Ruger investors call details Marlin plans

Got Marlin? Ruger has, after purchasing the company from Remington for $28.3 million last fall. But you won't see the new Ruger-built Marlin rifles until later this year, the president/CEO said during the company's latest earnings call.

In an earnings call tied to Ruger's Q4 financials, president/CEO Christopher Killoy had some news for investors about the Marlin acqisition. Killoy said Ruger's already moved all Marlin's inventory, manufacturing equipment, tooling, fixtures, and gauges to its own facilities. That would always be a tricky operation, but no doubt COVID-19 restrictions would have made it even more difficult. Killoy said it took more than 100 tractor-trailer loads from Remington's facilities to deliver the equipment and inventory to Ruger.

With Marlin's equipment now in-house, Killoy said Ruger's staff are deciding how to best proceed with production.

"We are still in the process of evaluating these assets, reviewing the product designs, and determining the best manufacturing process for each component part," he told investors. Later in the call, he said Ruger staff are going through Marlin's rifles part-by-part, "making sure we understand how it was made, and looking at what's the best way to make it going forward." Already, Ruger staff have already established "manufacturing cells" for Marlin firearms. The plan is to ship the first production run from Ruger's Mayodan, North Carolina, plant in late 2021.

Killoy said Ruger will focus on manufacturing Marlin's popular lever-actions first. "To make sure we produce quality rifles, the focus will be on the centerfire lever-action rifles, initially." he said on the call. "The Model 1894, 1895, and the 336. And then, following that will be things like, the Model 60 semi-automatic rimfire.22. But right now our focus is on the centerfire lever-action rifles, down at Mayodan."

No mention of the Model 39 rimfire, sadly, which has already been out of production for years. But who knows where Ruger might take this company? Killoy says he's a fan of Marlin's designs, and maybe he and the rest of the Ruger brain trust will see an opportunity to revive this or other classic Marlin products.

Other takeaways

The earnings call offered some other interesting insight into Ruger's current state of affairs. The company is currently on a hiring spree, bringing in 250 new employees. Some of those employees came on board to help start Marlin production, but not all. Killoy says all of Ruger's three plants hired new staff, to boost production. Ruger managed a 30 percent increase in production in the second half of 2020. Along with the new hires, Ruger also tried other tactics to boost productivity, including headsets and microphones for plant workers. And, in the face of gun control plans from the US government, Ruger doesn't seem too worried. Although other manufacturers may see issues importing components from outside the US, Ruger's vertical integration and reliance on domestic suppliers means Killoy doesn't anticipate problems sourcing material.