First, the good news: Maryland’s anti-gun, and anti-growth, governor Martin O’Malley can congratulate himself for landing 300 good, high-paying design and manufacturing jobs.
Now for the bad news: trouble is, he landed them in Tennessee. Beretta USA announced a new $45 million manufacturing and R&D facility for Gallatin, Tennessee. All of the jobs are in preference to expansion in Beretta’s HQ in Accokeek, Maryland; some of them may replace Maryland workers, especially as R&D shifts from the hostile state, where Beretta’s products, and its workers, are unwelcome.
Of course, Beretta gets other benefits as well. A harder-working work force, lower taxes and regulation, and lower energy costs will keep the Italian company, which has produced guns since 1526, competitive in the US market. But the biggest single reason was that the politicians of Maryland were hostile to their business, executives, and employees; and Tennessee has rolled out the welcome mat.
For much of the past year, Beretta has been scouting for locations for a manufacturing facility after the state of Maryland passed stricter gun legislation, company officials said. The family-owned, Italian company had expressed frustration about the new laws and said it might be looking for a new home for a factory currently located in Accokeek, Maryland.
Jeff Reh, general counsel for Beretta, said the company was looking a state that supported Second Amendment rights,and had other key attributes, including a competitive tax environment, good quality of life and was focused on corporate recruitment.
“From the moment when we started to consider a location outside of the State of Maryland for our manufacturing expansion, Governor Haslam and his economic development team did an excellent job demonstrating the benefits of doing business in Tennessee,” said Franco Gussalli Beretta, executive vice-president and a director of Beretta U.S.A. Corp. “We are convinced we could find no better place than Tennessee to establish our new manufacturing enterprise.”
Mr Beretta is one of the family members still involved in the ownership and management of the venerable company, who are the fifteenth and sixteenth generation of family owner/managers.
Of course, the $45 million in construction costs also won’t be wasted on presumably anti-gun Maryland contractors and workers, but spent instead on their more gun-friendly mountain cousins. They should all drop Mr O’Malley a thank-you note.
O’Malley told the press last year that Beretta was bluffing. “Berettas don’t bluff,” General Counsel Jeff Reh replied at the time.
The Nashville Tennesseean notes that Remington, also besieged by politicians in its home state, looked at Nashville-area locations last year before shortlisting sites in other states, but that Beretta is the first out-of-state gun company to relocate some operations to Tennessee. (Barrett Firearms Manufacturing of Murfreesboro is home-grown).
Updates
(thanks to The GunWire).
John Richardson at No Lawyers has excerpts and links to Jeff Reh’s speech, and reminds us that Beretta downchecked West Virginia because of their anti-gun Senator, who pretends to like gun folks every six years, Joe Manchin. John also has a roundup with lots more links to political and other reaction. Martin O’Malley’s is that the grapes were probably sour anyway.
In other Beretta news, they’ve updated the version of the ARX 160 they provide the Italian Army.
Kevin was a former Special Forces weapons man (MOS 18B, before the 18 series, 11B with Skill Qualification Indicator of S). His focus was on weapons: their history, effects and employment. He started WeaponsMan.com in 2011 and operated it until he passed away in 2017. His work is being preserved here at the request of his family.
5 thoughts on “Beretta to build new plant, R&D facility”
“They’ve been threatening that for a long time, and that whenever they did it, they’d make a political point out of it, so it’s a free country, ” O’Malley told reporters Thursday morning, one day after the company made its announcement.
Meaning what exactly?
A. “It’s a free country” – “but I wish it weren’t”
B. “It’s a free country” – “for now…”
C. “It’s a free country” – “but we despise you”
D. All of the above
New factory employment: 300 people, at least 285 local hires. Old factory employment: stable at 400 in Maryland. (There is also a facility in VA for standard-size magazines and some other stuff that was banned before O’Malley’s latest laws already).
Beretta was going to grow somewhere. O’Malley got to pick where!
“It’s easy to be hard, and hard to be smart.”
Hey, is that a big red handprint on the back of O’Malley’s head…?
Maryland losing tax revenue that they really need , also lost some much needed jobs in this economy that Boobama along with his leftist buddies , are trying to tear apart . I am from Mississippi glad to see more jobs coming South , down this way we have a deep respect for firearms and freedom , we need the manufacturing base more too . As for the Feds along with liberal states we have no respect or desire to be associated with ya’ll , and we hold you in bitter contempt ,which is how most of us South of the Mason-Dixon have felt this way since the War of Northern Agression , but let me clarify that this does not mean that we feel this way about the conservative people of these states that feel the same as we do . Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.
10,000+ businesses have left Marylandistan under Owe’Malley.
MD is done.