Connecticut-based gun company will create 120 jobs in Horry County
Ithaca Gun Co., an iconic name in the manufacture of fine sporting shotguns, announced plans Oct. 16 to expand its gun-making operations to the Myrtle Beach area and begin producing a new over/under shotgun and its historic single-barrel trap shotgun at the new facility in 2014.
Since 1883, Ithaca has been an American leader in the development and manufacturing of premiere shotguns and the venerable Model 1911 pistol. The company’s current ownership has made additional advances in world-class quality and state-of-the-art gun manufacturing.
“We are delighted to be a part of the growing firearms manufacturing industry in the Myrtle Beach area,” Mike Farrell, Ithaca Gun’s chief operating officer, said in a press release.
Ithaca will build a 20,000-square foot facility at Horry County’s Cool Springs Business Park near Aynor. The facility will be located adjacent to the new manufacturing headquarters of PTR Industries allowing for two of the nation’s most-respected firearms manufacturers to operate in the same business park.
PTR announced in June that it would move its rifle-manufacturing operations and corporate headquarters from Connecticut to a new 58,000-square-foot facility in Horry County because the passage of tough gun laws by Connecticut lawmakers would heavily restrict PTR’s key product, which is essentially a high-end reproduction of Heckler & Koch’s G3 rifle and uses magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.
PTR Industries and Ithaca join Sturm, Ruger & Company in either expanding or moving operations to the Carolinas. Ruger announced in July that it would open its third manufacturing plant, a 220,000-square-foot facility, in Mayodan, N.C.
South Carolina is already home to a manufacturing branch of Belgian gunmaker FN. FN, which also owns the Browning and Winchester brands, has a plant in Columbia that makes weapons for military and civilian use.
Ithaca, which is headquartered in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, will also make a capital investment of $6.7 million in Horry County and create 120 new high-skilled jobs, including machine operators, gunsmiths, engineers and assemblers. The company will also produce a complete barrel line in the Horry County plant.
Both Ithaca and PTR cited the quantity and quality of the Myrtle Beach regional labor force, proximity to technical colleges in Conway and Florence, plus South Carolina’s pro-Second Amendment culture and the world-class quality of life in the Myrtle Beach area as factors that were involved in their decisions to come to South Carolina.
“South Carolina offers us the right mix of business-friendly climate, a steady workforce with training opportunities and an excellent quality of life we were looking for in establishing a new facility,” Farrell said.
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