It’s official. PTR Industries is relocating to South Carolina following the passage of strict gun control in their home state of Connecticut. While details of the move were leaked last week, the company confirmed the move publicly, adding more information about the move’s details.
The move will take place over the course of several months as PTR develops the facilities to manufacture their products in South Carolina.
“PTR is very excited to begin the process and write the next chapter for our company here in South Carolina,” said PTR CEO Josh Fiorini at the company’s new headquarters in a little town called Aynor. “I’d like to thank and commend the leadership of South Carolina and Horry County who have demonstrated their commitment to jobs and industry for the area and the taxpayers. We look forward to doing business here and joining the rising tide of the Myrtle Beach area economy.”
“The facility that we’re moving into right now is just a ‘spec building,'” said Fiorini in an interview with the Bristol Press. So it’s more or less a sandbox with walls.”
“We’ll be [in Connecticut] in some way, shape or form at an absolute minimum through the end of the year,” continued Fiorini. “And probably, honestly, a little bit longer than that.”
“There’s a lot of construction work that needs to be done before we can really do anything down there. I think it’ll be a minimum of 90 days before we can transition [any manufacturing] at all.”
“We’ll be sending our assembly operations down first, as well as warehousing operations. Not only are those the easiest to move, but they’re also the most problematic — legally — from a local perspective. So those will be going first and those will probably go in the fall, ideally, October.”
“Our employees had a lot to do with it. Really,” Fiorini said. There are a whole slew of factors that come into the decision, obviously,” he said. “We had a few primary criteria. The big one was a friendly local political environment. We had interest from Massachusetts, for example, but we don’t want to be back in this position a year from now, or even 10 years from now. We wanted to move to a state that we perceived as friendly to the industry.”
Fiorini continued saying that PTR picked South Carolina because they have other things any manufacturing business would be interested in, including infrastructure, access to transportation, low costs of doing business, low costs of living as well as a skilled labor pool to draw on.
Several states offered PTR financial incentives to relocate, too, sparing them some of the burden of starting all over.
“We welcome PTR Industries to the South Carolina business community, and we celebrate the company’s decision to invest $8 million and create 145 new jobs in the Myrtle Beach area,” said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. “Announcements like this show that South Carolina is the new ‘it’ place for doing business.”
“We were fairly quickly able to narrow it down to six or eight states that fit that bill,” said Fiorini. “A very, very big factor, what really ended up being the deciding factor, the tipping point, anyway, was where our employees wanted to go.”
“Our particular type of rifle is fundamentally different in terms of the operating system than any other kind of rifle made in the country,” “As a result, our employees are uniquely qualified to do that.”
“Retaining as much of our employees was really crucial to us being able to make the transition.”
“So we took a vote.”
Fans of PTR’s roller-delayed blowback-operated rifles are sure to appreciate the dedication the company has for its employees. While it’s not next door, South Carolina was selected in part to keep people as close as possible to their friends and families.
The South Carolina general assembly recently showed their support for gun manufacturers when they passed S.649, “A Senate Resolution to encourage Businesses and Firearms Manufacturers from out-of-state to locate in the Palmetto State.”
“South Carolina is known for making things, and making them well. PTR Industries’ decision to locate its production operations here builds on our state’s manufacturing renaissance and creates well-paying jobs that will have an impact in Horry County and beyond,” said state Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt.
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