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Ammunition Maker Reduces Staff in Idaho, Minnesota
Vista is the corporation that owns CCI and Federal brands. They have been increasing production of .22 rimfire ammunition. It was expected to be ramped up 20% this year.
Following the election of President Trump, demand for ammunition has dropped. According to an article from Lewiston, Idaho, Vista has laid off employees in both the Lewiston and the Anoka, Minnesota ammunition plant locations. From the postregister.com:
The number of people who work at Vista Outdoor’s ammunition-making operations has been shifting since February. A month-long voluntary, temporary furlough for about 100 Lewiston employees ends Thursday and will bring the number of employees at the operation to 1,465.Vista’s Lewiston operations also shed about 10 positions through attrition in February.
The measures Vista has taken in Minnesota were more sizeable. That plant permanently lost 130 employees in early March. It had about 1,430 employees prior to the cuts.
Lewiston laid off 15 salaried employees. The Anoka facility laid off about 10% of its 1,430 employees. The presumption is that it is not employees at the rimfire production facilities that are being laid off.
Centerfire ammunition shelves tend to be well stocked. But that is not the case with rimfire ammunition, especially .22 Long Rifle cartridges. The .22 LR continues to be the most popular cartridge in the world. Annual production for the U.S. market is estimated at 5 billion rounds.
There are many stores that have little to no .22 rimfire ammunition on their shelves. Prices are high compared to the historical average.
Only five years ago, .22 ammunition could be found at 3 cents per round in bulk packs. Now it is unusual to find .22 Long Rifle at less than 5 cents a round. A Dallas WalMart had 22 boxes of Federal Champion 40 grain loads at $2.47 last week. That is slightly less than 5 cents a round.
Is is unlikely that Vista would be laying off employees involved in .22 Long Rifle production. Demand for rimfire ammunition is far from saturated.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Source: http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2017/03/ammunition-maker-reduces-staff-in-idaho.html
