Welcome To The NEW American Firearms Company Website!
We are the American company, based in Connecticut (the birthplace of Winchester) that was the highest bidder for the Winchester building in New Haven, Connecticut, as well as their inventory and machinery. As you know, Herstal F/N of Belgium was the Winchester licensee. We lost, and they regained the license from Olin’s Winchester division to continue making Winchester firearms in the United States or anywhere else.
For more information about this story, please see the New Haven Register front page articles below for more details.
Also read "Olin explains Browning choice".
8/18/2006
Last shot fails to keep Winchester made in U.S.
Steve Higgins , Register Business Editor
-NEW HAVEN — A determined effort to keep the manufacturing of the famed Winchester rifle in the United States was gunned down this week when Olin Corp. granted the license to Browning.
The city of New Haven had teamed up with the chairman of a Greenwich investment and consulting firm to buy the U.S. Repeating Arms Co. plant at 344 Winchester Ave., which was closed in March after 140 years of making "The Gun That Won the West."
The move by Belgian parent company Herstal Group put 186 factory employees out work.
Stephen Oster, chairman of The Oster Group Inc. in Greenwich, had formed a new company, American Firearms Co., after reading about the factory shutdown.
Oster wanted to buy the Winchester plant from Herstal Group, but to do that he had to obtain the license to make the Winchester rifles from Missouri-based Olin Corp., which used to own the New Haven plant. Olin receives licensing fees from the sale of the rifles and also makes Winchester ammunition.
Over the last few months, Oster and the city’s representative, Kevin Tierney, president of Workout Solutions Inc. in Guilford, had been negotiating with Olin to buy the license. But Utah-based Browning, another Herstal subsidiary, also wanted the license, which covers the models built in New Haven, including the revered Model 70 and Model 94. Browning already makes some lesser-known Winchester models.
The Winchester Ammunition division of Olin announced on its Web site Tuesday that Olin had granted the license to Browning. "Winchester (Ammunition) is confident that Browning will produce innovative firearms worthy of the Winchester name," said Winchester Ammunition President Richard Hammett.
Neither Hammett nor officials with Olin or Herstal Group returned phone calls Thursday.
Tierney and Oster said Thursday they believe Herstal plans to have Browning make the two famous models through March 2008, then transfer production overseas, most likely to Portugal and Russia. Union agreements signed by Herstal prevent the company from moving production overseas until after March 2008.
Browning officials have denied allegations the company plans to eventually make the New Haven models overseas.
"We wanted to keep Winchester in America, made by an American company," Oster said. "We were quite surprised and ... disappointed that Olin chose this route. We did our best."
Oster, who was backed by several Wall Street private equity firms, said he planned to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility within the United States, and to keep at least some parts of the Winchester operation in New Haven.
A spokeswoman for the city said city officials will continue trying to find a buyer.
"American Firearms made an offer to buy all of the real estate, equipment and inventory, and received a conditional acceptance from USRAC (based on obtaining the license from Olin)," Tierney said. "American Firearms then informed Olin that it was prepared to pay more money for the license than Herstal would, and was prepared to guarantee it with letters of credit from the bank."
Tierney said Olin officials indicated they thought it might take American Firearms too long to get up and running, even though American Firearms estimated it would need only a year to get production started.
During the negotiations, "Herstal indicated it was their long-term intention to produce these firearms overseas, most likely in Portugal and Russia," Tierney said.
Tierney, who co-founded a Web site called
www.saveWinchester.com in April, said the site has received 8.9 million hits from 53 countries. A survey on the site showed 95 percent of respondents felt Winchester should remain in America, he said.
"Apparently Olin did not feel that going overseas will affect the buying public’s decisions," said Tierney. "Herstal apparently believes the firearm public is totally indifferent as to whether Winchesters are made in America, Portugal or Russia.
"We’re not so sure of that. The kinds of people who have been calling the Winchester Web site may take umbrage that Olin did not allow a true American company the opportunity to keep an American icon in this country."
Steve Higgins can be reached at business@nhregister.com or 789-5752.
8/20/2006
Olin explains Browning choice
Steve Higgins , Register Business Editor
-NEW HAVEN — Olin Corp. said Friday it granted Browning the license to produce Winchester rifles because it has a lengthy track record in the firearms business.
"Browning is a long-established developer and marketer of firearms, and they are committed to the brand," said Ann Pipkin, spokeswoman for Missouri-based Olin. "We’re proud of our heritage, and we decided on Browning because we believe that’s the best decision for consumers."
The alternative was a newly formed Greenwich company named American Firearms Co. that promised to keep in the United States the manufacture of the famed Winchester models previously made in New Haven, models 70 and 94.
The New Haven plant was closed in March after 140 years here, putting 186 employees out of work.
Sources involved with the licensing negotiations have said officials from Browning — based in Morgan, Utah — made it clear they plan to move production abroad, possibly to Russia or Portugal.
Browning officials did not return telephone calls for comment Thursday or Friday.
Dave Bichrest, 65, executive secretary of the Winchester Arms Collectors Association in Silsbee, Texas, said he wouldn’t buy a Winchester model made overseas.
"I don’t want anything to do with it," he said. "I’ll buy a used American model, at a higher cost, before I buy a brand-new one made in Russia, or any other country."
Still, Bichrest said many gun buyers, including some within the 2,000-member collectors’ group, would continue buying Winchesters made abroad if the quality is the same. He noted that many collectors already buy other, lesser-known Winchester models made in Japan, Portugal and other countries.
Bichrest said he believes Herstal Group, the Belgian company that owned U.S. Repeating Arms Co. in New Haven and also owns Browning, mismanaged the New Haven plant at 344 Winchester Ave.
"It was losing money, and there is no excuse for them to lose money on a Winchester," he said. "They couldn’t keep up with the orders they had. They didn’t even have the barrels on hand that they needed."
Michael Blank, the St. Louis gun manufacturer who started
www.savewinchester.com in January, said, "I’m disappointed. The first goal was to keep it in the U.S. and keep some presence in New Haven, its historic home. We talked about distribution, warehousing, engraving (at the New Haven plant)."
Blank said he believes Olin, which makes ammunition for Winchesters and also receives royalties on the gun sales, was afraid to risk going with an untested company.
"It’s a risk-averse play, but that’s what’s been plaguing the industry. No one is taking any chances or doing anything new," Blank said. "They played it safe."
New Haven Economic Development Administrator Kelly Murphy said city officials will try to find another buyer for the 225,000-square-foot complex, built in the early 1990s across the street from the original plant. "Some other businesses have expressed an interest in the building," she said.
