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New owners of Remington Arms plant in Ilion obtain firearms license, plan to open

January 8, 2021

The new owners of the Remington Arms plant in Ilion have received their federal firearms license and are preparing to begin operations, according to Richmond Italia of Roundhill Group LLC.

“Our plans call for 200 factory workers and another 20 to 30 office employees,” he said in an email. Roundhill had sent out employment offers to 200 former Remington Arms workers to work at the new RemArms Company and nearly 90 percent accepted.

“As for the balance, we will just confirm that the others have not just been delayed or lost in the mail and then we will continue to offer employment to fill all 200 positions,” Italia said. “Our hopes are to consolidate in Ilion and go back to an 800-employee facility. That number is highly contingent on our negotiations with the county and the state of New York, and, of course, the union.”

Remington workers are represented by United Mine Workers of America Local 717, and union members expressed confusion about the offers they received in December to begin work at the plant again in February.

The offers said they would receive the same salaries they had been making, but there would be some changes to the health plan and workers would be employed “at will,” which could deny them due process if they were terminated for any reason.

Phil Smith, UMWA director of communications and governmental affairs, said at the time that there had been no talks with Roundhill and that companies could not legally ask union members at a facility where there is a union contract to work without that contract as a condition of employment.

Italia said Friday that the owners are in talks with the union and “hope to come to a mutual beneficial agreement for all parties involved.”

He said the offer to the employees was not conditioned on waiting for these negotiations to be complete.

“I understand people need jobs to survive,” he said. “I've been there, and I sympathize. We are willing to risk reopening the plant, even while in negotiations.”

Roundhill Group LLC purchased the Ilion operation minus the Marlin line along with the handgun barrel factory and auxiliary property in Lenoir City, Tennessee, for $13 million when Remington Outdoor Company’s assets were broken up and sold in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Alabama.

Remington Outdoor Company filed for bankruptcy in July 2020 and announced in October that it was terminating the employment of 585 workers at its Ilion plant effective Oct. 26, and cutting off all their health care and other contractual benefits on Oct. 31.

The company also said it would not pay severance and accrued vacation benefits, as called for under its collective bargaining agreement with the UMWA. The union is fighting that decision and local union workers and supporters have conducted several rallies calling for the company to live up to its agreement. International UMWA President Cecil Roberts was in Ilion for a rally in November to assure members of the union’s support.

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ROUNDHILL GROUP OBTAINS FEDERAL FIREARMS LICENSE

WKTV Photo
WKTV -- The company that now owns the Remington Arms assets in Ilion has obtained its federal firearms license.

Posted: Jan 8, 2021 12:02 AM
Updated: Jan 8, 2021 5:13 PM
ILION, N.Y. -- The company that now owns the Remington Arms assets in Ilion has obtained its federal firearms license.

Roundhill group, who bought Remington in Ilion last year, confirmed with NEWSChannel 2 that they received the license last week.

The plan is to open the plant in Ilion on Feb. 16 for maintenance. They are targeting March 1 for production to begin.

Roundhill Group partner, Richmond Italia, said the company plans to bring back 200 employees by the first day of production.

Italia says the company is working with the state to increase jobs at the Ilion facility.

"We're deep in negotations with the state, trying to come up with some sort of compromise to build a new facility," said Italia. "If we are able to come to terms and we do build a new facility, we will consolidate everything in New York, which will bring the company back to 800 to 1,000 employees, eventually."

They are also discussing opening a new facility in the parking lot of the current building.

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Or hire a whole new workforce and train them.

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The Remington Screw Job: An Opinion


When a company goes through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and break-up, I can tell you who is getting screwed: pretty much everybody. The process is far from over: the Remington Outdoor Company, Inc. (20-81688) docket continues. Employees are screwed, vendors are screwed, customers get screwed. Essentially everyone that worked for Remington, sold to Remington, or bought from Remington got screwed. The former majority owners of Remington were banks and never wanted to be in the firearms business at all: they were former holders of debt that did not seek ownership: they inherited their ownership stakes. That is not a good recipe for success. It was September 29, 2020 when the federal judge approved the sales of the largest portions of Remington's assets.

Former paintball pro player Richmond Italia of Canada has been called the new owner of Remington, and also called the managing partner of Roundhill Group. What he actually is today, no one seems to know. (WUTR-TV) — “Richmond Italia is the new owner of the Remington Arms plant in Ilion.” In the WUTR-TV interview of October 21, Richmond Italia made some strange comments. “We’re not talking, we’re not shutting down for six months,” said Italia. “We’re talking weeks to a maximum a couple of months. Maximum.”

Obviously, those comments were both ridiculous and bizarre. Roundhill Group can make nothing, they have no firearms manufacturing license, no employees, no engineers, no marketing, no website, no customer service, and no orders. It takes 3-4 months to get a firearms manufacturing license alone, so those comments were supremely stupid. Not only that, they do not even own the Remington brand or trademarks: those are now owned by Vista Outdoor.

It gets worse. Richmond Italia was the CEO of G.I. Sportz, called the largest paintball company in the world. While Richmond Italia's “Roundhill” bought Remington firearms, it was only a couple of weeks later that G. I. Sports filed for bankruptcy, https://www.bloomberg.com/news...rship-u-s-bankruptcy . You can't make this up. Italia and friends buy Remington for $13 million, but a couple of weeks later the “Paintball Empire” goes belly-up with “no ability to repay” the $29 million it owes under a credit agreement. A lot of folks were screwed to the tune of $29 million by G.I. Sportz and affiliates.

The last Remington CEO was Ken D'Arcy. Ken D’Arcy took over from Richmond at GI. Apparently, that didn't work out so paintball CEO D'Arcy left GI and became CEO of Remington. Italia became CEO at G. I. Sportz again, pondering drug distribution by using paintball equipment. Richmond Italia: “Yes, it's true, I have made some recent investments in a few pharmaceutical companies and seeing as they've legalised cannabis in Canada, part of the new business will be encapsulating CBD and THC pills. And all this is done on the same machine that make paintballs …. it's a pretty nice fit if you think about it.”

I'll leave it to those closer to the Remington Screw Job to connect all the dots. The biggest asset Remington ever had was its talent. Long time Remington engineers, customer service, product managers, and marketing folks bled green blood. They did the very best they could while constrained by incompetent, decisionally-challenged owners that didn't want to be owners in the first place. Those folks have all been forced to go elsewhere to pay the bills and put food on the table.

Thanks to the former owners, Remington has been unable to fill orders for over the last year. All the while, Remington has continually lost market share and shelf space. Law enforcement across the nation that has long relied on 870s and Model 700s has been forced to use other, available products. Months later, there is no website for Remington firearms, nor is there so much as a phone number.

The short version is banks who didn't want anything to do with the firearms business at all end up owning a majority interest in Remington. A paintball CEO is hired by the banks, part of a revolving door of Remington CEO's. Banks decide not to pay their bills, leaving Remington short on raw materials. Remington fails to fund several new product launches. Orders for tens of thousands of shotguns and rifles go unfilled, with no raw materials to complete them with. Remington managers and employees, that have no say in the matter, do the very best they can. The troubled paint ball company that the Remington CEO came from reverts to its prior CEO, Richmond Italia. Richmond Italia and associates buy Remington firearms at auction for $13 million after giving the matter about ten days of thought. After the purchase of Remington, the paintball company promptly declares bankruptcy, shafting people to the tune of $29 million.

Just what could possibly be wrong?


Copyright 2020 by Randy Wakeman.

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No Successor Liability

Other than as expressly set forth in the Asset Purchase Agreement, the Buyer shall not have any successor, transferee, derivative, or vicarious liabilities of any kind or character for any Interests, including,...,under any product warranty liability law or doctrine.

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“Business” means the design, manufacture, distribution, marketing and sale of (a) ammunitions and related components and accessories under the Remington Brand and Barnes brands and Trademarks (the “Ammunitions Business”); (b) sporting and hunting firearms, including shotguns and rifles, and related components and accessories under the Remington and Dakota Arms brands and Trademarks; (c) handguns, tactical, military and defense firearms including under the Bushmaster, DPMS, Tapco and AAC brands and Trademarks (clauses (b) and (c), together, the “Firearms Business”); and (d) apparel, accessories, cleaning solutions and supplies under the Business Names and other Trademarks and trade names.

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Originally posted by clayflingythingy:
I received an email from CDNN yesterday that had Remington 11-87 20 gage receivers for sale.

My WAG is Remington sold all parts prior to the bankruptcy and there is nothing left in Ilion to assemble.

Has RemArms even established a purchasing department yet? Establishing a supply chain will not happen overnight.

I am doubtful we will ever see another "Remington".