The Remington R9 is part of the company’s push to offer a full line of modern products at competitive prices. (Photo: GunsAmerica)
Remington’s leadership is getting a shuffle after two of the company’s top executives resigned during the course of this month (.pdf).
James Campbell, former board member of the Remington Outdoor Company, is resigning for personal reasons. He is leaving in order to accept another position for a medical distributor.
Additionally, Remington’s interim Chairman of the Board and acting CEO James Marcotuli is also stepping down for his own reasons. Marcotuli helped lead Remington for a little over two years.
For now the company board has elevated James Geisler to Executive Chairman of the Board.
Geisler has history working with Cerberus, which owns Remington and the rest of the Freedom Group, which includes Advanced Armament, Bushmaster, DPMS and Marlin, and several other prominent names in the shooting industry.
Remington has had more downs than ups in the last decade with the Freedom Group. Cerberus, a private equity firm, pledged to divest from all their gun-related assets. In that time Remington suffered from major product recalls and a widely publicized class action lawsuit.
Earlier this year the company settled the class action lawsuit brought by a group of Remington 700 users. Depending on the rifle configurations, select guns might have a defect that would cause the guns to fire without pulling the trigger.
While the scale of the problem was fairly limited, considering the huge number of rifles in use today, it was still a blast of bad press following years of allegations against Big Green.
This was right on the heels of a disastrous new product launch, the updated Remington R51. The R51 was supposed to be the next great thing in concealed-carry but instead flopped due to widespread quality and production problems.
See Also: The Return of the Remington R51!
Although the company eventually addressed the issues with the revamped design, it took so long that it caused a lot of loss in consumer confidence.
Due to a combination of weak sales, the loss of major military contracts and problems with manufacturing and quality control, Remington has had to downsize and relocate in recent years.
The Model 870 Tac-14 is a non-NFA firearm and a fresh take on a proven action. (Photo: Remington)
The company recently moved their manufacturing to Huntsville, Ala. Part of this was in protest of anti-gun legislation passed in their home state of New York, but it was also a smart business move on Remington’s part.
Remington has a long way to go before they can completely restore their reputation, but things may still turn around for the company. They’re working hard to bring a new modern lineup of guns for sport and self-defense with a leaner, more efficient manufacturing team.
If a company was unable to do well selling firearms in the last 8-10 years and has accumulated almost a billion dollars in debt, it really tells a story about the poor and ineffective management. Gun sales have gone through the roof with democrats in charge. Remington’s management, executives and board of directors, has enriched themselves at the company’s expense. Management has ignored the development and manufacturing of products in order to line their pockets. This is kind of typical poor management.
Freedom Group is a total 100% misnomer. Cerberus is a divestment company owned wholly as a subsidiary of the infamous George Soros. Go figure, own firearms companies (privately) while publicly touting an anti-gun rhetoric. Gun sales down, throw some anti-gun rhetoric out, just enough to cause a small buying spree. Win/win either way the wind blows. Reminds me of the Rothschilds clan. Money/greed IS the root of all evil! I absolutely hope, as MAS mentions, that an ESOP could be worked out. Guns made by people who love guns, and, have a vested interest in producing a quality product at a value for product price point.
Sounds like a shake up is in order. I have my own story. I purchased one of the .22 new rim fire and roughly 1 in 7 was just a click. The striker was off. Sent it in for repairs and now 1 in 9 is just a click and a re-rack. I traded it off for one of their rifles. Love the rifles, shot guns, and 1911 models!
Wish Big Green good luck with their transition. I bought an R9 within the last year, and struggled with either design flaws or quality control issues my first day on the range with it… failure to extract, failure to feed. Ran 100+ plus rounds through it that day, and could not get through one magazine without at least one issue. Returned it, bought a Jericho instead… Love my 870 & R1 but am hesitant to expand my Rem collection right now….
They should hire Paul Spitale of Colt to drive Remington the rest of the way into the ground and put Remington, Marlin and Bushmaster out of their collective misery.
Like Cerberus/Remington (and UNLIKE Smith & Wesson and Ruger), Colt thought it was a great idea to again go outside the Industry and hire Mr. Spitale (a Columbia Business Grad from Sony Electronics) back in 2015 and look how well that turned out. Upon meeting Spitale at Shot Show he reminded me more of a Used Car Salesman than a gun guy, especially when discussing the new Colt Cobra (a Charter Arms quality revolver with a MSRP of $600; two of which failed to operate until even lunch time on the range at “Press Day”).
As long as gun companies hire business and marketing “Egg Heads” instead of letting real gun people move up in these organizations they will continue to make bad decisions, have crappy quality control and inferior new designs that aim at profitability over quality/function (i.e. Colt Cobra and Remington R51). Could this be why Remington left its niche and raced Mossberg and Savage to the bottom (in so doing, got their asses kicked AND destroyed their brand)???
Dennis Vellieux- take note…it’s still not too late to turn Colt around (but the clock is ticking). The first thing I’d due is fire all of the “Egg Heads” giving you crappy advice, the second thing would be to move your factory out of that Communist Anti-Gun/Anti-Freedom State!!! (if it makes you feel better you could still keep an office there for the Hartford address…it worked for Ruger in Southport).
Think I’m wrong? Then explain three foreign companies (FN, HK and SIG) moving to the USA, using original American designs (1911 and AR15/M16) and whipping everyones natural ass in sales and Defense Contracts.
If drastic change doesn’t happen soon many of these iconic American gun companies could be mere shell names in the future (being engraved on guns manufactured in Japan by Miroku) ala Winchester…what a damn shame!
Actually, about 12 years ago, S&W got real smart and went outside of the gun world to hire new folks from places like Frito Lay and other non traditional industries. I’d say that worked out real well for them and after meeting many of those top folks in Springfield, they had a vision for the company that has exceeded all expectations. Ditto with Ruger. Freedom Group is swirling in a pit of its own making with no vision, no leadership and no understanding of the firearms business. Colt has absolutely NOTHING new and hasn’t had for decades.
I’m available to take over the CEO role!
It is a shame what has happened to Remington, as the once proud brand has been dragged down by non-gun people ownership. It would be great if an ESOP could be worked out, so those gun people designing and building guns had a real interest and stake in the quality of products.