TC Arms lays off 80 more

The latest round of staffing cuts at Thompson Center Arms of Rochester (a unit of Smith & Wesson) have been made with eighty production workers losing their jobs. This layoff is the latest since Smith & Wesson acquired Thompson Center last year. Earlier this year 36 positions were eliminated.

Michael F. Golden, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "As we have discussed over the past several months, economic conditions and their impact on consumer discretionary spending have negatively impacted the hunting-related long gun portion of our business. As is the case in any manufacturing organization, reduced volumes create added pressure on our infrastructure, which has been built to service higher levels of operation. Until the market for these products strengthens, we remain focused on making sure that our factories operate efficiently. We have made the difficult decision to eliminate 80 production jobs in our New Hampshire manufacturing operations, a facility dedicated to the production of hunting rifles. At the same time, we have also acted to ensure that the sales and marketing functions throughout our company become increasingly streamlined, maximizing our responsiveness to the market conditions in which we operate. We are executing these changes in a manner that assures that we can continue to be responsive to the needs of our customers."

The layoffs are approximately 18% of TCs workforce which now stands at 360.

Representatives from the State of New Hampshire were on hand to assist those laid off in finding new employment.

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