Remington just announced that they’re closing a factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, just two weeks ahead of the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting across the state in Louisville, KY.

Here’s the company statement on the plant closure from the press release.

Remington Outdoor Company announced its plan today to close its Mayfield, Kentucky firearms operations in an effort to become more organizationally focused and competitive. Approximately 200 employees will be affected. The operation will be consolidate into their Huntsville, Alabama operation. Actual plant closure and transition to Huntsville will take several months. The two plants are roughly 250 miles apart. The Mayfield facility has been in operation for nearly 20 years and although there is a great team at this location the strategic decision to consolidate centered on three competitively oriented areas:

• Logistical proximity and freight synergies
• Organizational synergy and focus with engineering, sales and marketing
• Facility overhead leverage and streamlining

Employees will be offered severance pay and outplacement services.

In retrospect, the plant closure is not terribly surprising, considering the company’s focus on streamlining operations in the newer Huntsville operation.

What may prove to be more interesting is whether the company’s Huntsville-centric consolidation efforts foreshadow the eventual closure of the iconic Remington plant in Ilion, New York. New York’s government has become rabidly anti-gun in recent decades, and some gun companies have already fled New York, Connecticut, and Maryland for due to their toxic political environments.

Remington’s 1828 plant in Ilion is one of the true wonders of manufacturing, being the factory in the nation still making it’s original product.