Preacherman
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From the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghampton, NY ( http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/SPORTS/602070332/1003 ):
Tuesday February 7, 2006
Back in business: It's now known as Ithaca Guns USA
Dave Henderson
The familiar but tattered Ithaca Gun name can once again be listed with shotgun manufacturing companies.
It's now Ithaca Guns USA, LLC, and headquarters is Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
The move from moribund to viable happened, or is happening, fast. When I ran across the Web site (http://www.ithacagunsusa.com/) last week, it was still under construction and I was only the 700th-something visitor.
Craig and Floyd Marshall, owners of MoldCraft, a molding and tool and die company that makes plastic molds for fast food chains' salad bowls and the like, purchased the rights to the Ithaca Gun name, designs and inventory in December. Using their 30,000 square-foot CNC machinery-equipped plant and Ithaca Gun plans and specs, the new company is already turning out variations of the Model 37 pump that has been the flagship of the troubled Ithaca Gun name for early 70 years.
"We've been in business for 36 years," said Craig Marshall from his office Monday afternoon. "We had the machinery and the know-how— and frankly I find the gun business far more exciting than molding salad containers."
Ithaca Gun LLC, which was formed in 1995 to purchase the company's name and assets following the failure of Ithaca Acquisition Inc. in King Ferry, failed itself last summer.
The company moved from its rented factory quarters in King Ferry last spring in anticipation of being purchased by a Rhode Island entity. When the deal fell through, Ithaca Gun LLC — which had defaulted on a development loan from Cayuga County and faced significant federal and private debt — closed its doors.
The company's barrel machine was lost as collateral and most of the remaining tooling was sold off, but netted just $8,200. The Marshalls entered the picture in the fall with a purchase offer, and a deal was was finally negotiated a week before Christmas.
"I think the former owners deserve credit in that they turned down a larger offer to assure that manufacturing would remain here (in the United States) and quality would be maintained," Marshall said.
The guns are identical to those made in the past, but Marshall notes that the use of better steel and new manufacturing processes will improve the quality. The company is building variations of the Model 37 bottom-ejection pump and has plans to eventually redesign and build the Model 51 autoloader, the NID double and possibly the elaborate Knickerbocker trap design.
They have a service department in place that will service all Ithaca models with the exception of the SKBs. The new company cannot honor the warranties on guns built by Ithaca Gun LLC, however, because of pending legal consideration.
Ithaca Gun was founded in the 1880s and was managed for nearly 100 years by the Smith family until it fell on hard times and sold out to the company that owned Brunswick/AMF in the 1980s. That Ithaca Gun entity went bankrupt in 1986 and a Rochester-based corporation, Ithaca Acquisition was formed to buy the assets in 1987. That company moved the manufacturing plant from its original site on Fall Creek in Ithaca to a school building in King Ferry in 1989. Ithaca Acquisition failed in 1994 and Ithaca-based Ithaca Gun LLC was formed in 1995.
Tuesday February 7, 2006
Back in business: It's now known as Ithaca Guns USA
Dave Henderson
The familiar but tattered Ithaca Gun name can once again be listed with shotgun manufacturing companies.
It's now Ithaca Guns USA, LLC, and headquarters is Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
The move from moribund to viable happened, or is happening, fast. When I ran across the Web site (http://www.ithacagunsusa.com/) last week, it was still under construction and I was only the 700th-something visitor.
Craig and Floyd Marshall, owners of MoldCraft, a molding and tool and die company that makes plastic molds for fast food chains' salad bowls and the like, purchased the rights to the Ithaca Gun name, designs and inventory in December. Using their 30,000 square-foot CNC machinery-equipped plant and Ithaca Gun plans and specs, the new company is already turning out variations of the Model 37 pump that has been the flagship of the troubled Ithaca Gun name for early 70 years.
"We've been in business for 36 years," said Craig Marshall from his office Monday afternoon. "We had the machinery and the know-how— and frankly I find the gun business far more exciting than molding salad containers."
Ithaca Gun LLC, which was formed in 1995 to purchase the company's name and assets following the failure of Ithaca Acquisition Inc. in King Ferry, failed itself last summer.
The company moved from its rented factory quarters in King Ferry last spring in anticipation of being purchased by a Rhode Island entity. When the deal fell through, Ithaca Gun LLC — which had defaulted on a development loan from Cayuga County and faced significant federal and private debt — closed its doors.
The company's barrel machine was lost as collateral and most of the remaining tooling was sold off, but netted just $8,200. The Marshalls entered the picture in the fall with a purchase offer, and a deal was was finally negotiated a week before Christmas.
"I think the former owners deserve credit in that they turned down a larger offer to assure that manufacturing would remain here (in the United States) and quality would be maintained," Marshall said.
The guns are identical to those made in the past, but Marshall notes that the use of better steel and new manufacturing processes will improve the quality. The company is building variations of the Model 37 bottom-ejection pump and has plans to eventually redesign and build the Model 51 autoloader, the NID double and possibly the elaborate Knickerbocker trap design.
They have a service department in place that will service all Ithaca models with the exception of the SKBs. The new company cannot honor the warranties on guns built by Ithaca Gun LLC, however, because of pending legal consideration.
Ithaca Gun was founded in the 1880s and was managed for nearly 100 years by the Smith family until it fell on hard times and sold out to the company that owned Brunswick/AMF in the 1980s. That Ithaca Gun entity went bankrupt in 1986 and a Rochester-based corporation, Ithaca Acquisition was formed to buy the assets in 1987. That company moved the manufacturing plant from its original site on Fall Creek in Ithaca to a school building in King Ferry in 1989. Ithaca Acquisition failed in 1994 and Ithaca-based Ithaca Gun LLC was formed in 1995.
