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Winchester and Browning Enter Firearms License Agreement


8/15/2006
East Alton, IL, August 15, 2006 --Winchester announced today that it has entered into a long-term license agreement with Browning for the manufacture and distribution of Winchester brand rifles and shotguns.


“With this new agreement, Winchester is confident that Browning will produce innovative firearms worthy of the Winchester name, continuing a tradition that people around the world associate with the Winchester brand,†stated Richard Hammett, President Winchester Ammunition. “We are proud of our heritage as The Gun That Won the West and consider this arrangement as entering a new era for the legendary Winchester firearms brand.â€

Charles Guevremont, President of Browning is equally optimistic and excited about the opportunity to continue the production and distribution of Winchester firearms. “We are more committed today than ever before to the development of exciting new Winchester firearms designs,†said Guevremont. “We will continually strive to build the quality products that generations of loyal Winchester customers have come to expect and will be proud to own and use for decades to come.â€


Winchester is a division of Olin Corporation. Olin Corporation is a manufacturer concentrated in three business segments: Metals, Chlor Alkali Products and Winchester. Winchester products include sporting ammunition, reloading components, small caliber military ammunition and industrial cartridges.


For more information on Winchester products, including press releases and images, visit www.winchester.com, and then click on Press Room.

It sounds like Browning will be 'making' Winchesters now (perhaps contracting the manufacture out to Miroku of Japan).

Hopefully, they will resist the urge to use 'pot metal', plastic, and high-gloss polyurethane on the 'new' Model 70s.

George

quote:

Originally posted by GeorgeS:
It sounds like Browning will be 'making' Winchesters now (perhaps contracting the manufacture out to Miroku of Japan).George

Yup, my take on this is similar. It means that Winchesters will continue to be produced. But not in the USA

So, the folks in Conn are out their jobs, so manufacturing can commence outside the country. Too many times have I heard that!!! It's happening here in Canada as well.

I think it means Herstal couldn't find a buyer for the New Haven plant without having a long term license agreement in place with Olin.

Browning is a distributor, not a manufacturer. Perhaps Herstal has found the loophole required to move winchester production out of New Haven. It will be interesting to see who actually makes the Winchester firearms for Browning.

If you have followed this whole insemination, you will know that Herstal played ball with the local unions there in New Haven with a contract not to move the core product line out of CT for 8 years. Naturally, the honorable unions milked this opportunity like a golden goose! (Did I mix a metaphor there? Perhaps.)

Now at the end of that torture, those of us who have always loved the old M70s are ecstatic! I hope and pray that the parent will due justice to the legacy that they have inherited and that every rifle produced will be 1 of 1000!

No mention of USRAC?

Makes me wonder if the Olin/USRAC agreement has ended and now a streamlined model line-up will be sold by Browning.

Basically, Browning absorbed USRAC and will now sell Winchester firearms.

Herstal owns both USRAC and Browning. This switch may be Herstal's way of keeping the Winchester license while dropping USRAC and it's obligations. New Haven and the unions will be crying foul for sure unless there is a deal for the new owner of the New Haven facility to produce some guns under contract to Browning.

Winchester had been demanding that potential licensees agree to produce an ridulously large number of guns in order to get the license. I'd love to know what the new agreement says.

All the Belgian owners are doing is taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other pocket...

Some marketing MBA planned all of this way before last spring.. close Winchester then let the prices go way up and then announce that you are going to let you division in Utah buy it, which has more favorable laws than Connecticut did...

I am thankful for Model 70s and Model 94s to potentially be available again, regardless where they are made.. but I hate to see corporate board rooms play games like this with the pubic and then act like they are doing us all a big favor....

They are just taking the lead off the oil companies.. creating a problem that didn't exist, and then come up with the solution to solve it.. at a highly inflated price...

There isn't an ounce of good old business integrity anymore in this country.. in almost any corporate board room...

I hope the Japs make them. Those little yellow fellows are pretty good with the steel, and can drill scope mounting holes in a straight line at least.

New moder 70 jingre:
"I am japanese if you do prease; I am Japanese if you don't prease"

You buy a Toyota Camry, ger' model 94 rever action in trunk.

Sign me up,

LD

New moder 94 with stock made or curry mapre; carred "yerrow perir."

You a send us ord Chevy car. Me make a you bort action rifre.

LD

Reads to me that winnie is back in business....

the rest of it, as I believe Olin has a US manf clause, is more or less "office" politics...

Now, if Browning were SMART and RFQ'ed the production of the same guns in Japan and in Conn, and allowed Mikuru and the Winchester Union to BID on the per unit cost, we would have caplialism

jeffe

This is what it seems to be.. just bookkeeping entries. SO now Winchesters can be made with the BOSS w/o any problems :-)

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
All the Belgian owners are doing is taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other pocket...

Some marketing MBA planned all of this way before last spring.. close Winchester then let the prices go way up and then announce that you are going to let you division in Utah buy it, which has more favorable laws than Connecticut did...

I am thankful for Model 70s and Model 94s to potentially be available again, regardless where they are made.. but I hate to see corporate board rooms play games like this with the pubic and then act like they are doing us all a big favor....

They are just taking the lead off the oil companies.. creating a problem that didn't exist, and then come up with the solution to solve it.. at a highly inflated price...

There isn't an ounce of good old business integrity anymore in this country.. in almost any corporate board room...

we now know who blinked first...Olin. It always makes me wonder (when I read about scams lilke this) which US company will be accorded the honor of being immortalized as being T-H-E company that shipped enough US jobs overseas to overload the unemployment system to the point that the economy implodes and we start a new world-wide (remember, when the US sneezes the world catches cold) depression. Those unions, from 1930-1980 were the impetus for this economy booming. The thought that companies should share the wealth was a frightening one to corporate USA. We see clearly now, how their new/old model (you get a check, right? you have no right to expect us to really provide meaningful benefits and retirement pay) works here.

Don't mind me too much, I just grew up in a small midwest town where there were four steel mills, full employment, and a thriving middle class. Went back to visit, and was shocked to see the true definition of rust belt. Dingy I guess describes it best.

We shall see what this deal brings shooters.

regards,

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
which US company will be accorded the honor of being immortalized as being T-H-E company that shipped enough US jobs overseas to overload the unemployment system to the point that the economy implodes
Rich

walmart... gutted small town local enonmies, replaced intra-regional spends to sophoned off to ark, and then buys cheap everywhere

jeffe

I'm not here to be a union basher, but if jobs are sent overseas, it is because of two things that make them non competitive- onerous union contracts (which the company agreed to so not totally the unions fault) and government regulation that raises the costs to the point of being non competitive. The classic illustration is GM which now has 3 people collecting a check for every working employee. AR members who own a business, how many of you could make a profit while providing benefits and a healthy retirement check to four people(and their dependents) while one works? FN Herstal of course owns Browning, so this whole thing is likely a way to cut loose an unprofitable plant with poor quality control and no future. Hopefully we will at least have some M70's and M94's. It is a good idea to take care of our US gun manufacturers, some day we may need someone who can manufacture guns in the USA for military purposes, or perhaps it would be better to count on our foreign friends to produce weapons for us like we have done in the oil industry.

Regarding the "Made in Japan" stamp: My Winchester M-101 is a very fine shotgun. My Winchester M-23 is also a very fine shotgun. My Winchester M-92 reproduction is a lot better than any original M-92 I've ever fired and this one is beautifully accurate. I have no problem with the "made in Japan" stamp at all.

With the immense loss of jobs overseas nationally, we have a very serious problem and needs national attention. But it's not going to happen.....any bets?

Someone reported on another site that the M70 and M94 were excluded from the agreement with Browning.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Someone reported on another site that the M70 and M94 were excluded from the agreement with Browning.

This would be interesting. Seriously I doubt it but one never knows.

The M-70 is the only thing (previously and lately) produced by Winchester (USRAC) that I cared about at all. I suspect that many others can say the same.

While I'm not for corporates arbitrally shipping jobs over seas for greed, there is something important that is being glossed over here.

The products being put out by Newhaven were junk! They were a sorry excuse to where the name of Winchester and the fit in finish was on par with Tauris/Rossi. If highly paid US workers can't produce products any better than a 3rd world country, then they deserve to lose their jobs.

I'm sure the FN execs are astute enough to know that the gunbuyers in the US are fairly conservative, and want to buy made in the USA products, and will even pay a bit of a premium for those prodects, but, only if they are a quality product. Ruger is able to sell plenty of M77's for $500, but to charge $700 for an M70, with no increase of fit/finish, and perhaps a bit worse, isn't going to play out in the wash.

now, as for greed...

just how, exactly, is sending a job to JAPAN cheaper than conn? We aren't talking about CHina or Korea, where the labour is cheap.. we are talking about Japan, with a higher per capita income than the US...

put it out to bid, and take the cheaper!!
jeffe

Everyone, management, labor and the grey zone in between, pushes until they think they are getting the most they can get.

Sometimes that's more than the other side can give in a zero sum game like mixed-market capitalism. When the bluff is called, someone folds.

So, in the USRAC contest, the question is who was bluffing and who folded?

Clearly, the City of New Haven and the union.

Of course, we'll find out soon enough how this will ultimately unfold.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
put it out to bid, and take the cheaper!!
jeffe

Then we might end up with the last stuff USRAC was putting out. No thanks. Cheapest bid doesn't necessarily mean they can still make it to the same level of quality. A piece of junk at bargain prices is still no bargain.

IIRC, FN makes a M70 action for its .mil and LEO "sniper" rifles in SC. Perhaps they will be turning out the M70?



Hey, I can hope, can't I?

Maybe they can make a m-70 where both of the locking lugs contact the lug seats, oh boy what a concept!
Timan

Amen Timan!

When I can get a lathe , mill, etc. set up I figure I can learn an awful lot about machining by just getting Winchester model 70 and Remington model 700 actions straight and true.

After that, building a new Saturn Rocket should be child's play.

Prease give me Mikoru.

Perhaps Browning will make "limited runs" of model 70 rifles. I would get in that line.

LD

New Haven built a decent rifle, if you had your pick of 20 or so and then got a competent smith to blue print it afterwords.

To this manufacturing engineers eyes the product produced there reflected worn out tooling and a low level of quality management.

It was totally sad. It seems however that within the limitations put upon the shops by the management and unions they could produce a decent product. (But it did need a little work.) Here is the result of a M70 CFA in 7mm WSM.



McMillan A-5 Stock
Lilja 3 Groove Barrel 27"
Jewell Single Stage Trigger
Action Blue Printed to 0.00025 Cylindricity and parallelism.
Pillar Bedded
Teflon Coating
After market Bottom metal.

Browning & Winchester
Winchester Ammunition and Browning Firearms have announced a new, long-term firearms licensing agreement. Under the new agreement, Browning will continue to produce Winchester firearms, retaining the Winchester license. Sources tell The Outdoor Wire the agreement will cover modern firearms including the Super-X shotgun and Super-X rifles, but will not include the traditional Winchester firearms (Model 94s, Model 70s and the Model 1300 Speed Pump Shotguns) formerly produced in USRAC's now-shuttered New Haven, Connecticut plant.

According to this it appears as though the M-70 and M-94 and M-1300 pump are not going to be produced by Browning.

DCMI - Nicely done rifle.
That willl get the job done from here to Sunday. Good work.

LD

This agreement means business is as it was. Browning (FN) had the aggreement prior to the shutdown of USRAC.

The shutting down of USRAC violated the agreement so whoever bought USRAC would be given preference to the license. If that had happened, Japanese, Russian and Portagese made Winchester firearms would not be Winchesters any more.

Nobody bought USRAC, so Browning (FN) was relicensed. As for the 70, 94 and 1300, that was covered by the union contract. If that contract is still in force, those models cannot be made anywhere but USRAC until the contract expires.

My guess, and it is no more than that, we will see 70's in a couple of years coming out of Portugal and 94's in limited quanitities out of Japan. The 1300 will be dead.

At the NRA show there was a company showing a video about making receivers, which looked like model 70's. They are making the receivers for FN.

Aaron

quote:

Originally posted by AaroninUtah:

The shutting down of USRAC violated the agreement so whoever bought USRAC would be given preference to the license.
Aaron

My understanding is that the USRAC contract/agreement had run it course and at that point, Herstal was free to terminate the relationship, which lasted 8 years.

Not true. They renegotiated the contract about a year before they closed down the plant.

Aaron

quote:

Originally posted by AaroninUtah:
Not true. They renegotiated the contract about a year before they closed down the plant.

Aaron

Isn't that interesting. I don't doubt it one bit. Of course that asks more questions than it answers!

Like:

If they renewed the contract why did they then shut the plant down, or if they were going to shut the plant down, why did they renew the contract? It doesn't add up in my opinion.