from 10 different mfgs that you can choose from. Right now they have Inlands for sale but the others are supposed to be ready in Sept.
I am trying to find out if any mfgs are best.
Gunsite has been using them. They speak highly of the M&P series.
>>”Remington, led by Chief Executive Officer Thomas Millner, stopped making handguns in the 1990s.”<<
I’m sure nobody noticed; I think their last handgun was a bizarre yet powerful single shot bolt action, the XP-100.
Other than that, they stopped making “normal” pistols during the Great Depression, before WW2.
Smith and Wesson just bought Thompson Center which, in addition to making S&W a major force in black powder, gives S&W control of the new bolt action TC rifles that are going on the market this year, and access to NEF/H&R, which T/C had already bought.
Oh yeah, and now S&W has access to T/C’s rifle barrel operation.
That’s what came to mind but I couldn’t find verification. Thanks.
Can't speak to either Remington cartridges or 9mm. All my pistols are .4x cal and greater.
So THAT'S what made S&W famous!
A compnay is valued based on revenues, earnings, and assests as well as other issues.
More people use Google and it has a big area for more growth then a gun manufacturing company.
“Cerberus is entering the $2.1 billion U.S. firearms industry”
This makes my point, Google last year had over 3 billion dollars in revenues all by itself.
Hmm... Could be my Remington 725 in 30.06 just went up in value.
Can’t see why it would. Same company, same factory, same workers etc. just different owners.
You’re right, of course, except for the fact that gun buyers are known to do some inexplicable things when it comes to getting that one gun they’ve always wanted. I no longer go to gun auctions because almost every gun offered invariably brings a higher bid than you would have to spend on a new one of the same make, model and caliber. Not to mention I’ve already been offered a couple hundred more than the gun is worth, even if it were NIB, which it’s not.
Ain’t that the truth! I was looking for a Ruger Redhawk in 45LC for some time. Every one I found was more than a new RR 44mag! (Finally found one at a reasonable $500.00 and snagged it)
Not to change the subject, but you wouldn’t happen to know where one might be able to buy some .22 High Power ammo would you? I know where there’s a Savage 99 in that caliber that would go way up in value if the ammo were readily available.
Cheaper than dirt has it.
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=22+high+power+ammo&hl=en&um=1&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title
Hey, thanks! Now...where’d I put my billfold?
Yes, more people use Google than buy Remingtons. Google is ‘free’ *if* you buy the infrastructure elements and pay the facetime to see their ads and don’t mind their tracking your every search to your Internet address and setting cookies...
If less hindered politically, Remingtons and other firearms would be cheaper to manufacture and deliver to law-abiding citizens and would result in a reduction in crime.
My crucial bigger point was that we have so many restrictions in place on the firearms industry and fewer who support the Second Amendment—and we must be alert that control of the former does not go cheaply to those like $oro$ who also seek to end the latter.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
They dont make a rifle thats competitive with Remington unless it might be some blackpowder inlines.
Didnt Smith just buy Thompson Center this year? How did a less than twelve month purchase threaten Remington? I think the author simply doesnt know another gun manufacturer or they would have mentioned Thompson Center.
What impresses me about TC is that they sold for 90% of what Remington sold for. I guess turning a nice profit makes a difference!
I have an old Thompson/Center muzzleloader Renegade. Haven’t fired it in years, and it needs a serious cleaning and oiling, but that sucker is accurate enough to turn a buck into a doe in .50 caliber style. ;^)
Yep.
I never wanted one because I thought they were not a good rifle or a good pistol. Sorta a poor inbetween. That’s just my opinion. I think if the ammo was cheaper it could have been a great plinker and fun gun. I don’t think the ammo was ever cheap. Some third world country should have adopted it so we could have bought their surplus ammo.
Now, I can’t wait. It’s not the rifle but it’s the history behind it.
Inland or whatever is available.
I like!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.