Anyone seen this-
State company makes offer for Winchester factory
Andy Bromage, Register Staff
07/15/2006
-NEW HAVEN — City officials fired off a teasing tidbit about the Winchester firearms factory Friday — a Connecticut gun maker has made an offer to buy the shuttered plant — but immediately slapped a silencer on the news.
Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s office, in keeping with recent practice, said the parent company of U.S. Repeating Arms Co. is "seriously considering" an offer by a state-based manufacturer, but would not name the party.
"There’s a lot of negotiating that’s going on that has to run its course," said Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, the mayor’s spokeswoman. "Usually companies don’t want to be identified until they know what they are doing."
In March, the Winchester plant went dark, ending a 140-year legacy, putting 186 employees out of work and threatening to outsource production of "The Gun That Won the West" overseas.
Herstal Group of Belgium, USRAC’s parent company, said declining sales and competition from abroad forced the plant to close. In May, the company agreed to open the plant’s financial records to prospective buyers for 75 days so potential successors could see whether the plant was profitable. The arrangement was part of a deal reached with City Hall that included USRAC paying the city $850,000 to settle old tax abatements.
The selected bidder and Herstal must now negotiate a sale of the plant, at 344 Winchester Ave., and convince Missouri-based Olin Corp., owner of the Winchester brand name, to license the bidder to make the rifles.
Michael Blank of St. Louis-based MHB Enterprises, one of two consultants hired to orchestrate the sale, said that "over a dozen" companies inquired about buying the plant and "a third of those responded with some kind of credible offer." He, too, declined to be more specific, or name the companies.
"It all comes down to this one individual," Blank said. "Other people are still interested but this one candidate was significantly beyond the others in many areas." Blank said some prospective buyers found the plant too small, others too big, and for the first time opened the possibility that the plant might go to a use other than gun making, such as warehousing.
"Obviously we’d like to keep (Winchester production) in New Haven," Blank said. "Our preference is still New Haven but our backup is America."
Among the largest gun manufacturers in Connecticut are Marlin in North Haven; Colt and U.S. Firearms, both in Hartford; and Sturm, Ruger & Co. of Fairfield.
©New Haven Register 2006