"After 170 years, Smith & Wesson leaving Massachusetts" Topic

Smith and Wesson is relocating its HQ from Massachusetts to Tennessee. They have been in Massachusetts from the start in 1852.

link

There is a mansion in Northboro, MA that was owned built as a summer home by Dan Wesson.

link

Legend has it that it was built on a hill owned by his wife's family. His father in law did not want his daughter to marry Dan Wesson as he believed Wesson would never amount to much.

Wesson became very wealthy and built his father in law a modest house at the base of the hill (it also still exists), so that every time his father in law stepped out of the house build for him by his son in law, he would have to look upon the summer mansion.

That's the legend.

Too bad they're moving. A lot of history in MA. Business climate just got to be too hostile to stay.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone considering the climate that they were operating under.

To borrow a movie quote, "everything's illegal in Massachusetts"

"Smith & Wesson is not closing its facility in Springfield, where the company has been based since 1852. The gunmaker said it will keep some manufacturing operations in Springfield — including revolver assembly, metalworking, and design engineering — and keep "over 1,000" employees in Massachusetts."

Just the headquarters is moving, only some of the manufacturing.

My guess is if move goes well, the rest won't be far behind.

May have a hard time finding skilled machinists though.

machinehead… Hey, what are you implying?
"We are SMARRRRRT!"
(From an old Star Trek, and if you ever saw it you would know exactly what I mean.)

LOL no, they won't have any issues finding "skilled machinists". In fact I imagine there are a lot more "good old boys" with serious metalworking skills and firearm experience in the new locale than in Mass.

60% of their sales come from products that are illegal in MA, so "some" manufacturing is significant. As mentioned above, don't be surprised if it is a phased move. Moving the HQ may very well be the first step of a company-wide relocation. It has happened before.

43 years as a machinist and seeing how hard it is to find good machinists tells me that. I'm not talking about button pushers, any monkey can do that. Although now that I think of it they do make tinker toy parts on tinker toy machines so maybe they only need button pushers. :D

Can't blame them for moving.

Makes sense. Surprised they didn't do it before now. I suspect the rest of the company may relocate soon too – anti-business, and other anti-"X" silliness does have real-world consequences.

Lol, Thresher even Fox disagrees with you, according to them Massachusetts has the 4th best economy in the country. link

Well, since none of us sit on the S&W Board of Directors, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what transpires. Although, moving corporate HQ is never a good sign.

Also, MA has one of the highest COL (cost of living) in the country.

@ machinehead:- The company has said that any enployee who want to move will be given financial and logistical assistance

Yep but I wonder how many will take them up on that, the top executives probably, the others? Depends on how deep their roots are here. I know I wouldn't take them up on it, my and my wife's family are all here.

Tennessee resident here. There will be no trouble finding skilled machinists in this state, or getting them to move here if necessary.
There's no state income tax and a much, much lower cost of living in Tennessee. People move here from the East and West coasts and learn that the money from the 2 bedroom postage stamp shack they sold there will buy a 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath pocket mansion on an acre lot here.

I'm sure there's lots to love in Massachusetts, but life is very good in Tennessee.

Plus, our football team ain't going into the tank ‘cause we traded away our winning players.

Life is very good in Massachusetts too. :D

"Lol, Thresher even Fox disagrees with you, according to them Massachusetts has the 4th best economy in the country."

Speaking as someone born and raised (and a business owner) in MA, people need to understand that MA has TWO economies: the good one is inside the Route 495 belt surrounding the environs of Boston; the other eighty percent of the state outside 495 has been an economic disaster area for decades. Springfield is located in far western MA and is basically part of the state's welfare gulag archipelago.

Plus, given that nothing is either safe or sacred in the eyes of the political crooks who rule MA from Beacon Hill, I have little doubt that "political risk" was an important consideration in S&W's calculus.

B

Update re the "political risk" issue –

S&W management released a statement within the past few days that their relocation decision was principally driven by the recent passage of a bill in the MA legislature to outlaw manufacture in the state of a firearm class that represents a large portion of S&W sales.

News reportage out of Boston (state capital) states that, although the government is "distressed" about S&W's decision to leave the state, it appears that they are not distressed enough to do anything about it. My prediction is that the rest of S&W will depart MA for TN in successive stages over the next year or two.

So glad I moved out of MA.

B

Blutarski, I worked way to the west of 495 and never had a problem with being employed at above the average wage for machinists. Like I said good machinists are hard to find and companies tend to hold on to them and pay them well. The place I retired from employed me for 28 years, I ran that big blue mill/turn behind me from the time it went in the ground till I retired, 21 years total.

Many companies are moving to TN. Ford is building a new state of the art factory in Memphis. People from all over the country are moving to Nashville and eastern TN. No state income tax, cheap power and the country's fastest internet service. Many companies are planning data centers here.

Also, the state is not in debt to borrowing and public pension funding.

I just moved 30 miles east of Chattanooga. It's clean and no traffic. All of the stores I need are within 30 minutes drive. I suspect one of my neighbors has a still somewhere on his 50 acres of land.

Wolfhag