Remington, the U.S.'s Oldest Gunmaker, Just Filed for Bankruptcy

Remington, the two-century-old U.S. gun manufacturer, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The move—which Remington predicted last month—was revealed Sunday on the website of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, which listed Chapter 11 filings for Remington’s various businesses. The site did not include any details, and the company has not yet made an official announcement.

Remington told investors Friday that it had a negative operating cash flow of $7.4 million. Its 2017 revenues totalled $603.4 million, down just over 30% from the previous year.

Gunmakers, Remington included, have been seeing sales drop during the presidency of Donald Trump. Sales typically rise when it seems that new gun control legislation is more likely, and the current president has generally aligned himself with the firearms lobby.

Nonetheless, the industry is also facing great pressure from the gun control lobby. Remington’s filing came the day after thousands of high school students marched in Washington, D.C., for stronger gun restrictions. The protest was sparked by the February massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 had more of a direct impact on Remington, as one of its Bushmaster rifles was used in that massacre. As a result, a class action lawsuit against the firm is still underway.

“We do not expect this filing to affect the families’ case in any material way,” said Katie-Mesner Hage, an attorney with Koskoff & Bieder, which represents the Sandy Hook families involved in that suit.

Remington has a debt pile of $950 million that it said in January it was trying to restructure.

Last month, when it announced its impending Chapter 11 filing, Remington said it hoped to shed $700 million in a prepackaged reorganization—a technique that is designed to get a company out of bankruptcy as soon as possible. Under that plan, Remington’s private equity owner, Cerberus Capital, would no longer own Remington and its creditors would get equity in exchange for scrapping its debts.

This article was updated to include the statement from the Sandy Hook families’ lawyer.

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Source: http://fortune.com/2018/03/26/remington-bankruptcy-guns-firearms/