Federal Ammunition Company has sold out !!

[Star43]

In a $1.9 Billion dollar deal Vista has agreed to sell Federal, Remington, CCI, Hevi-Shot & Speer to CSG, the Kinetic Group !!! CSG is a "Chech" company.....Wow, for me, my Dad only used Federal Ammo. That's it. From 22's to his shotgun shells, Only Federal is what he bought and used. Naturally seeing my Dad use Federal led me to start using it and still use mostly. Again, in later years I bought what was on sale....but I've always had a soft spot for Federal and have kept a lot of their empty boxes over the years, Just because. Your thoughts on this ????

 

[gunman42782]

It sucks. Seems like the way of the world these days though.

 

[Gator89]

As long as the company has the capital to keep the plant running, I am not overly concerned.

Fiocchi has been making ammo in the US for a long time.

 

[Wvfarrier]

Its easy to say "Oh its fine" until the US has a falling out with the foreign owners. Then it may not be so amusing

 

[blume357]

I don't hunt and only shoot to keep what little skills I have up and don't do enough of that... but as of late I only buy American and that is factory reloads from Georgia Arms.
In fact they have a pretty good Forth of July Special going on right now... spend over $150 and get 10% off and also free shipping. For no other reason than I could I just bought another 500 rounds of 9mm 115gr fmj and 250 rounds of 357 sig 125gr fmj. With the free shipping this beats the other alternative of going to my local gun show and buying at their booth .. which cost me for parking and getting in and then I have to carry the ammo way out to my car at the far end of the parking lot. The crazy thing about this latest purchase is I ordered the ammo on Wednesday at noon and the dern stuff arrived UPS Thursday at noon.

I've heard the Checks may good guns .. CZs and so maybe they can keep Federal up and running. it is what I usually use in my 22s.

 

[hittman]

Czechoslovak Group To Buy Vista Outdoor Inc.'s Sporting Products (AMMUNITION) Business For $1.91 Bln

FYI... https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/czechoslovak-group-to-buy-vista-outdoor-inc-s-sporting-products-business-for-1-91-bln-1032709943 ...also...

www.rugerforum.com

Thread from last year ….

 

[gunzo]

Something happen in just the last week or so?

It was my understanding that the US gov't. wasn't quick to approve the sale, & that another offer had been made to the tune of just a touch over 2 Billion, exceeding the CSG offer.

FWIW, Vista has spun off their ammo mfg. holdings to a group of it's own called The Kinetic Group. This might help with finding additional info & seeing just exactly what all is at stake.

 

[contender]

Star43,, this is not "new" news.

As noted above,, the link hittman has provided helps some.

And as noted,, gunzo mentions the fact it hasn't been "approved" yet by the government. This is because many politicians are concerned that the ownership of a company, buy a foreign company, that makes ammunition,, which is critical to the defense of the USA is at stake.

Vista,, an investment group has control. And like ALL investment groups,, MONEY is the driving thing. They buy up companies,, they do all they can to make big profits for a short period,, (5-10 years normally) then sell the company or break up into smaller companies & sell.
That has become a very common business practice in the last few decades.

Vista got control of all but one major ammo/primer manufacturing companies.

Prices of ammo & primers have skyrocketed. They used Covid as a big excuse,, but they CONTROL the market majority. Now the investors are wanting to divest themselves of the companies,, and other investors are looking at how they can buy the companies and then you can bet they will do the exact same thing.

 

[Sam Summey]

In a $1.9 Billion dollar deal Vista has agreed to sell Federal, Remington, CCI, Hevi-Shot & Speer to CSG, the Kinetic Group !!! CSG is a "Chech" company.....Wow, for me, my Dad only used Federal Ammo. That's it. From 22's to his shotgun shells, Only Federal is what he bought and used. Naturally seeing my Dad use Federal led me to start using it and still use mostly. Again, in later years I bought what was on sale....but I've always had a soft spot for Federal and have kept a lot of their empty boxes over the years, Just because. Your thoughts on this ????

Read that this morning, the Czechs raised the price to 2 billion. (Probably paid out a few million to the "Office of Foreigners buying US Strategic Companies" to get approval. Now it is up to the major stockholders to approve the sale. (You know dis-approval is not going to happen.) I expect a large amount of their stock is already owned by "offshore" investment companies.

 

[Star43]

I was at a good size gun shop on Wednesday afternoon & I have known the owner at least 20 years. It was all the talk in the shop when I was there. He told me about the $1.9 Billion buy out. He said the agreement was made a while ago, but from what he heard, it was "going to happen". He was not too happy about it and kind of stunned about the deal.......so was I just hearing of this. Last night I looked it up and basically wrote down what I read.....I did read about objections to the sale, but it seems to be happening. Do I want it to happen ?? To me "No". But I wrote what I saw and wanted to hear other people's thoughts on it.

 

[Star43]

I really shouldn't be surprised as it truly is the way of the World now. Companies are bought up to be used and controlled, and yes it comes down to "money". It always does. Big Money investors want to rule the World. To me, it was just shocking to thinking of it as I still have memories of my Dad talking about how he liked Federal Ammo. For me between actual Federal, and CCI and Speer, it always been about 80% plus of what I buy and use.....why should I be surprised. Look at Colt. They are owned by CZ. A Czech company. It is how it goes now......It's not just guns & ammo though. Look at the Insurance industry all around our country and especially in CA here. Most of all the decisions on Commercial insurance policies are being made by Lloyd's of London now and the reinsurers in the world. Mainly in Switzerland. To think I had to get insurance for a decent size new Chevron gas station, just last week , with a large building housing a few other business tenants, and I couldn't get a standard US company to do it. There were too many millions involved. Hello Lloyd's of London. And guess what ? Lloyd's is NOT an insurance company at all. It is a large building with a bunch of older guys smoking cigars and drinking their whatever they are drinking, and discuss different insurance type investments around the world, and especially in the good old USA. Lloyd's is a major player in the insurance world. .....So why should I get upset about a good old US company like Federal being sold out...... Nothing is really new I guess, but when it hits an old memory of being with your Dad, it just makes want to vent of how things are now

 

[gunzo]

Star43, you did bring new or current news. Thank you!

It seems the Cech group upped it offer to 2B & just 2 days ago a division of The US Treasury Dept, CFIUS(committee on foreign investments in US) has approved the sale!!!
I learned this mostly by googling Kenitic Group as suggested & seemingly legit info abounds.

Not good! and not about me, or any other shooter/hunter. Much, much bigger than that. See who CSG sells to, what they do.

 

[KIR]

Czech mate!

 

[WAYNO]

The hot ammo market in America is imported ammo. On TargetSports today, of the dozen+ new offerings, only one is domestic. The American companies can't or wont supply us with ammo, and Americans don't want to pay the price for domestic ammo, so the big companies are doing whatever it takes to remain in business and/or remain competitive, and get the quick buck.






.

 

[Star43]

This is all very interesting. For this investment company to be buying an American ammo company right now, it makes you think. Certainly these "buyers" know the economic climate on ammo sales here in the states and abroad for that matter.....To me, this means there will be probably a lot of changes that will happen at Federal and the rest when this deal gets done. And if the new owner-ship does make changes, those changes may very well affect people and their jobs in my opinion. Time will tell.

 

[DGW1949]

The ammo landscape is changing on many fronts, that's for sure....I could be wrong, but I doubt that many of these changes are going to benefit you and I...Think I'll order-up another case or two while it's still relatively cheap. You know, while I still can.

DGW

 

[Star43]

I think that is very wise idea to get what you can, while you can. I've never been a fan of "change". Any changes from this development I doubt will be any good for us in general. I just feel for all the workers at Federal. Especially the ones who have been there a long time. It makes you wonder what they are thinking right now. Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall. Who knows? I just hope they will be ok when the dust settles.

 

[Mike J]

What will happen remains to be seen. I can understand why you wouldn't like the idea of a foreign company owning an American ammunition manufacturer. What will happen remains to be seen but I wouldn't expect any lower quality if Federal is bought by the Czechs.
As Blume mentioned CZ makes some very nice pistols. I don't own any of them but I have gotten to shoot more than one & I like them. As far as that goes CZ also owns Dan Wesson & not too terribly long ago purchased Colt,

 

[burner]

Back in my trap shooting days I burned up a couple hundred cases of Federal papers. Ejected those babies right on the ground.. The guys shooting AA's guarded them with their life to reload or sell...

 

[Star43]

Yes, I saw that on Colt's website about the CZ ownership....Yes, I agree that CZ makes good stuff. To me it doesn't seem that long ago that the Wondernine to get ,if you could, was the CZ 75 , I think that was the model. That was when they were still Communistic or just breaking away from that crap. That CZ 75 gun spun off many a copy cats. A lot were the Tanfoglios made in Italy, among others ...So yes, CZ does make good stuff, and that is "IF" CZ is the main player here. I would imagine they are. Time will tell. Right now it is still CSG the Kinetic Group. Either way, we will see what happens.