Knimrod
03-16-2006, 11:35 PM
No buyer for Winchester; factory to close this month
March 16, 2006
By MATT APUZZO
http://www.migunowners.org/images/ap.gif
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Despite a two-month search for a buyer to take over the historic Winchester rifle factory, the plant will close at the end of the month, Mayor John DeStefano said Thursday.
City and union leaders scrambled to find a buyer in January after the Herstal Group, a Belgian manufacturer, said it would close the U.S. Repeating Arms plant, the storied Connecticut assembly line that produced the "The Gun that Won the West."
"It's going to go dark," DeStefano said Thursday. "There's no buyer, no closing, nothing that puts this together that soon."
DeStefano said negotiations over the plant's future continue. Earlier this month, he offered to buy the plant for $1 and promised to excuse $17 million in taxes and contract penalties that city attorneys say Herstal will owe New Haven and the labor union when the plant closes.
Herstal CEO Philippe Tenneson rejected the deal and, in a letter to the city last week, disputed its financial calculations. Tenneson also said the company has lost millions on the factory in recent years.
"Very few groups, other than ours, would have exhibited such a combination of investment commitment and operational patience," Tenneson wrote.
More than 19,000 Winchester employees worked in New Haven during World War II, but after years of a softening firearms market, the plant now employs fewer than 200. All will lose their jobs when the plant closes.
Negotiations to find a new owner are closely tied to discussions over the future of the Winchester name. Herstal wants to discontinue the traditional rifle but keep the name on specialty weapons it produces overseas.
"We want to give Winchester a new future, not looking over our shoulder at the past, at the products with which we lost a lot of money," Herstal spokesman Robert Sauvage said Thursday.
Without the Winchester name, however, New Haven's factory isn't as attractive. DeStefano hopes a new owner will restart the assembly line under the Winchester name.
But the name belongs to the Olin Corp., of Missouri, which licenses Herstal to use it until next year. Olin spokeswoman Ann Pipkin says closing the New Haven plant would violate Herstal's license agreement and allow Olin to find a new home for the Winchester name.
Such a deal would have to be negotiated separately from the factory's sale, but DeStefano said he hopes everyone _ Olin, Herstal, the city and a buyer _ can find common ground.
DeStefano wouldn't say how long the city will wait before trying to collect the $17 million. He said he didn't want to threaten a company he's negotiating with but said the city will collect the money when the time is right.
Link to story (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--winchesterplant0316mar16,0,5009759.story)
March 16, 2006
By MATT APUZZO
http://www.migunowners.org/images/ap.gif
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Despite a two-month search for a buyer to take over the historic Winchester rifle factory, the plant will close at the end of the month, Mayor John DeStefano said Thursday.
City and union leaders scrambled to find a buyer in January after the Herstal Group, a Belgian manufacturer, said it would close the U.S. Repeating Arms plant, the storied Connecticut assembly line that produced the "The Gun that Won the West."
"It's going to go dark," DeStefano said Thursday. "There's no buyer, no closing, nothing that puts this together that soon."
DeStefano said negotiations over the plant's future continue. Earlier this month, he offered to buy the plant for $1 and promised to excuse $17 million in taxes and contract penalties that city attorneys say Herstal will owe New Haven and the labor union when the plant closes.
Herstal CEO Philippe Tenneson rejected the deal and, in a letter to the city last week, disputed its financial calculations. Tenneson also said the company has lost millions on the factory in recent years.
"Very few groups, other than ours, would have exhibited such a combination of investment commitment and operational patience," Tenneson wrote.
More than 19,000 Winchester employees worked in New Haven during World War II, but after years of a softening firearms market, the plant now employs fewer than 200. All will lose their jobs when the plant closes.
Negotiations to find a new owner are closely tied to discussions over the future of the Winchester name. Herstal wants to discontinue the traditional rifle but keep the name on specialty weapons it produces overseas.
"We want to give Winchester a new future, not looking over our shoulder at the past, at the products with which we lost a lot of money," Herstal spokesman Robert Sauvage said Thursday.
Without the Winchester name, however, New Haven's factory isn't as attractive. DeStefano hopes a new owner will restart the assembly line under the Winchester name.
But the name belongs to the Olin Corp., of Missouri, which licenses Herstal to use it until next year. Olin spokeswoman Ann Pipkin says closing the New Haven plant would violate Herstal's license agreement and allow Olin to find a new home for the Winchester name.
Such a deal would have to be negotiated separately from the factory's sale, but DeStefano said he hopes everyone _ Olin, Herstal, the city and a buyer _ can find common ground.
DeStefano wouldn't say how long the city will wait before trying to collect the $17 million. He said he didn't want to threaten a company he's negotiating with but said the city will collect the money when the time is right.
Link to story (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--winchesterplant0316mar16,0,5009759.story)