28-06-2006, 05:25 PM
Gunning for a Buyer for Winchester
Blank's slate: New life for now-dormant USRAC factory
Business New Haven
06/26/2006
by BNH
If the saga of New Haven's shuttered U.S. Repeating Arms Co. were a Western, Michael Blank would be the man in the white hat. The 32-year-old stockbroker and gun enthusiast is waging a battle from his home base in Missouri to reopen the plant and once again manufacture the company's Winchester rifle - "the Gun That Won the West" - in the Elm City.
The U.S. Repeating Arms plant closed in March; what's happening now?
The common conception is that the plant is sitting dark and vacant, and that's not the case. It is definitely still there and still viable. It's being very well maintained. If nothing else, they're taking great advantage of this shutdown to do things like take out the lead from the shooting ranges and detoxify that area and do an environmental cleanup. Whoever comes in there is going to be coming into a very clean, very well-maintained facility with all the equipment pretty much in top-notch order and ready to go.
Your search for a buyer for the plant was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article [June 15]. Have you had a lot of interest?
[The Journal article] greatly helped. Before the Wall Street Journal it was basically all industry insiders we had spoken to. Now we're getting a lot more attention from funds and fund managers and money managers and private equity groups. You're in a much better position when they're contacting you than when you're calling them and trying to cold-pitch an idea.
What is the pitch to prospective buyers?
The plant itself is a fairly new facility. It's environmentally clean. For the industry, it's certainly a very modern facility. The facility itself is very well built and very well structured to do what it does. The equipment inside is of debatable worth, depending on who the purchaser is, obviously. It opens an opportunity for [a buyer] to bring in more technologically advanced manufacturing techniques.
Who would be your dream buyer?
A couple of them have showed up, so unfortunately I can't directly mention them. But I'd be looking for a profitable firearms manufacturer out there who had a good name in the industry and made a fantastic product and wanted to come and make Winchester what it should be. The other [possibility] would be to have a team come in, maybe comprised of folks from the industry that are looking to do something different backed by somebody with enough capital and common sense to know that if they want to see a good return on their investment they will buy into the vision now and stick with it.
How would you advise them to make a profit?
Basically you've got an Italian industry bloc out there that are making replica Winchesters. But nobody competes with the Model 94 level-action Winchester - they're not crazy enough to try to come into a market where Winchester's currently producing one of its original models under the Winchester brand name. So I think if we came in and started making a Winchester 73 again or Winchester 92 you're going to see a lot of the Italian market move away from it because they're not going to want to go head-to-head with the original manufacturer.
What is the market for the product?
There's cowboy shooting in this country. Basically they're folks that cater to the cowboy inside many of us. They dress up in authentic cowboy gear and go out there and shoot in competitions in character. It gives you a little buy into the Old West. A whole outfit will run somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 to $2,000. They're doing it so they can be fully immersed in that time period that they love.
Have TV shows like Deadwood increased interest in the Old West?
Deadwood comes out of the interest that was there before that. The audience was there. That's the old market. The Model 94 and the Model 70 are still good sellers and considered by many to be the best guns for many kinds of activities. Those are the current guns and they still have a great following. The only reason sales were off were probably quality issues and just a lack of proper marketing.
Why do you have a particular interest in Winchester?
They made the announcement [of the plant closing] January 17, and when I heard I came into my shop - I have a small gun shop that I run out here - and I started thinking about it and it just didn't make sense. And driving home I thought, somebody should do something about it. Then you get that little voice in the back of your head that says, "How about you? You own a gun store, you're a licensed gun dealer, you've got the background in firearms but you're also a fairly highly licensed securities professional. That seems to be a good combination." The next morning I started in with the [New Haven] mayor's office, which has been extremely instrumental in helping this come around. It's been a good ride to this point and hopefully we can close it out here with a successful conclusion.
What does the name Winchester mean to you?
Winchester is what every cowboy in almost every cowboy movie was carrying. If you go to the history books that was what almost every cowboy was carrying in real life. If you look back to World War I and World War II, they basically manufactured the arms that armed the free world. It's something that the rest of the world sees as inherently American and very much a part of who we are and what we stand for.
New Haven has a long history of firearms manufacturing - but also a history of gun violence, particularly recently. What would you say to people in New Haven who have concerns about the gun industry?
I doubt if you're going to find somebody committing a violent crime with a level-action Winchester or their bolt-action rifle. Their [Model] 1300 shotgun is used a lot by law enforcement. You have to remember that these manufacturers make arms for the police and the military as well. My general personal standpoint on it - and it's kind of the standpoint of the industry as well - is that no amount of restriction has really solved much of anything. It's personal responsibility for your actions. Firearms are used at least as frequently for protection in situations than it ever is shown in violence. Unfortunately, it makes better press to show a 17-year-old who's gunned down two 20-year-olds in drug-related violence and say it's the gun's fault. Well, that's kind of a stretch, folks. Taking the device away isn't going to fix the problem, it's simply going to transition to something else, perhaps something worse. The real firearms issues that can be prevented are accidents and most of the firearms companies right now are making vast strides towards education - basically showing folks how to avoid those accidents. A criminal you're never going to stop. An accident you might have a shot at.
Do you think Winchester is a positive for the city of New Haven?
Definitely. It's a marquee name; it used to be a great employer, I think it can be again. Winchester in the past has helped fund the hospital out there, they've been a big donator to the local universities. That's all going away with this. There's no more Winchester to build another hospital wing. Any company going forward would carry on that tradition if they had the chance. We are going to look at actually going back to innovation as well. There hasn't been a lot of innovation in the industry recently, especially not in the sporting arms market. I think we can not only rebuild [Winchester] and make it what it was and bring back the best from the past, keep the best of the current - but move forward and invent new options going forward in the future.
.....nu OGSÅ ejer af en 243win :-)
Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)
Blank's slate: New life for now-dormant USRAC factory
Business New Haven
06/26/2006
by BNH
If the saga of New Haven's shuttered U.S. Repeating Arms Co. were a Western, Michael Blank would be the man in the white hat. The 32-year-old stockbroker and gun enthusiast is waging a battle from his home base in Missouri to reopen the plant and once again manufacture the company's Winchester rifle - "the Gun That Won the West" - in the Elm City.
The U.S. Repeating Arms plant closed in March; what's happening now?
The common conception is that the plant is sitting dark and vacant, and that's not the case. It is definitely still there and still viable. It's being very well maintained. If nothing else, they're taking great advantage of this shutdown to do things like take out the lead from the shooting ranges and detoxify that area and do an environmental cleanup. Whoever comes in there is going to be coming into a very clean, very well-maintained facility with all the equipment pretty much in top-notch order and ready to go.
Your search for a buyer for the plant was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article [June 15]. Have you had a lot of interest?
[The Journal article] greatly helped. Before the Wall Street Journal it was basically all industry insiders we had spoken to. Now we're getting a lot more attention from funds and fund managers and money managers and private equity groups. You're in a much better position when they're contacting you than when you're calling them and trying to cold-pitch an idea.
What is the pitch to prospective buyers?
The plant itself is a fairly new facility. It's environmentally clean. For the industry, it's certainly a very modern facility. The facility itself is very well built and very well structured to do what it does. The equipment inside is of debatable worth, depending on who the purchaser is, obviously. It opens an opportunity for [a buyer] to bring in more technologically advanced manufacturing techniques.
Who would be your dream buyer?
A couple of them have showed up, so unfortunately I can't directly mention them. But I'd be looking for a profitable firearms manufacturer out there who had a good name in the industry and made a fantastic product and wanted to come and make Winchester what it should be. The other [possibility] would be to have a team come in, maybe comprised of folks from the industry that are looking to do something different backed by somebody with enough capital and common sense to know that if they want to see a good return on their investment they will buy into the vision now and stick with it.
How would you advise them to make a profit?
Basically you've got an Italian industry bloc out there that are making replica Winchesters. But nobody competes with the Model 94 level-action Winchester - they're not crazy enough to try to come into a market where Winchester's currently producing one of its original models under the Winchester brand name. So I think if we came in and started making a Winchester 73 again or Winchester 92 you're going to see a lot of the Italian market move away from it because they're not going to want to go head-to-head with the original manufacturer.
What is the market for the product?
There's cowboy shooting in this country. Basically they're folks that cater to the cowboy inside many of us. They dress up in authentic cowboy gear and go out there and shoot in competitions in character. It gives you a little buy into the Old West. A whole outfit will run somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 to $2,000. They're doing it so they can be fully immersed in that time period that they love.
Have TV shows like Deadwood increased interest in the Old West?
Deadwood comes out of the interest that was there before that. The audience was there. That's the old market. The Model 94 and the Model 70 are still good sellers and considered by many to be the best guns for many kinds of activities. Those are the current guns and they still have a great following. The only reason sales were off were probably quality issues and just a lack of proper marketing.
Why do you have a particular interest in Winchester?
They made the announcement [of the plant closing] January 17, and when I heard I came into my shop - I have a small gun shop that I run out here - and I started thinking about it and it just didn't make sense. And driving home I thought, somebody should do something about it. Then you get that little voice in the back of your head that says, "How about you? You own a gun store, you're a licensed gun dealer, you've got the background in firearms but you're also a fairly highly licensed securities professional. That seems to be a good combination." The next morning I started in with the [New Haven] mayor's office, which has been extremely instrumental in helping this come around. It's been a good ride to this point and hopefully we can close it out here with a successful conclusion.
What does the name Winchester mean to you?
Winchester is what every cowboy in almost every cowboy movie was carrying. If you go to the history books that was what almost every cowboy was carrying in real life. If you look back to World War I and World War II, they basically manufactured the arms that armed the free world. It's something that the rest of the world sees as inherently American and very much a part of who we are and what we stand for.
New Haven has a long history of firearms manufacturing - but also a history of gun violence, particularly recently. What would you say to people in New Haven who have concerns about the gun industry?
I doubt if you're going to find somebody committing a violent crime with a level-action Winchester or their bolt-action rifle. Their [Model] 1300 shotgun is used a lot by law enforcement. You have to remember that these manufacturers make arms for the police and the military as well. My general personal standpoint on it - and it's kind of the standpoint of the industry as well - is that no amount of restriction has really solved much of anything. It's personal responsibility for your actions. Firearms are used at least as frequently for protection in situations than it ever is shown in violence. Unfortunately, it makes better press to show a 17-year-old who's gunned down two 20-year-olds in drug-related violence and say it's the gun's fault. Well, that's kind of a stretch, folks. Taking the device away isn't going to fix the problem, it's simply going to transition to something else, perhaps something worse. The real firearms issues that can be prevented are accidents and most of the firearms companies right now are making vast strides towards education - basically showing folks how to avoid those accidents. A criminal you're never going to stop. An accident you might have a shot at.
Do you think Winchester is a positive for the city of New Haven?
Definitely. It's a marquee name; it used to be a great employer, I think it can be again. Winchester in the past has helped fund the hospital out there, they've been a big donator to the local universities. That's all going away with this. There's no more Winchester to build another hospital wing. Any company going forward would carry on that tradition if they had the chance. We are going to look at actually going back to innovation as well. There hasn't been a lot of innovation in the industry recently, especially not in the sporting arms market. I think we can not only rebuild [Winchester] and make it what it was and bring back the best from the past, keep the best of the current - but move forward and invent new options going forward in the future.
.....nu OGSÅ ejer af en 243win :-)
Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)
.....ualmindelig velinformeret i forhold til min alder ... :-)
Favourite Quote: En humlebi ved ikke, at den ikke kan flyve......Gå ud på terrassen og vift med armene...hvis du letter må du være uvidende ;-)
Favourite Quote: En humlebi ved ikke, at den ikke kan flyve......Gå ud på terrassen og vift med armene...hvis du letter må du være uvidende ;-)