Gunmaker Smith and Wesson will be moving its headquarters from Springfield, Mass., to Maryville, Tenn., in response to gun manufacturing–related legislation proposed in Massachusetts. Its head offices have been in the Commonwealth since the company was incorporated in 1852, it wrote in a press release.
Rick Sullivan, head of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts, joined Arun Rath on GBH’s All Things Considered to discuss the move and the potentially economic ramifications for the region Friday. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: Smith and Wesson leaving Springfield, this feels like a big deal on many levels. On the economic level, how big a deal is this?
Rick Sullivan: Sure. I mean, obviously, Smith and Wesson has been here for, you know, well over a century, and has a real history here in Springfield, in western Massachusetts. So it is a big deal when you look at the loss of job.
And, you know, everybody from the president and the senior management, all the way down to the line workers, they live in Springfield and in the region. They're spending money, they're shopping in the region. You know, when you lose a headquarters, you lose those relationships — quite frankly, it's a real ripple effect, and you know, it's certainly not good news for the region.
Rath: The initial reaction was thinking that maybe it didn't seem quite as bad — that some of the manufacturing was going to stay, the forging, a lot of the essential parts of the manufacturing — would still be around. How different is that going to be from the way things are right now?
Sullivan: Well, it is going to be significant. When a company is headquartered in a community, that's a really strong statement and a really strong commitment from the company. They have certainly given plenty of notice here — this is something that looks like it's going to transition out to 2023.
I think there's always that, "OK, look at the crystal ball and after the transition and the operations are up and running in Tennessee, what does that look like three years, five years down the road?" The other jobs start to migrate there.
I'm not saying that's the plan, because I certainly don't know, but once they're up and running in another location, I think one of the concerns would be: Are other jobs, sometime in the future, going to follow? And is that, ultimately, footprint of Smith and Wesson is going to continue to shrink? That's a concern. I've not seen any plans, so that's just something we'll be watching for.
Rath: Were you surprised by this announcement? Was there any sense coming down in the business community that this was going to happen?
Sullivan: So Smith and Wesson is not a member of the Economic Development Council here, so they certainly don't owe me any heads up or any kind of a conversation. So in that sense, it was a surprise to me.
But they certainly have had conversations that let it be known that they are looking at the atmosphere within which they operate, and while that has not been an issue directly here in Springfield or the region, the state has taken taken some public positions that make it somewhat unwelcoming, and they have certainly put that out there.
Rath: And Rick, you know, we've been talking about the economic side of this, but there's a cultural side, too. I mean, Massachusetts has started to — it could be considered an anti-gun state — but we're also where the American Revolution happened, right? Where people value the freedom and the liberty, the right to bear arms means something. What's your sense of what this means for us in Massachusetts, culturally?
Sullivan: Well, I can talk about to be here in western Massachusetts. Smith and Wesson has been here for well over a century. And they've been an important employer, they've been an important contributor in the community — and have been part of the the fiber, if you will, of western Massachusetts. Not only the economy, but really of the region and have been an important company here and an important employer and a responsible one.
So the manufacturing is an important component of it, but they've also stepped up and been a good citizen. So that's going to be a difficult loss for us here. They've been a pillar in the community. I don't want to make it sound like all the jobs are going, because some of them are obviously still staying, so they're still going to have a sizable footprint for the foreseeable future. But the fact that the senior leadership team is leaving is definitely a blow to the region.
Rath: Rick, thanks for the perspective and helping us process this.
Sullivan: My pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity.
