Remington Buys Dakota!

[Timberline]

If case you haven’t heard the news, Remington has purchased Dakota Arms. Here’s the press release from early last week:

http://www.remington.com/library/pre...ate/2009-2.asp

What this means is anyone’s guess?

Consolidations within an industry in tough economic times are natural and to be expected. Love them or hate them, Remington is clearly one of the largest and most successful sporting arms manufacturers in the world. Dakota produces wonderful semi-custom rifles and shotguns at high-end prices but has struggled financially for various reasons for years. Without some sort of buyout, it was likely that Dakota may have eventually ceased to exist. Here a link to the current Dakota website:

http://www.dakotaarms.com/

It will be every interesting to see what Remington does with Dakota. All sorts of questions will obviously pop up. How will the Dakota brand be handled? How will Remington address the issues of Dakota’s quality level, models, price structure and profitability? Might Dakota be rolled into the Remington Custom Shop or will it be kept as a separate entity. Even, will Big Green move Dakota from its longtime home in South Dakota?

The times, they are a changing…

What do you think this acquisition will mean for Dakota? What do you see as the most likely possibilities?

[CCH]

Interesting... I hope it doesn't mean a substantive change in the Dakota product. Remington isn't really Remington any more so I think the jury is still out on where anything in that whole conglomerate is going other than the fact that Remington added "black guns" to the line up but insisted on making them camo. I had lost track of how many companies Freedom Group had acquired but that link shows all of these: Remington, Bushmaster, DPMS/Panther Arms, Marlin, Harrington & Richardson, New England Firearms, L.C. Smith, Parker, EOTAC, and INTC. That's a lot of very different makers with widely varying markets to manage. I wonder if they are letting the original managers do their thing or trying substantial integration?

[Brent13]

Maybe they will introduce a Model 10 that us working stiffs could afford? Just a thought I had....

Brent