Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

Alliant cutting back up to 80 in Anoka: Layoffs will hit at least 70 Federal Cartridge workers because of a slackening in demand for ammunition.

Jan 09, 2009 (Star Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- ATK |

For the second time in eight weeks, Alliant Techsystems is laying off workers at its Federal Cartridge ammunition plant in Anoka because of the end of an orders backlog, officials announced Thursday.
About 70 to 80 workers will be affected. In November, 40 to 50 workers were let go. Federal Cartridge will have about 900 workers after the job cuts.

The cutbacks are somewhat of a blow to Alliant Techsystems, which has prided itself on steady employment and sales growth. Federal Cartridge makes police and hunting ammunition sold through Wal-Mart, sporting goods stores and to dozens of police departments around the country.

The company hired 150 workers in Anoka about a year ago to clear a backlog of orders for pistol and small rifle ammunition. Alliant Techsystems spokeswoman Amanda Covington said the company has cleared the backlog, and with hunting seasons ending, Alliant is facing reduced demand.

Eden Prairie-based Alliant Techsystems has about 17,000 employees and $4.5 billion in annual sales.

The company has transformed itself from a small defense subcontractor when it was spun off from Honeywell in 1990 into a major defense, ammunition and aerospace contractor. It now builds missiles, precision-guided weaponry, satellite parts, sensors, rocket boosters, commercial aircraft parts and training ammunition for the U.S. Army.

Sales in Alliant's armament division jumped 25 percent to $864 million for the first six months of its 2009 fiscal year. Covington said ammunition sales are still growing, particularly orders from police. She declined to provide details.

Federal Cartridge is the latest Minnesota company to announce layoffs in the midst of a difficult economy. It joins 3M, Imation, Graco, Tennant, Pentair, Hutchinson Technology, Andersen Corp. and Deluxe Corp, which together have cut more than 8,160 jobs in recent months.

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

"because of a slackening in demand for ammunition"????

WHERE?

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

Huh? WTF Alliant is cutting back because backorders have been filled and demand is down, and yet they supply to Walmart whose shelves of ammo have been consistently empty across the country, what am I missing here?

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

That's a January 9th article, but surely there was no slacking then and certainly not now. Something strange going on.

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

Source??? (10 character minimum)

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

Sales in Alliant's armament division jumped 25 percent to $864 million for the first six months of its 2009 fiscal year. Covington said ammunition sales are still growing, particularly orders from police. She declined to provide details.

The firings must be for other reasons such as hoarding...

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

mis-information

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

Afew months back when ammo started going up and then later when it got a little scarce;; Got to thinking about the crap- I remembered I read in the paper about them putting an identifier on EVERY BULLETT.
And that if you had any that werent identifiable then you were in Violation of the new LAW.. Do you think a Manufacturer would manufacture 100's of millions of bullets and then have to Sh#$ can them?? No way there in business to sell every thing they make!!! Now add this HAVE YOU TRIED TO BUY PRIMERS AND POWDER??? any body can find lead and melt to0 make bullets.. WHO KNOWS. What will you do???

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

The ammunition accountability bill to which you are referring has been a non starter in every single state it has been brought up in. it also does not seem to have the support of the brady bunch, etc. Its only lobbyist is the company who owns the patent on the process. (and they haven't even shown ability to put it into production. no model system) So until it grows legs at all, i'm not worried about that one...

This thing does seem odd though.
something strange is afoot at the circle K...

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

Well, yes you can always mold your own. Here's a scary thing that happened to an online friend a week or so ago:

He had an interesting experience while melting down some scrap lead. At least he THOUGHT it was lead. Some of it turned out to be cadmium, a toxic metal. Lucky for Dan, he was wearing a metal vapor respirator. Otherwise, it could have turned out pretty nasty.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=49323

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

Re: Layoffs Federal Cartridge
 

I'm thinking that the ammo manufacturer Execs are thinking the demand will slow any time now, OR maybe their orders are slowing b/c the big vendors (i.e., WalMart and such) have slowed their purchase orders also assuming the demand will slow any time now.

None of them want to be caught with too much product on hand at inflated prices whenever the demand does slow a little.

Obviously some manufacturers are taking advantage of this (i.e., Wolf)...